By: Yaneli Cruz and Ana María Díaz
“The budget is the ruin of Corporate America. It should never have existed.”
Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric
Budgets are one of the accounting tools most widely used in the planning and control of organizations. However, there is ongoing debate as to the usefulness of the traditional budget. How can budgets be made more flexible? Who are the people who should be involved in drawing them up? What should be included and what should be left out? How often should information be revised or updated? These are just some of the questions that arise when faced with the need for financial planning systems that are able to respond to rapidly changing marketplaces.
Small and Mid-Sized Business: Products and Information
When writing about SMEs – so glorious and yet forgotten – one must include two basic concepts and a pretty evident consequence.
The first point, fatally obvious, is that if we cannot see the problems happening under our very noses and in our companies, it will be very difficult to find effective solutions.
The second one, shockingly obvious, refers to the possibility that a well-made product might not sell very well.
The consequence of this story can be summarized in one word: information. It might be absent or present, broad or reduced, useful or not, systematic or improvised. Market information, buying process information, all this produced by that capricious, vague, and errant daughter called communication.
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