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Our Agile TalesAuthor: Mun-Wai Chung & JF Unson
Once upon a time, in an agile land, we navigate corporate levels and political waters to transform the business to be adaptable to this forever changing world. We are excited to share with you our agile journey. Enjoy our tales as we weave our stories together, sometimes with others, on our podcasts. Language: en-us Genres: Business, Management, Technology Contact email: Get it Feed URL: Get it iTunes ID: Get it |
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Beyond Budgeting: 25 Years of Management Innovation Episode #7
Episode 7
Tuesday, 7 April, 2026
Welcome back to Our Agile Tales as we continue our conversation with Bjarte Bogsnes, exploring case studies from his latest book, This Is Beyond Budgeting. The book distills nearly three decades of experience challenging traditional budgeting, targets, and control-based management.In this episode, we discuss with Bjarte how target setting evolved at Equinor from 2005 onward through separating target setting, forecasting, and resource allocation, including allowing indicators without targets and emphasizing team-set, often more ambitious goals and relative “reality targets” versus peers. Bjarte says Beyond Budgeting adoption spans many industries, is stronger in Europe, and is equally relevant in the public sector, citing Norway’s NAV contact centers eliminating cost budgets and a 12,000-inhabitant municipality using self-managed teams, continuous decisions, and stakeholder alignment while still submitting an external “budget.” He argues budgets embed distrust and predictability assumptions, making true agility impossible without Beyond Budgeting, challenges absolute annual financial targets, and advocates relative targets, holistic evaluation, and common incentives. Finally, he describes surveys by Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company linking Beyond Budgeting to benefits like higher sales and leading financial planning practices.Key topics and timestamps00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro01:06 Evolving Targets at Equinor03:39 Who Adopts Beyond Budgeting05:14 Public Sector Breakthroughs05:41 NAV Pilot No Cost Budgets07:10 Municipality Self Managed Teams10:00 Funding Constraints Not Earmarks14:24 Why Budgets Block Agility18:24 No Budget No Targets22:09 Forecasting and Ambition23:28 Consulting Surveys and Benefits27:16 Wrap Up and Next EpisodeAbout Bjarte BogsnesBjarte Bogsnes is Chairman of the Beyond Budgeting Round Table, a former global finance executive, and a leading thinker in management innovation. He is the author of Implementing Beyond Budgeting and This Is Beyond Budgeting, showing how organizations can replace rigid, calendar-driven systems with models built on trust, transparency, and adaptability — creating companies that are both more responsive and more human.Follow Bjarte at:https://www.linkedin.com/in/bjarte-bogsnes-41557910/Music: https://www.purple-planet.comVisit us at https://www.ouragiletales.com/about
