(from CFO Magazine, May 1, 2011)

"Budgets aren't what they used to be," one CFO told us for this month's cover story. At a growing number of companies, in fact, budgets have ceased to be at all.

The same volatility that has made running a business so challenging over the past three years has finally forced companies to admit that the annual grind of negotiating the targets and allocations that will determine corporate strategy is largely a waste of time. Some companies have abandoned the effort altogether. Others still produce a budget, but no longer treat it like the North Star. Instead, it's regarded as one of many inputs that guide decision-making, and its limitations are readily acknowledged.

The rolling forecasts and other alternatives that companies are now embracing have been advocated by some for years, but it has taken the frustration of one blown forecast after another to finally convince a critical mass of companies that there must be a better way. For our cover story, "Let It Roll," longtime contributing editor Russ Banham spoke to CFOs at companies of all sizes and in many industries to see what drove them to change, and what exactly they changed to."

Read the full article here.

See also: Traditional Budgets: a waste of time.

GrowthPath is a strong advocate of replacing slow, complex budgets and traditional business planning tools with fast, simple responsive approaches.

You definitely need to prepare your business for the future, but that preparation should be making you business quick to see opportunities and threats, and fast at responding to them. That's what you don't get from traditional business planning. For more, please read about the Focused Agile Business program.