Enjoy this series of shorts on Leadership from Jim.

Among the leaders I work with—all very senior and all deeply experienced—nearly all bemoan (in their own ways) how “long everything takes.”

SPEED BUMP: It doesn’t need to take so long.

We’re awash with stories about tech companies: they “fail fast,” they try and repair, they’re agile, they have bias toward action, and so on. These are all empty phrases. Yes, smaller, less established organizations can experiment sooner, try more, etc. But what if we’re not a small, exploding tech organization? Does time to decision matter?

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Pat Gray, the Operation Manager at ABC Company, a producer of widgets, has analyzed sales projections for the next several years and has determined the only way production can keep up with sales is to build a new plant. Accordingly, Pat is in the process of preparing a Capital Investment Analysis for presentation to the Executive Team. The company competes in the food processing industry.

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You got “The Call”.

Someone wants to buy your company!

You’re flattered and excited. You might even be thinking about selling, and you want to hear what they have to say.

STOP!

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If you could put all your energy into what’s most important to you every single day, what would your life look like? Would it look anything like your present-day real life? If the two scenarios look more different than similar—if they look like two separate worlds—it may be time to reprioritize.

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This is the third part in our series on budgeting and beyond.

In the first part I wrote about a long journey you were about to embark on in “Don’t Tell Me, You’re Still Doing Budgets?” and I gave you this warning: “…when you think all the moving parts are accounted for, something comes up that makes it all obsolete.” The world always develops differently than your assumptions. However, you still decide to produce a budget every year despite wishing you were already beyond your budget. So, let’s discuss how to make the best of your budget situation.

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