As we approach the April budget reset period, CEOs are once again facing the critical task of aligning their organisations’ strategies with financial realities. The decisions made now can have a significant impact on growth, resource allocation, and overall company performance for the year ahead.
Business insolvency hit a 30-year high in 2023, with levels remaining high throughout 2024 and 2025, making it more important than ever to focus on strategy and forecasting. Combine this with 56% of projects failing due to poor alignment between financial plans and organisational strategy, and this gives even more reason to review processes ahead of the new financial year.
That’s why at CJPI, we have identified five essential actions CEOs should prioritise to ensure a smooth, strategic budget reset.
1. Review your priorities
Before you finalise any budgets for the new financial year, evaluate whether your current initiatives are delivering efficiently. Review where most budget is being spent and prioritise any gaps that are leaking. This is a time to pause any underperforming areas and review where the budget is being wasted.
2. Don’t just engage leadership teams
Get discussions going with leadership teams to identify funding priorities, risks, and opportunities for growth. Speaking with wider senior leadership teams will show you where your pain points are and how to maximise growth moving forward. You might identify hidden opportunities by opening discussions up.
One simple way to go above and beyond is to actually include all team members, or at least ask for feedback. Most of the time, the people working in the business, rather than on, have a great overview of where things could improve, which in turn will affect the overheads.
3. Analyse financial performance and forecasts
Every CEO should have an understanding of current financials, but reviewing forecasts should be of utmost importance ahead of the new financial year. Knowing where you could be before you get there will help prioritise goals and identify trends. Questions you should be asking yourself include: what worked well last year, what could have gone better, and how can we use these learnings for next year?
Identifying those gaps and trends now allows for fewer surprises further down the line.
4. Analyse the market
Market shifts and changes always affect a business – whether those changes either positively or negatively affect your business is down to your effectiveness towards planning. Some simple ways to analyse the market include:
- Competitor analysis – are there any big players in your field? What are they doing differently?
- Customer review – are there any major shifts happening with your customers?
- Market and industry analysis – what socioeconomic changes could impact your business?
Your budgets need to be flexible enough to cover these changes.
5. Communicate clearly and transparently
Be transparent with your leadership team and employees regarding the budget. Transparency fosters trust – if employees know the reality of what goes into running a business and how each part of their support turns a cog to keep the lights on and business operating, they’ll understand the importance of their work.
Being clear about the budget with your employees helps them stay aligned and can motivate them to improve operations.
April’s budget resets are not just a financial exercise – they’re an opportunity to reinforce strategy, optimise resource allocation, and prepare organisations for growth. By taking these five steps, CEOs can enter the new fiscal period with confidence, clarity, and a roadmap for success.
