Competitive Value Management

Moving from Budgets to Value Management

Today’s companies should heed this motto: “Don’t beat the budget; beat the competition.” However, more than likely, your company also takes part in the yearly ritual of tedious budget negotiations. After all, budgets do not only determine objectives, they often serve as the basis for employee assessment and the incentive system. Nevertheless, with budgets you lose valuable time and inspire employees to only mediocre performance. Furthermore, budgets are not a suitable criterion for performance: What counts is market performance. To increase the market value of your company, you must break the vicious circle of budgeting and look toward the future.

Orientation toward the Market: Observing the Competition

Your main question should be that of any potential investor: Is your company better or worse than comparable companies? Answer this question irrespective of how large your company is or whether it can really finance itself above the equity market. The long-term capital gain matters. Unlike in benchmarking, where you only look at a few competitors, you should compare yourself with a large number of similar companies (peers...