Musings from the CU Suite

Written by Anthony Demangone

Apologies to my New York friends.  The following photo may bring back terrible feelings.  Feelings that took years, and perhaps hours of therapy, to erase.

For those of you with a balanced life that, not centered around grown men playing sports, that picture is of Scott Norwood.  Just moments before that picture was taken, he missed a 47-yard field goal that would have won Super Bowl XXV. 

It is a common scenario.  The last-second shot in basketball.  A batter is at the plate with two outs in the 9th inning. The game comes down to this one moment.  It all hangs on the shoulders of this one person.

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. 

No one play is more important than another.  No point.  No kick.  No free throw. A point is a point is a point.  All too often, though, we focus on what we think is the key moment, and throw away our analysis of the rest.

And so it is with budgets.  We scrutinize new items with great intensity, while we review long-standing line items with less attention if the year-over-year increase or decrease is small. 

Through the year, we spend.  And spend.  And spend.  And we collect. And collect. And collect. And then at some point, we start to measure whether we're ahead or behind projections.  We then start spending less or more depending on where we are.

But a dollar is a dollar is a dollar.  No matter if you spend it on something new or old.  In January or December.  As part of a $25,000 training event, or a $86.34 department lunch.  All of those dollars add up to where you will be at the end of the year. 

Don't be fooled by the timing of the "kick," "shot," or "at-bat."  The key is to spend or earn the first dollar as efficiently as you do your last dollar of the year.  And each one in-between.