The spreadsheet is a worldview, denominated in dollars.
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A budget is not a financial document. It is a worldview rendered in dollars. Where the money goes is where the organisation actually believes the future is, regardless of what its values page says.
Read a company’s budget and you will know more about its real priorities in twenty minutes than you would learn from a year of all-hands meetings. The slides lie; the spreadsheet does not.
When the budget and the strategy disagree, the budget wins. Plan accordingly.
