I would like to apologize to those of you who regularly look for my blog on Finance Transformation. As you may have noticed, I have not posted an update in the last five weeks. It has been a difficult period, and I appreciate your patience.
I have been working with my team at The Player Group to create an entertaining and enlightening path forward. One of our ideas is to share some of the things people say about planning and budgeting. We are also researching quotes about change in general and enabling change within your organization. Some quotes have a way of sticking with you. One that sticks with me is one from a boxer, who said:
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.”
Last fall’s economic downturn was a smack in the mouth for many organizations. The City of Chicago’s Olympic hopes of hosting the Summer Games took a hit when they were eliminated in the first round of voting. Here at The Player Group we suffered a tremendous blow when my younger brother, Michael, unexpectedly passed away last month. In many ways it feels like a boxer’s punch, and all life’s plans don’t seem to make any sense anymore.
When these things happen, you often must do what boxers do: Cover up and protect yourself from further damage. But you will never win if you stay covered up, hunkered down, or withdrawn from your pursuits. You have to find ways to re-engage. At The Player Group, we find strength in thinking about what Michael would want us to do. His voice still rings in our memory. We want to honor his wishes and strive to finish the work he joined us in.
Many exciting things are coming soon, including our new book on forecasting (coming to the U.S. in January 2010). We will also be announcing additional resources that will add dramatic new ways in which we can help you transform and also provide exciting new implementation tools, as many organizations are moving directly to implementation.
Today, I am happy to advise you of some great content on the Beyond Budgeting principles that are available through BBRT member Adaptive Planning. Please take a look at their Web site for my blog posting titled “Goals of Financial Planning: Stretch for the Best,” where I focus on switching from internally negotiated, annual fixed targets to stretch goals based on long-term external benchmarks to boost performance and increase shareholder value.
This blog posting can be found here.
If you are new to Beyond Budgeting, you should start with the blog posting titled “Budgets: The Case for Change.” ###