Is this your investment to make?
Sometimes unit managers overstep their territories and request an investment that is the responsibility of someone else in the company—or even of some other organization. For example, an inventory manager that is shifting to vendor-managed inventory (VMI) may request funds to create a vendor-managed site in the company warehouse. Here, the controller can ask why the company, rather than the supplier, should make this investment. Observes Copeland: “By forcing unit managers to explain why they, rather than others, need to make particular investments, managers can head off unnecessary spending.”
