哈佛管理课程 - 预算 budgeting_audio_transcript

1、Harvard ManageMentor In Brief on Budgeting The front of your car has just dropped into a huge pothole, ruining your right front wheel and who knows what else. You're jarred by the impact and angry. Not only will you be delayed in getting to your destination, but you face a sizeable repair bill.

2、With a sinking feeling, you think about how often you have been out to eat this month, the expensive coat you just bought, and now this. Can your monthly budget cover a hefty car repair expense? Do you even have a personal budget? If you do, you would know whether your expected income will meet your

3、 expected expenses. You might even have an emergency fund to handle unexpected events like hitting potholes! If you have a budget, you have asked yourself questions such as, "How much do I spend on groceries each month? On transportation? On entertainment?" To forecast what you will spend,

4、 you look at what you have spent on a category in the past. And equally important, you look ahead at your goals: Do you want to go on vacation? Take a class at the local university? Maybe it's time to replace that old car that will cost you so much to repair? As a manager, you follow the same st

5、eps to build a budget for your group. The stakes can be high at work, since your success and that of your group may depend on your ability to create and stick to a budget. Your budget is the financial blueprint, or action plan, for your group. It translates strategic plans into measurable expenditur

6、es and anticipated returns over a period of time. Let's focus on those words for a moment: Strategic plans. Measurable expenditures. Anticipated returns. Assume you have a strategic plan with the objective of increasing net profits by 10% in the coming year. You have a choice of tactics to reach

7、 your goal. For example, you might introduce new services, hire new salespeople, and/or cut fixed costs. The tactics you choose require measurable expenditures of resources money, people, time to reengineer processes, and other costs. Finally, your anticipated return involves making sales assumption

8、s and forecasting revenues. This represents the kernel of an action plan and budget for a group the plan, the expenditures required to execute the plan, and the expected returns. But budgeting and planning is usually far more complex and should include contingency planning and looking beyond a narro

9、w financial focus . For example, what if a key supplier goes out of business? Or your star performer takes another job? Will you be prepared? No budget is complete without a contingency plan. Contingency planning is all about risks, and you frame risks as "what-if" scenarios. "What if

10、 something happens? What would I need to do in response?" You can't cover all contingencies. But if a likely event would have a significant impact on your business, you may want to include an expenditure in your budget to protect your group and the business as a whole. Perhaps y ou choose t

11、o invest in training members of your group so they can be ready to step into the shoes of a departing star performer. Of course, allocating resources for one purpose means something else does not get funding. No organization has an unlimited budget. There are always tradeoffs. The challenge in budge

12、ting is to make the right tradeoffs. A balanced scorecard can help you make such tradeoffs and look beyond a narrow financial focus. Using a balanced scorecard, you consider the items to include in your budget from four interrelated perspectives : * Finance * Customers * Internal, and * Innovation a

13、nd improvement A budget obviously presents the financial perspective expenses, revenues, and return. But what about your customers , the second perspective? Are they satisfied? What are you doing to keep them loyal? Does your budget cover these investments? To keep customers satisfied, you need to c

14、onsider the third perspective of the balanced scorecard the internal perspective that is, your organization. In what ways should your company excel? That question leads directly to the fourth perspective innovation and improvement. What investments are necessary to maintain the company's edge ov

15、er its competitors? Here's an example that shows the importance of considering other perspectives. Think about a company with one very successful product. Revenue is pouring in, and the stock is soaring. The company's financial picture is great. But the company fails to consider the fourth p

16、erspective of the balanced scorecard innovation . It does not invest to prepare for the technological revolution around the corner. When that revolution comes, revenues from the company's now-outdated product plummet. And because it ignored innovation, the company goes out of business within the

17、 year. To prepare for the future as well as to get today's work done you build an action plan into your budget that shows the expenditures you will make, along with your anticipated revenue and return. You also ensure that those expenditures cover any contingencies and the perspectives of the balanced scorecard. You invest in keeping your customers satisfied. You invest in devel