A growing clutch of companies in Asia, Europe, America and even New Zealand are starting to think that the budget process is a hindrance, rather than a help to management. Jeremy Hope and Robin Fraser, the management gurus who wrote the book Beyond Budgeting and now head the Beyond Budgeting Round Table (BBRT), believe that not only is the budget process a time-consuming, costly exercise generating little organisational value but also, and more importantly, that budgeting is a major limiting performance factor. The answer is to throw the budget process out. It takes too long, is not linked to strategic outcomes or "critical success factors" and is a major barrier to success. European companies have joined the BBRT to free themselves from the budgetary process.