Well, the new year is here and your budget should be in place for 2014. What most new P&L responsible people do is spend immediately on things that have been building up over the past quarter or when your budget was slashed.
Word to the wise, be mindful of how you utilize your budget. Rethink those things you put into it and make sure that they will have the most impact on your business. To be a key business partner what will benefit those in your perview most.
Another thing, I want to take this a step further. Again, I have always advocated that the CFO is one of your best partners in business, besides the CEO relationship and is probably the next most important. Why you ask, well just think about it for a second. Who manages the finances in the organization and who do you go to when you want to add extra dollars into a project, manpower, program or budget line? The CFO.
Over the past 20 years in business I have made it a point to partner very closely with my CFO. With that relationship we worked together on strategy with the CEO, innovation and the other very important parts of the business. HR & Finance was in all the meetings together with business leaders, driving deeper into the budgeting, strategy, business change, customer, supply chain, and human capital issues. It was a great relationship that was built on trust, understanding, a need for change, and a keen sense of business economics.
The only way for HR to flourish within an organization is with a close relationship with your finance department and your CFO. Do you have that type of relationship or is it an arms length, adversarial relationship, I hope not.
Happy 2014, and spend your budget wisely and manage your P&L like a pro.
