The Zero-Base Budget Pass

Next year's budget planning starts now: [THIS YEAR'S SPEND BY CATEGORY, HEADCOUNT, REVENUE PLAN, WHAT GREW WITHOUT ANYONE DECIDING]. Run a zero-base pass: for each category, what we would fund if we started from zero today, what survives only because it existed last year, the 10-15% that nobody would re-approve line by line, and where we are underfunding the one thing the revenue plan depends on. Output: the keep/cut/shrink list with one-line defenses, and the three fights worth having with my own team.