Most companies find budgeting a formidable challenge even under stable conditions. Managers often spend significant amounts of time on it, only to be dismayed by how little value comes from four to six months’ effort. Under volatile conditions, when economic forecasts change from week to week, developing one reliable budget to coordinate business units and track performance for an entire fiscal year is very difficult. Following the traditional budget process may even be unproductive.

There’s no easy fix, particularly for very large corporations, and companies that have tried to solve the problem don’t have much of a track record. Executives can, however, take several measures to make the process more effective: for instance, scenario planning, zero-based budgeting, rolling forecasts, and quarterly budgeting. Central to all of them is a substantial increase in the CFO’s role and a radical speeding up of the budgeting process.

New approaches

For many companies, allocating or withholding resources quickly and efficiently may be the only way to navigate today’s very tough environment. A completely new approach to the budget process is often needed. The list that follows isn’t exhaustive, nor are the activities on it mutually exclusive. In some combination—depending on the business, size, complexity,...