Page 141 - Budgeting for Managers

Pre-authorized A budg-
treaties. However, negotia-
etary amount that is
tion is a skill that we use
defined and approved by
every day, every time we
the executive level before you pre-
124 Budgeting for Managers governments making
pare your department’s budget.
try to reach an agreement
Negotiation Any process where with someone. As long as
two or more parties come together there are two or more peo-
TEAMFLY
to make a decision.
ple with different view-
points, negotiation is the
process of coming to an agreement.
There are four basic points you want to make in justifying
your departmental or project budget:

• The value will exceed the cost. That is, the benefit of
spending the money and doing the work is greater than
the cost of the budget.
• The work plan fits within the company’s long-term plans
and does the work that the department or project is
expected to do.
•You’ve made a good effort to reduce costs. That is, you’re
spending as little money as possible to get the work done
well with quality materials.
You know what you’re doing in running your department or
project and preparing the budget.
Usually, making the first three points is enough to show that
you know what you’re doing. But there are some

Learn Negotiation from the Best
Negotiation methods that work for governments and major
unions can work for you, as well.There’s a wonderful book,
Getting to Yes,by Roger Fisher and William Ury, from the Harvard
Negotiation Project (Penguin USA, 1991).They have a good track
record:They organized the Camp David accords that led to a peace
treaty between Israel and Egypt.Their method is completely open: we
don’t hide anything.The approach works best if both sides adopt it.
Getting to Yes can help companies make the best decisions about
how to spend money to achieve corporate objectives.

Team-Fly
®