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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. Growth strategy Economics & Society Budgeting AudioYoungme, Felix, and Mihir debate how well Airbnb is managing growth amid backlash from cities like New York City.

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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. One might conclude from such failures that implementing zero-based budgeting is simply too ambitious. Budgeting Costs Digital Article

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How to Set Zero-Based Goals

thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Use this common budgeting technique to set goals that are more relevant and actionable. When you’re setting goals, you can borrow a technique from a common budgeting process called zero-based budgeting.

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

Harvard Business Review

reset the budgets. Reset the Budgets. 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? This is why we find a zero-based approach preferable.

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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. That number should be zero — and briefings should happen periodically to remain up to date. Jennifer Maravillas FOR HBR. A few months ago I decided to look into the professional experience of non-executive directors at the major banks listed in Britain.

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

Harvard Business Review

It has been another long, exhausting budget meeting. In the end you raised their targets a little, but, if you're honest, you have to admit it: the budget this unit will have to deliver next year is not very different from the one they proposed at the beginning of the budget process, which in turn is not very different from the latest forecast for this year. Zero-based budgeting is one such technique, but it is a time-consuming approach that cannot be used systematically.

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

Harvard Business Review

At the same time, technology budgets are static or contracting, and non-IT execs want more attention to cost-cutting. They fulfill this role by delegating responsibility and establishing control systems such as budgets, directives, audits, and oversight to drive fiscal compliance. There are those who still believe that technology alone solves all problems, thus policy-based governance is unnecessary and there is no downside to information growth.

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