 | ||||||
 | ||||||
 | ||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Plaid Group Newsletter Join The Plaid Group mailing list and you’ll receive a free bimonthly email newsletter filled with insights and ideas you can use to enhance your company’s operational performance, spur growth, and increase bottom line profits. It’s not too soon to start thinking about 2005 Follow these planning steps today to ensure next year’s success. by Tim Smith, Principal  [ Print Version ]The four months between Labor Day and New Year’s Day sweep past like a holiday shopper at a last-chance clearance sale. One minute it’s the lazy days of summer. Turn around, and you’re staring at the end of the year. So it’s easy to get caught up in the bustle of meeting social obligations and professional objectives and forget one very important task. Planning for next year. That’s right. Your 2005 success begins now, as we make our way toward the end of 2004. The right plan can make all the difference. Getting Started Is As Easy As 1-2-3-4 In my planning work with clients, I start with four simple questions:
For example, your employees may recognize problems with serving customers far more quickly than management can. Their input may enable you to make changes before those customers leave you for someone else. Some companies even involve their customers in this annual “discovery process.” A brief, structured survey or focus group of customers can help you gain a better understanding of your company’s strengths and weaknesses. Let’s look forward Once Steps 1 and 2 are complete, you’ll have a clear – and shared – view of the company’s current state of affairs. That’s critical for effective planning, because it’s difficult to develop a workable roadmap if you don’t have an accurate picture of your starting position. So the analysis is an important reality check. Now you can look to the future. What challenges did you discover that you’d like to overcome? What ideas for growth surfaced that you’d like to pursue? What do you want or need your organization to look like 12-18 months down the road? As part of that definition, develop measurable goals that can help everyone in the company understand where you are headed and what it will take to make your vision a reality. Here’s an example. Let’s say that your analysis revealed that only 70 percent of customer orders were delivered on time. Your employees say that most delays are caused by incorrect or missing information when orders are entered. Part of your plan for the new year might be to error-proof and streamline your order fulfillment workflow, starting with order-entry procedures. Then, by including a measurable goal – for example, 95 percent of all customer orders will be delivered on time – you provide everyone involved with a meaningful way to track progress. Plan for growth, too! The plan-goal approach doesn’t just work for solving problems. It can also help you achieve proactive results. For example, if your evaluation shows that 80 percent of your revenue comes from only three large accounts, you might want to diversify your customer base since losing one large customer could be disastrous to your bottom line. Diversifying so that seven customers generate 80 percent of your revenue would reduce the impact of losing one of those large accounts. Specific activities required to reach that goal could include:
See how it works? If you’ll do this plan-goal for each issue you uncover in your analysis, you’ll have a solid plan for solving problems and creating growth for 2005. You need buy-in to succeed! But that’s not the end of the process. It’s critical that you share your plan with all employees. Take the time to communicate the importance of each objective, and outline the plans in place to make sure goals are met. Then, as you track progress throughout the year, communicate those milestones – or progress toward them – to visibly recognize your employees’ efforts. Such recognition also lets employees know that you are serious about following through. One of the biggest mistakes business owners make in planning is not explaining company goals and the actions necessary to achieve them. Your management team and employees can’t help you reach your goals if they don’t understand them. So, if the plan is worth doing – and your vision for the company is certainly valuable – it’s worth communicating to everyone. 2005 Can Be Your Best Year Yet The time you invest to plan for 2005 will pay off with a more focused effort from everyone in your company. You’ll be more effective, more productive … and more profitable. After several years of no- or slow-growth, the economy appears to be on the road to recovery. Will your company be able to take advantage and benefit as the economy builds? With the right plan, 2005 can be your most successful year ever. More Information? If you’d like to learn more about planning for 2005, please send an E-mail to tim@plaidgroup.com, visit our web site at www.plaidgroup.com, or call us at 713-627-3569.The Plaid Group publishes a free bimonthly e-mail newsletter filled with insights and ideas you can use to enhance your company’s operational performance, spur growth and increase bottom-line profits. To subscribe, change your e-mail address or unsubscribe, please visit www.plaidgroup.com/newsletters_subscribe.asp. Author's Note: Tim Smith is a Principal with The Plaid Group. The Plaid Group helps companies simplify and stabilize their business operations to improve financial performance and gain a competitive edge. Copyright 2004 The Plaid Group |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The next step involves analyzing each of the three major functions of any business:
Now, your related goals to reach by the end of 2005 might be: |
 |