Posted by Martin Harshberger on Mon, Dec 14, 2009 @ 03:09 PM
What role does vision play in the development of your business plan? If you listen to Jack Welch it’s a big role.
“Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision, and relentlessly drive it to completion.”
Jack Welch
Many small business leaders are unfamiliar with the strategic planning process. Better strategic planning results start at the end. Where is it you want to go?
Step #1 in the planning process: Clarify and document your vision.
Where do you want to be in five years? What specifically will that look like? Write that down in as much detail as possible. If you are tempted to blow this off or think this is easy, you’ve probably never done it. It’s not as simple as it sounds.
Now ask yourself, what’s been holding you back? Why you aren’t already there? The answers to these questions can be enlightening. Maybe it’s because you’re confused or conflicted about what you really want. Or maybe something stands in your way that you haven’t had the awareness or courage to confront.
Don’t skimp on this phase of the planning process. If you’re unclear about your vision, your whole plan will be useless.
Taking time to understand your business, both as it is today and as you want it to be tomorrow, is not as simple as it sounds.
It helps to have a knowledgeable and objective outsider involved in the planning process. An outsider will challenge you to think creatively. You’ll be better able to see familiar situations in new ways. And it will be harder for people to get away with excuses and blame shifting.
Frankly, I think it’s a dangerous mistake for the CEO or some other senior executive from within the organization to try to facilitate this assessment exercise. All too often participating staff members try to say what they think that executive wants to hear. A “herd mentality” develops that stifles honesty and creativity.
But a competent facilitator won’t accept pat answers, clichés, and jargon. He or she will encourage innovative thinking and force participants to drill down to bedrock facts.
When I go into a company, I start by asking the key players to clearly describe in writing what they want their company to look like in five years. What businesses will they be in? What products and services will they be selling? How many employees and locations will they have?
Most business owners, CEOs, and other major stakeholders think they know the answers to these questions. That is, until they try to put them on paper. Typically they struggle for hours before they reach agreement on their direction and general goals.
This process almost always births useful insights and promising opportunities.
A strong vision is the foundation of any successful business.
Your vision gives you a point of reference for evaluating and planning all aspects of your business. You’ll make better and faster decisions when you evaluate every choice by asking, “Does this take me closer to or farther from the attainment of my vision?”
If you want your company to achieve maximum success, all business processes, management practices, and employee incentives should flow from and be in alignment with a clearly defined strategy. All employees should understand and be “on the same page” as your vision and strategy. Every employee should consider the vision when they encounter their individual “moments of truth”.
In the fast food industry, moments of truth occur at the counter when the orders are taken. In manufacturing companies, they happen when a sales professional interacts with a prospect or customer, a serviceman repairs a customer’s machine, a shipment goes out the door to a customer, a customer service representative answers the phone, and at numerous other points.
Where are the moments of truth in your business? What interactions are crucial for your success? Design and execute your strategy and all of your processes and practices to create positive moments of truth experiences for your external customers.
How do you create an environment that equips and motivates your internal customers to create positive moments of truth experiences for your external customers?
You start by clarifying your vision and communicating it consistently and constantly, so that every aspect of your company is built around it.
Your vision is your definition of success. Your strategy to achieve your vision is the foundation for your success. When you have a clear vision and a sound strategy – supported by good planning, communications, and metrics – your entire workforce will perform at a higher level. That means more profits and faster growth for your business, which is exactly what this book’s about.
These concepts always work. Why? Because clear expectations built on the foundation of a sound vision always increase commitment, motivation, teamwork, and productivity.
Shifting expectations, on the other hand, increase confusion, discomfort, apathy, and disharmony.
If you found this article helpful you may want to download our free whitepaper, "How to Recession Proof Your Business".
Posted by Martin Harshberger on Tue, Dec 08, 2009 @ 01:04 PM
Does your company or organization have a clear, crisp and documented Strategic Plan? Or are you one of the many that claim to have it “in your head”?
When I speak to business owners and CEO’s I hear that answer so often that I’ve come to expect it. According to the National Business Association, more than 50 percent of small to mid-size businesses don’t have written business plans. And when written plans do exist, most are on a shelf or in a file drawer, gathering dust.
Does your organization have a written plan with clearly defined goals?
- Does that plan articulate your vision and direction clearly and succinctly?
- Does everyone in the organization understand the plan and refer to it often?
- Are departmental goals and individual compensation tied to plan achievement?
- Can it be easily communicated?
- Does it provide a benchmark for evaluating your business?
- Does it give you the flexibility to alter your course rapidly in response to changing circumstances?
- Do you have a dashboard with key metrics to gauge progress against plan?
- Are those metrics visible to all employees?
- Are the people affected by the plan fully engaged and committed to accomplishing it?
If you answered “no” to two or more of these questions, there’s a good chance you don’t know where your organization is going or how it’s going to get there.
What a lot of companies call business plans are nothing more than “blue sky” gazes into the future. Their vision statements – which are actually more like “wish lists” – are vague and their goals are not specific. A poorly developed plan is worse than no plan at all.
The National Business Association estimates that 78 percent of businesses that fail don’t have well-developed business plans. Where does your company stand?
An undocumented plan is a daydream.
I’ve worked with a lot of executives who think that the plan in their head is well thought out and that everyone in their company is in agreement with it. But when they attempt to put it in black and white for others to see and discuss, they’re invariably surprised to see how much confusion and controversy erupts.
The documentation process forces you to set priorities and think through difficult questions. It provides a mechanism for discussing goals and building consensus. You’re less likely to gloss over key issues when you put things in writing.
A written plan gives you several significant benefits:
- It provides a fixed point of reference to guide your decision making, so you won’t be pulled off course by tempting diversions.
- It serves as a foundation for communicating direction, promoting teamwork, and instilling motivation.
- It promotes action instead of reaction.
- It provides a means of measuring your progress.
- It helps you invest resources wisely.
- It provides a common framework for aligning people and processes.
- It focuses your entire organization on common objectives.
Committing to the planning process is the first step in inventing your company’s future.
When you finish your plan, communicate it broadly. Refer to it constantly to guide your decision-making and gauge your progress. Use it to evaluate all major projects, processes, expenditures, and opportunities to make sure they are aligned with your organization’s vision and goals. Departmental goals and compensation plans should be aligned to plan achievement.
It takes courage to document and communicate your vision. Revealing your desires and your goals puts you out on a limb, where your success or failure is visible to all. You’re putting your reputation at risk.
But if you don’t commit to a vision, you’re putting your whole company and all of itsemployees at risk.
If you found this article helpful you may want to download our free whitepaper, "How to Recession Proof Your Business".