We still need to provide teams with clear definitions of what is off-limits, but the teams need to be trusted and given the chance to make decisions. As described in Implementing Beyond Budgeting, when European petrochemicals giant Borealis took this approach, they expected that costs would go up. Instead, they went down.4 Although Borealis was well positioned and prepared for the change with a culture that supported the move, CFO Bjarte Bogsnes attributes most of the outcome to better visibility into cost drivers through the use of activity-based accounting principles:5 those responsible for
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