By The Editor
One of the foundations of business success is a stable and effective long-term plan. Before you and your team commence your next planning session, check out our handy hints on perfecting the planning process.
Predict the future by looking at the past
Before rushing into writing your plan for the coming month, year or decade, take the time to look back and reflect on the past 12 months. Review which strategies and tactics have worked well and which haven’t. If you’re establishing a new business, it may be prudent to learn from the experiences of similar businesses.
Entrepreneur and blogger Andrea Dekker writes that by looking back and reviewing first, you can identify your business’s strengths and also areas for improvement. This knowledge will help you develop a more effective and targeted plan.
Define the purpose
Depending on the size of your business and the industry in which you operate, you may have several plans, ranging from a growth strategy and business model to plans for specific areas such as technology, marketing, human resources and sustainability. Each plan needs a guiding purpose, an ‘executive summary’ that shouldn’t be any longer than a few sentences. This is the anchor to return to when you hit any future bumps in the planning process.
Brainstorm
After establishing your purpose or anchor point, gather your team at a planning event and generate as many ideas as possible about how best to achieve your goal. To make the most of your time, circulate an agenda beforehand to keep the process moving and to stop the discussion straying off course. Spend the first few minutes of the meeting explaining the vision so everyone is clear about what you’re trying to achieve.
If you have a large number of participants, consider breaking attendees into smaller groups and allowing each to focus on one or two aspects of the business. However, make sure the priority issues are addressed first so if you can’t get through the entire agenda, you’ll still achieve important outcomes. This website has great tips on structuring a planning meeting.
Get a second opinion
A successful plan is often one that’s subjected to the most scrutiny. If it’s within your financial means, get a second opinion from a consultant or a mentor, or perhaps another business owner. If they point out some holes in the plan, take a step back, initiate a second, smaller, brainstorming session and discuss the plan’s weakness.
Keep it visible and adjust if needed
The problem with some plans is that once they’re finalised, they’re filed away and never looked at until it comes time for the next planning session. It is important to regularly review your plan and adjust it if necessary.
As Tim Berry, the founder of US business plan software company Palo Alto Software, tells Forbes.com: “A business plan is the beginning of a process”. “Planning is like steering, and steering means constantly correcting errors,” he says. “The plan itself holds just a piece of the value; it’s the going back and seeing where you were wrong and why that matters.”
Do you have any other tips for perfecting the planning process? Let us know on the VECCI Blog.
