Ep 22 Inside Procurement: Zero Based Budgeting

In our new Inside Procurement podcast, Omer Abdullah discusses the topic of Zero Based Budgeting (ZBB) – a topic that’s been in the news and on the minds of C-Suite executives across the world, especially in recent months.

ZBB requires managers to plan each year’s budget by starting at “zero”, which means instead of extrapolating based on prior years, all budget line items are developed and justified, from the scratch. In this way, budgets are allocated based on the company’s needs and not on whatever was actually incurred in the past. ZBB is therefore very much ‘decision oriented’ – focusing on the ‘why’.

We explore this topic further to provide a balanced view, addressing the following four questions:

What is ZBB and how does it work?
What are the pros and cons of deploying ZBB in an organisation?
What does ZBB mean, specifically for procurement professionals?
How can procurement professionals successfully deliver on the promise of ZBB?

The two links above will take you to detailed blog posts that cover those respective topics, or listen to this podcast for the whole picture.

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Omer Abdullah

Omer Abdullah is Chief Commercial Officer and Co-founder for The Smart Cube. He works with Procurement and Strategy leaders at global organisations, transforming their teams to become value-driven and insight-led. Omer has more than 30 years of management consulting and global corporate and industry experience across North America, Europe, and Asia. His prior roles include A.T. Kearney (North America), Warner Lambert (USA), and The Perrier Group (Asia-Pacific). Omer has an MBA from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, USA, and a BBA from the University of East Asia.