Budgeting and Cost Control

Better budgets can boost the department and career to higher levels of performance and success. Well-informed executives use the budgeting process to take stock of their direction, refine their goals, and share their mission with their staff. They use budgeting to control costs and expenses and hence contribute to the overall profitability of their operation. Their budgeting reveals their position in the market, places untapped resources at their command, and motivates all employees to greater levels of productivity. They use their budgets to propel them towards the top of their industry. This program shows how the budget can be the most powerful tool for strategy and communications. It points out that budget brings into light all of the factors that every manager must consider, such as industry conditions, competition, degree of risk, stability of operations, capacity limitations, pricing policies, turnover rates in assets, production conditions, product line and service considerations, inventory balances and condition, trends in the marketplace, number of employees and their technical abilities, availability and cost of raw materials, available physical resources, technological considerations, economy, and political aspects. Then it uncovers the role each of those factors plays in achieving organizational goals. Since those goals cannnot be achieved single-handedly, this program suggests ways to use the budget to help each employee appreciate how they will contribute to the division's and company's cost control and ultimately to profitability.