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We wish all our readers a Happy New Year.
Thank you for your interest in BBRT. Welcome to the BBRT global newsletter, which is designed to keep you informed of developments in Beyond Budgeting and the BBRT. For further information visit our global web site at www.bbrt.org.
What's in the Newsletter
23 March 2010: BBRT European Member’s Meeting, Copenhagen, Denmark
The theme of the meeting is The Management Model. The BBRT is concerned with developing and implementing the concepts and principles of a new management model for flexible, adaptive and sustainable organizations and this meeting will continue our exploration of the development and implementation of this model.
Speakers include:
For further information go to: http://www.bbrt.org/meetings/bbrt_45-advance1.html
21-23 April 2010: BBRT North America 9th Annual Conference, Dallas, TX, USA
The theme of the meeting is “Future Ready: Seeing Through the Fog.” You’ve survived, now learn to thrive. The event will focus on financial transformation with special emphasis on forecasting and implementation.
Speakers include:
For the detailed agenda and to register go to: http://www.regonline.com/bbrtconference2010
Finance Transformation Blog
Steve Player (BBRT Director North America) is now authoring a Finance Transformation blog for Business Finance Magazine. You can connect to this blog at www.bigfatfinanceblog.com
BBRT INSIGHTS research series
The following paper has been circulated to BBRT members since the last Newsletter:
Why you should scrap annual performance appraisals
Abstract: Annual performance appraisals are deeply disliked and fundamentally flawed processes, yet they are ingrained in management mindsets and processes. While many leaders (including within HR) would like to abandon them, few know what to do differently and even fewer can summon the courage to act. This paper looks at the evidence for and against performance appraisals and provides some guidelines that will help leaders to think more seriously about abandonment.
BBRT members can download the full papers from the BBRT Members' Community (formerly Private Forum) at www.bbrt.org/online. Join the BBRT to obtain this and previous papers – contact Peter Bunce at peterbunce@bbrt.org, or Heather Bryce at heather@theplayergroup.com
In these chaotic and turbulent times an executive's instinct is often to strive for greater efficiency by tightening control. But as we have found in BBRT the truth is that relinquishing authority and giving employees considerable autonomy can boost innovation and success in many organizations, even during a crisis. In the December 2009 Harvard Business Review Amar, Hentich and Hlupic described how their research has provided hard evidence so support this and show that business leaders that give in to the urge to clamp down can end up doing their companies a serious disservice.
To read the full article, go to: http://hbr.org/2009/12/to-be-a-better-leader-give-up-authority/ar/1
This is the title of a new article by Henry Mintzberg in the MIT Sloan Management Review*. Bonuses, particularly banker's bonuses are back in the news again. But in this article Prof. Mintzberg suggests that rather than trying to fix the way bonuses are paid to executives, we should scrap the whole bonus thing. He points out that "If more executives were as creative in doing their jobs as they are in getting compensated for them, we would be in a period of boom, not bust". The success of an organization cannot be attributed to one person, yet this is what the bonus culture suggests.
So as BBRT has consistently advocated, individual bonuses to the top few are divisive and the whole system should be scrapped. Instead pay people fairly according to their worth and reward everyone when the organization does well.
Read Prof. Mintzberg's article by clicking HERE. Look at the video and also listen to the podcast.
* Mintzberg, H. (2009) No More Executive Bonuses. MIT Sloan Management Review, 30 November 2009
The recent crisis in the financial markets has exposed serious flaws in management methods. The failure to anticipate and deal with the consequences of the unfolding collapse has starkly illustrated what many leaders and managers in business have known for years; in most organizations, the process of forecasting is badly broken. For that reason, forecasting business performance tops the list of concerns for CFO’s across the globe.
This book, written by Steve Morlidge, BBRT Associate and Steve Player, BBRT Director North America, sets a set of simple strategies that any organization can use to master the process of forecasting. The key message of this book is that while no mortal can predict the future, you can take the steps to be ready for it. ’Good enough’ forecasts, wise preparation and the capability to take timely action, will help your organization to create its own future. Conventional budgeting does not give managers the visibility they need to steer businesses in an increasingly turbulent world, indeed the budgeting mindset is one of the things that undermines good forecasting.
Written in an engaging and thought provoking style, ‘Future Ready’ leads the reader to answers to questions such as:
‘Future Ready’ is a guide and a source of insight and inspiration for practicing managers who recognize that their forecast processes are broken and need fixing.
For our community it is an implementation guide for those who have decided to start their Beyond Budgeting journey here. For potential implementers having to deal with skeptical managers or those who are fearful of letting go, Future Ready helps chart a ‘safe’ course to a world without budgets. ‘Future Ready’ has its own web site at http://www.futurereadybook.com/.
‘Future Ready’ has been released in the UK and will be released in the USA on 8 February 2010. It can be ordered from Amazon via our web site at: http://www.bbrt.org/resources/bbbook.html#book4.
BBRT is an independent international shared learning network for all organizations that seek to improve their performance management through sharing information, past successes and implementation experiences. Our purpose is to help organizations introduce a new management model for the innovation age.
For more information, please visit www.bbrt.org, email Peter Bunce, or call +44 1590 679803, email Heather Bryce or call +1 214 239 0155
BBRT, 1st Floor 745 Ampress Lane, Lymington, Hampshire SO41 8LW, UK
Tel: +44 1590 679803 Fax: +44 871 266 4125 Email: info@bbrt.org
BBRT, 5501 LBJ Freeway, Suite 105, Dallas, TX 75240, USA Tel: +1 214 239 0155
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