4.1 The BSC and non-budget management
In Sweden non-budget management5 is a trend attributed to Jan Wallander, former CEO and
chairman of Svenska Handelsbanken (one of Sweden's leading banks). In 1979 Wallander wrote a harsh criticism of forecasts, budgets and long-term planning. This later became the
basis of his book “Budgeten – Ett onödigt ont” (Budgeting - An Unnecessary Evil) - which
was published in 1994. In the book he was strongly critical of the budget as a planning and
control mechanism. His main point is that history is systematically used to make predictions
about the future: budgeting prevents management from seeing new trends, which in fact often
represent the most important management information. These claims are supported by several
examples of companies that failed to see new developments early enough.