Bottom Line on Budgeting --Dickeson

5) Ask for more than you need, expecting to be cut back;

6) Always spend what's in the budget;

7) Always have the ability to explain adverse numbers;

8) Never provide accurate forecasts;

9) Always meet the numbers, never beat them; and

10) Never take risks.

Hope and Fraser studied a number of companies for their book. Almost all of them were European, where budgeting had been abandoned. (Had they studied printing companies in the United States, they could have saved a lot of travel expenses!) But, in this country, miss the budget by a few pennies and suffer the consequences in the stock market. Truly amazing that we are still so dense!