I was honored to work with Howard Buxbaum on “Self Service Budgeting at Drew University” which appears in the November 2011 issue of Business Officer Magazine. Here’s an excerpt:
In a meeting with Drew University’s president, we not only reviewed the points outlined in this article but also talked about the higher-level issue of accountability, of getting department heads to really understand-and own-their budgets. We discussed the importance of “willing participants”-department heads who truly engaged in and thought about their resource requirements as they went through the budget process.
At the end of the meeting, the president looked me in the eye and asked, “Do we really need this?” It was a moment of truth.
I had walked into the meeting fully confident that I had a firm grasp of the challenges we faced. I also knew that our president responds to straight talk. So when he asked me that question, I looked right back at him and responded, “We damn well need it. We do a poor job of budgeting today, and that needs to change.” And with that, I won his support.
