This Is Beyond Budgeting

Chapter 5Beyond Budgeting for Whom?

Beyond Budgeting for Small and Big

Most organizations are born Beyond Budgeting. They are nimble, trusting, collaborative, non‐bureaucratic, and purpose driven. But few want to remain small. Most want to grow and become big. Those who make it have often something in common. They discover that they have not only become big, but they also have become slow, rigid, bureaucratic, detached, and often quite sad places to work. Engagement has plummeted, employee turnover increased, and customers are groaning. Consciously or unconsciously, they drifted away from what they used to be.

There are some striking similarities with the aging process of humans. As we get older, we lose much of the agility we had as teenagers. Mostly physically, but something tends to happen upstairs as well. This development in our body and mind is unavoidable. We can live healthily, but in the end, age takes us all. We have no choice.

Organizations, however, have a choice. There is no natural law stating that big must mean slow and sad. An increasing number of executive teams are therefore asking themselves important questions: “How can we find our way back to what we had being small, without losing the benefit of being big? How can we be big and small at the same time?”

Likewise, small organizations wanting to grow should ask themselves something few do: “How can we grow without ending up in the same misery?” It is possible, but only if you are highly conscious about it. ...