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The Big Zero
The Big Zero
Oct 26, 2024 2:21 PM

Author:Kris Timmermans,Chris Roark,Rodrigo Abdalla

The Big Zero

Do you want to achieve startup speed at enterprise scale?

Growth. It's what every company strives for. But it's become more and more elusive as companies struggle to hit their projected growth rates in an increasingly competitive market.

While zero-based budgeting (ZBB) has been wielded for decades to cut costs, it falls short when it comes to spurring growth. But a zero-based mindset (ZBx) does that and more. ZBx facilitates forensic oversight into resource allocation that funnels savings back into growth initiatives and encourages new sources of innovation.

The Big Zero shows how a ZBx approach focuses on agility over austerity, visibility over guesswork and the future over the past to fuel growth and competitiveness.

Reviews

The Big Zero catapults innovation to a new level - and the timing couldn't be better. In my teaching at Harvard, I've found the biggest challenge for senior-most executives is steadily protecting and improving current business models, while pursuing the break-thru innovation that leads to new levels of value creation. Kris Timmermans elevates the well-proven strategy of Zero-Based Budgeting by expanding its dimensions and illuminating a new path forward for leaders who are not only looking to increase efficiency, but also striving to invest smartly in growth. The Big Zero is required reading for executives in all sectors that want to survive and thrive in this turbulent world

—— Dr. Antonio M. Oftelie, Fellow , Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences

If you are looking for a framework (or mindset) that defines the future for leading change in the next decade and beyond look no further. The Big Zero breaks the mold on almost all current paradigms. While incorporating many of the components that we know to be critical - from transforming culture and improving agility to leveraging digital and the benefits of AI, robotics and the like - it also dismisses the old school definitions of continuous improvement, zero based budgeting, and benchmarking. This is a brilliantly refreshing perspective - one you will want your entire team to read and discuss

—— Bill Marrin , Executive Director, World 50, Inc.

The book does a superb job describing how old ZBB techniques have evolved into a management approach that is fit for purpose in today's dynamic business environment. The authors explain how good costs need to be separated from bad costs. Recognizing that smart investments can deliver benefits for business, society and the planet hits the mark, and is in line with ABInbev's sustainability commitments

—— Tony Milikin , Chief Sustainability and Procurement Officer, Anheuser-Busch InBev

Zero-based budgeting is a proven technique for reducing costs to competitively-advantaged levels. With ZBx - a zero based mindset - the closed-loop process focuses the entire organization and engages senior management in the journey. The Big Zero clearly portrays the six steps necessary to successfully implement ZBx. However, cost savings alone do not guarantee success. As important as managing costs, ZBx creates a mindset in the organization to question historical norms across many areas. As described in the book, applying these new ways of thinking and reinvesting savings behind clearly articulated growth strategies is what will lead to sustainable profitable growth

—— Anthony DiSilvestro , Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Campbell Soup Company

A zero-based mindset is improving our productivity and effectiveness in brand and marketing investments as we reduce the cost of advertising production and increase investment in media channels. Zero-based principles are also eliminating waste in those areas where we have tended to over-saturate traditional media channels, as well as reshaping our overheads to be future-fit

—— Graeme Pitkethly, Chief Financial Officer, Unilever

Dr. Edward Tse explores very clear the rise of the China's entrepreneurs and the opportunities their rise will generate. After reading the book it became very clear for me how global businesses will inevitably have to become more 'Chinese' in their manner of operating

—— Ronnie Leten President & CEO, Atlas Copco AB

A detailed and fascinating study of the changing landscape in China and the entrepreneurs who are driving that change forward. This is a book that will only become increasingly important in the years to come

—— Chen Dongsheng, Chairman and CEO, Taikang Life Insurance Co. Ltd. and President, China Entrepreneurs Forum

A useful corrective for those who regard China as a calcified state-driven economy and underestimate the changes taking place

—— Financial Times

gripping and disturbing ... It reads like a thriller and has some hilarious moments, whilst raising important questions about the nature of our financial and judicial systems

—— Ian Fraser, journalist and author of SHREDDED: INSIDE RBS, THE BANK THAT BROKE BRITAIN

David Enrich is a masterful story teller ... Michael Lewis has a new rival

—— Sheila Bair, former chair of the FDIC and president of Washington College

An absorbing read that provides both a meticulous dissection of an immense scandal as well as a fascinating human story

—— Bethany McLean, bestselling author of THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM: THE AMAZING RISE AND SCANDALOUS FALL OF ENRON

For years, David Enrich has chased down the inside story of one the biggest financial frauds in history and was even threatened with jail by a British court if he printed what he knew. Now, in his blockbuster book The Spider Network, all of the secrets come spilling out…With an unerring eye for detail, Enrich shows in this masterful work how a toxic stew of greed, arrogance and a lust for power led to a criminal scheme of unparalleled dimensions. It should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand the dirty underbelly of the financial world.

—— Kurt Eichenwald, Pulitzer Prize winning author of THE INFORMANT

This dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scams in the history of markets.

—— Andrew Lo, Professor of Finance at MIT

In the hands of journalist David Enrich, the true tale of former UBS and Citigroup trader Tom Hayes becomes a page-turning crime drama that engages – and educates – readers from beginning to end.

—— The Charlotte Observer

A gripping narrative ... impressive reporting and writing chops are on full display ... reads like a fast-paced John le Carré thriller, and never lets up

—— New York Times book review

a feat of reporting, and much of it reads like a novel

—— Leigh Gallagher , Washington Post

a remarkable read

—— John Arlidge , Sunday Times

jaw-dropping

—— Financial Times

a gripping financial thriller

—— Daily Mail

Well worth the read. I couldn’t put it down

—— Investing.com

A potent book... an incisive social critique that slices through financial jargon and gobbledygook to accurately map the all-too-common corruption in America’s hedge funds that are sucking up billions and billions that used to be invested for the growth and benefit of society as a whole in building infrastructure, expanding existing and new businesses and creating jobs

—— Winnipeg Free Press

An utterly absorbing look at how Cohen pushed his traders to the limit—that “black edge”—and how he mostly insulated himself from the potential ramifications. This fast-paced, true-life thriller will leave readers enraptured—and troubled

—— Booklist
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