Body Glove
Body Glove
Body Glove
Objective
Planning and budgeting system in a small company that has a high need for planning
Operates in a rapidly growing industry Competitive industry Fashion conscious customers and Significant seasonal sales fluctuations
CSF
Designs that satisfy customer needs Produce styles and colors to demand
Adequate production capacity, production flexibility
TIME LINE OF BG BUDGETING PROCESS 1 = Management team estimates total sales growth for following year 2 = Sales manager breaks down total sales estimate by month and by product 3 = Department managers develop monthly projections of key expenses 4 = Presentation to and approval by president
Characteristics of budgeting at BG
The BG process is highly condensed. Managers do not spend a lot of time in formal budgeting processes. This simplicity is consistent with the fact that
BG is a small company that didnt even have a budgeting process until the prior year. BG informal culture, (companys organization chart).
The budget vs. actuals comparisons is used for performance evaluation purposes, but the budget numbers are not linked formally with incentive compensation. The needed coordination between the functions, particularly sales, purchasing, and production, occurs in processes that lie outside the end-of-year budgeting process.
Would a budget have helped the company during the early years?
Possibly, but the benefits of formal budgeting grows as companies grow and become more complex. BG is no longer a simple organization; it has 10 profit centers! (These are two dive shops, three services (classes, charters, rentals & repairs), one factory, Body Glove wetsuits, Surf N Ski N Surf, and Accessories.)
What changes to BG budgeting and review processes would you recommend, if any?
BGs profits are well below budget;
Retail sales are essentially flat; and Expenses are up.
Ideas
Why have monthly reports? Why not quarterly? Or seasonal? Why not update the budget more frequently? Why use totally subjective evaluations of performance?
Evaluating Ideas:
Why have monthly reports? Why not quarterly? Or seasonal? Might monthly reports affect the commitment of discretionary expenses (e.g., advertising and promotion, hiring) development of new product ideas, cash planning (e.g., borrowing)? Why not update the budget more frequently? Most companies do not. Like the annual target to shoot for. But for planning purposes, they may do a quarterly, or less frequent, updated annual estimate. Why use totally subjective evaluations of performance? The results are affected by many significant uncontrollable factors. Market uncertainties and fluctuations. Departmental interdependency. Subjectivity is a simple, inexpensive way to eliminate these distortions from the performance evaluations.