article thumbnail

Airbnb, Plus Lessons from Kraft Heinz and Zero Based Budgeting

Harvard Business Review

They also discuss Kraft Heinz’s controversial zero-based budgeting approach to management. Youngme, Felix, and Mihir debate how well Airbnb is managing growth amid backlash from cities like New York City.

article thumbnail

Zero-Based Budgeting Is Not a Wonder Diet for Companies

Harvard Business Review

Zero-based budgeting (ZBB) is elegantly logical: Expenses must be justified for each new budget period based on demonstrable needs and costs, as opposed to the more common method of using last year’s budget as your starting point, then adjusting up or down. We believe the exact opposite to be true.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

All Boards Need a Technology Expert

Harvard Business Review

Using Moore’s Law , zero-based budgeting would call for technology spending to fall each year by about 30%; in most companies spending goes up by at least 5% each year. It’s often focused on the competitive environment — used to reassure management that it is not falling behind rivals.

article thumbnail

Can You "Re-Anchor" Your Next Budget Meeting?

Harvard Business Review

Zero-based budgeting is one such technique, but it is a time-consuming approach that cannot be used systematically. If we can be "anchored" by such obviously irrelevant inputs, imagine the gravitational attraction of highly relevant numbers, such as this year's outcomes when discussing next year's targets.

article thumbnail

Why Can't a CIO Be More Like a CFO?

Harvard Business Review

If the prospect of tackling the legacy problem is daunting, consider another finance-inspired concept: zero-based budgeting. With "Zero-Based Information Governance" tied to bottom-up accountability, we have an opportunity to look forward first and stop the bleeding.

CIO 8
article thumbnail

Your Organization Wastes Time. Here’s How to Fix It.

Harvard Business Review

We recommend zero-based budgeting and planning to make the choices clearer. This also helps get over the dilemma that companies often face when they are making cuts: Should they eliminate the work and then reduce the budgets that allowed these costs, or should they shrink the budgets to squeeze out the unnecessary work?