John Seddon, Managing Director of Vanguard, introduces the Vanguard Method and Beyond Budgeting event that was held at the Forest of Arden, England, on 29 November 2016.
John describes how, a hundred years ago, James McKinsey – he of the eponymous consulting firm – invented budget management. It solved a problem for Alfred Sloan in that it created a form of order in the amorphous mass that was General Motors but at the same time it introduced an insidious disease. The disease has spread.
This event was designed to expose the nature of the disease and to chart a route to its eradication.