Welcome to my newsletter “Behind the Numbers”.

A fortnightly newsletter where I share my Finance tips for Operational Leaders and their teams. I may also share an interesting sporting stat along the way.

For those of you who know my story you’ll get why numbers and sport are so much part of who I am.

One tip: How to beat the “Budget Buffer”

“They cut our budgets by 10% last year so we need to add that to our submission this year.” Does this sound familiar?

When all budget goals are developed from the top-down, you risk a lack of engagement from those on the “shop-floor”. Your front-line people will not be interested.

When this occurs, your people will add a buffer to their budget submission. It will not be supported by a resource plan. It will not be supported by a risk assessment or a priority of works.

This is a reaction to a top-down approach where a reduction in budget has not been explained to the lower levels of the organisation.

To remove this band-aid you need to start by explaining “Why we needed to make this reduction.”

Then ask your people “how can we do this?”.

You can download the tip sheet here.

One sporting stat

On the 28th of May, Luton Town won the richest soccer game of the season, when they defeated Coventry City on penalties in the EFL Championship play-off final at Wembley.

The win seals Luton Town promotion to the English Premier League next season. And an estimated boost to revenue of $400M AUD (£200M).

You are receiving this as a past participant of one of my Finance workshops. Or we may have worked together in the past. If you don’t want to receive these newsletters in the future, please feel free to unsubscribe using the link below.