Reader, the cure for the mind, or a firm the mind conjures, cannot be found in the mind.

It can be found in books, in stories, in wisdom of those who came before you.

Then create automatic profit systems using what you learned, for now and the future.

Figure out what activities to fund for optimal results for your firm, for 2023 and beyond.

In today’s Daily Drucker, “The Future Budget,” Peter F. Drucker and Joseph A. Maciariello write about how most enterprises, not just in business either but in daily life, there is usually “one budget.”

In good times, expenditures are increased across the board.

And in bad times, expenditures are cut across the board.

This, however, practically guarantees missing out on the future.

A change leader’s first budget is an “operating budget” that shows operating and capital expenses that maintain the business today.

That budget should always be approached with the question:

“What is the minimum we need to spend to keep operations going?”

The change leader has a second, separate budget for the future.

The future budget should be approached with the question:

“What is the maximum funding these new activities require to produce optimal results?”

That second budget should be maintained in good times or bad—unless times are so catastrophic that maintaining expenditures threatens the survival of the enterprise.

ACTION POINT: Fund activities in your firm that yield long term profits