After the merger of the Berklee College of Music and The Boston Conservatory, the policies and practices guiding both organizations needed to be harmonized to develop a cohesive budget. For most of the administrative offices, the budget process drove integration of these policies and practices. As the leader of the budget process for the merged institution, Beth Evers launched a new budget process for both institutions that focused on the unique factors of The Boston Conservatory.
Beth Evers, Senior Financial Executive
After collecting data from both institutions, the Senior Financial Executive facilitated a meeting structure and process to prompt newly integrated teams to collaboratively consider budgets. For instance, she consolidated all capital requests for discussion of the integrated needs, along with capital commitments of the merger, for consideration by an integrated Capital Budget Committee. Through consolidating and reporting on this data, she distilled the critical inputs in both the operating and capital budgets for consideration by leadership groups at every level, from department heads to the CFO and President, to the Audit and Finance Committee.
Through this budget process, she also established a working group with the enrollment team for tracking key performance indicators for the new programs launched by virtue of the merger. With the information generated in these working sessions, she was able to generate a nimble forecasting process for all programs. She utilized these forecasts to provide monthly decision-making support materials for consideration by the CFO and President in the form of a comprehensive financial report.
As a result of her efforts, a successful merger of The Boston Conservatory’s $30 million budget and Berklee’s $250 million budget was completed. Additionally, the enhanced forecasting processes supported a coherent framework for a matrixed organization to unfold and the greater vision for the strategic merger to be implemented.
Watch full video interview below.
Contact Beth Evers via LinkedIn or her Career WebFolio.
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