Published on
Budgets Provide Orientation. In Reality, Rarely
Budgets provide orientation. That sounds good, and in reality it often works about as well as trying to find the one perfect path across a crowded pedestrian crossing.
The world is too dynamic for rigid plans. What holds today is fairly reliably out of date tomorrow.
What does carry is a combination of three elements. Goals that stay stable, so direction is not renegotiated every quarter. Forecasts adjusted on a rolling basis rather than fixed once a year. And scenarios that surface options before you need them.
That makes uncertainty and complexity usable. Not through more control, but through flexibility inside clearly defined guard rails.
Orientation does not come from the precision of the plan. It comes from clarity about what applies when the plan does not hold.