Intentional Budget Misrepresentation

Warning: Totally indiscreet. May cause blind outrage and/or personal lightbulb moment, depending.

Which method is more common for representing costs in major projects like museums and exhibitions?

A. Accurate representation
B. Intentional mis-representation
C. Mix of A + B

Method A represents all costs as they will be, including unknowns. High or low, it is what it is. (Like many firms, mine only delivers method A.)

But with large public projects, high costs might be politically unacceptable. So sometimes costs are (B) intentionally mis-represented as lower, to get approval.

Then, once a project starts, stakeholders who would have rejected it due to cost will now reject stopping it, because money has already been spent and they approved it (see whole book about this here).

Ethical or not, some amount of intentional budget misrepresentation is common. In fact, it might be the only way some major projects can start.

Here’s the thing:
Project costs are sometimes accurately presented, sometimes strategically misrepresented. And sometimes, it’s a mix.

And that has … implications.

For example: if your piece of a project is accurately represented but another piece is intentionally misrepresented by someone else, your piece might one day get cut to pay for the other.

IYDKNYK.

Warmly,
Jonathan

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MtM Word of the Day:
Sidelight, or side-light, or sidelite. An unopenable, fixed pane of glass next to a door or window panel. Typically tall and narrow. Front doors, glass room doors, and museum display cases can all have sidelights.

Find hundreds more glossary terms demystified in the growing MtM Glossary.