Opportunities do not wait for budgeting deadlines

COLUMN Planning reliability as a contradiction: Anne M. Schüller* on budgeting processes and why figures never tell the truth. What is needed are if-then scenarios and flexible targets. It's that time again. Budgeting processes and planning excesses that paralyze half the company for the next few weeks are back on the agenda. But it's not just the marketing people who are afflicted by the obsession with numbers; no one is immune to the yoke of key figures. Even employee performance is now controlled via dashboards and cockpits, as if people were machines whose number of revolutions is measured. Yes, yes, as long as you're busy crunching numbers and playing guessing games, you don't have to deal with people.Often enough, it is overlooked that what is actually important does not happen in columns of figures, but at the touchpoints between employees, companies and customers. The crux of the matter is this: Numbers never tell the truth. First, the results can only be as good as the source material. And second, numbers are always the result of departmental goals, personal interests and self-serving motivations. Ergo: The bottom line figure that the CEO demands at the end, and which should be in double digits if possible, is guaranteed to be wrong.Planning security is a contradiction in terms. And the greatest opportunities often lie beyond the plans. Nowadays, "black swans" (Nassim Nicholas Taleb), i.e. highly improbable events, can lurk around every corner. For this, if-then scenarios, flexible goals and options for different futures should be on call in the drawer. Because "black swans" do not wait for budgeting deadlines. And "white swans" certainly don't. Ergo: Managers are better off chasing the customers instead of their plan.______________________________Continuing education in marketing: training to become a certified Customer Touchpoint Manager from 12. to 14. 12. 2014 in MunichThe future of a company is determined by what actually happens at the touchpoints in the "moments of truth" between supplier and customer. That's why all areas of the company must focus on the well-being of the customer. But silo thinking, departmental egoism, personal self-interest, and the scramble for supremacy in terms of power and budgets often prevent this.That's why companies need not only customer touchpoint management, but also a customer touchpoint manager. His or her core task is to enable one hundred percent customer orientation and to ensure a consistently positive, inspiring, reliable and trusting brand experience across all departments.The three-day training course to become a certified Customer Touchpoint Manager is aimed primarily at ambitious employees from the fields of marketing and customer service who want to secure the competitiveness of their employers in the context of our new business world and with the help of this additional qualification.It will take place from 12 to 14 December 2014 in Munich. Click here for more information and to register: http://www.touchpoint-management.de/ausbildung-zum-customer-touchpoint-manager.html