The old adage “If you fail to plan you plan to fail” holds true in most businesses and within most management teams. Without direction from management, the staff are lost, unfocused and unproductive. With good direction, excellent communication and clear direction, the company will grow, and the staff will be happy. Planning is an important part of that journey, but there could be an argument for expecting staff to do their jobs. The other argument suggests that a reactive business cannot plan properly for their future growth, without knowing what to react to.
Do you want to be reactive, or proactive?
Some businesses spend too much time fighting fires, resolving complaints, changing products and designs and direction. These situations are all a reaction to the market, to the customers, to the marketing message that are being received. When you are very reactive, it is more challenging to plan the direction since you are waiting on instructions to react to. This can feel chaotic, disorganized and results in a high-pressure, high stress working environment.
Other businesses know their direction, they understand their customers and they are confident in their product and services. These companies are proactive in their planning, organization and have a clear goal that they take steps towards every day. The team knows what it is doing, the staff know how to resolve customer complaints, because there are so few, and they all planned for. The management has a clear direction, with clear communication down to all staff within the company. There is a company ethos, atmosphere, and togetherness that reduces pressure, stress and makes the staff feel valued and happy in their roles.
Working in a Start Up company is hectic, and fast paced, it is difficult to know what to plan for or what is around the next corner. Working in a well-established business means that people know their roles, the management has been in position for a long time and policies and procedures are well documented. With experience comes calm.
Some people prefer the hectic, innovative, fast paced environment and others prefer a more sedate and methodical approach to their work. Which one are you?
Planning as you go
Planning can be as simple as setting a weekly goal and achieving it, making steps towards it every day and feeling reassured and content at the end of the week when the goals have been achieved. Or it could be a 5-year plan, given to investors and shareholders that guides the company with their strategic and sustainable growth.
Plans involves thinking about situations and altering operational practices to achieve the desired outcome. It can be done quickly, especially by skilled and experienced freelance workers or entrepreneurs. When your company is small, and your team all have excellent communication and a long-term vision to work towards, planning can be a quick process.
Without communication, planning simply does not happen.
Key benefits of Planning
If you can come to terms with the key benefits and implement some simple planning processes into your regular meetings and operations, you will experience growth and will be a lot more willing to devote precious time and energy into the planning process. When you focus on your business and the planning processes, efficiency and growth will naturally follow.
Setting a goal
The first step towards good planning is to have a goal, or a focused vision of where you want to be in 6 months, 12 months, 3 years, and 5 years’ time. Once you have that goal, you plan to make steps towards it every day. Every action that you make should be a step towards that goal. Every person that you hire, every sale that you make, every marketing campaign that you run, every communication with every customer should be a small step closer to achieving that goal.
To put it in simple terms, if your goal is to lose weight, and then you eat a slice of cake, are you making a step towards your goal, or a step away from it?
Management planning means focusing on every department, every action and every day and ensuring that every step you and your team takes is towards the goal of the company. You consider the expected hurdles, problems, and changes that you will need to make along the way, so nothing is a surprise. You consider all your assets, especially your human resources. If your staff are on board then the journey will be one that you share and will be better than if you are alone.
You cannot predict the future, but you can review and analyse market trends, economic predictions, emerging markets, estimate future demand and keep a close eye on what your competitors are doing.
These strategies can help guide your planning to ensure that you continue to take steps towards success.
What is your Goal?
What immediate impacts do you want to see in your company? You might be able to find some quick wins by purchasing some new technology, improving your customer communications, dismissing some negative staff, or hiring a new team. You could promote people internally and make more effort on internal coaching. When you have your goal in your sights, you should take an immediate review of your business and see which parts are helping you to achieve that goal, and which parts need to go, because they are getting in the way of achieving your goal.
A goal is where your company wants to be in a certain time frame and the plan gives you the steps that you must take to get there. The plan can be uncomfortable at times, and you might have to make some very difficult decisions, but if every decision that you make is a step towards your goal, your decisions can be justified.
Once you have reviewed the immediate situation, you can focus into the future. The future is huge, so saying that in 5 years’ time you want X might seem unachievable. Break that down into quarters, or years so that you have achievable and quantifiable steps to make. Seeing your progress towards your goal is motivational.
All elements of Management.
Your plan needs to be detailed and must consider every part of the managerial function. This includes, but is not limited to, managing people, money, operations, future goals, handling investors, compliance training and controls.
Planning covers 4 key areas:
Organisation.
This focuses on future activities and ensuring that you have delegated to the right people to keep focused on the goal. This could mean better procurement, resource management, optimizing the workflow and workforce and ensuring that everyone is organized and able to do their jobs.
Direction.
Having direction means giving out instructions, orders and guidance whilst maintaining forward momentum towards the goal. Direction should include what the end goal is and considering the vision. If you are on a road, you should always follow the direction you want to go in, otherwise you can get lost or confused.
Human resources
Jobs take people to complete and manage. Making sure that you have the right people with the right mindset in the best positions means that you are more likely to achieve your goals. Giving the leaders more responsibility shows that they are on board with your vision and guiding people towards it. Planning how many staff you will need in key positions in a few years’ time means that you can plan your office space, your sales strategies, marketing approaches and operational output. People make your business successful, so you need to successfully plan how to manage your people.
Controls
The last thing that you want is to have a perfect plan, and then it fails for legal reasons or compliance complications. You do not want people to say the wrong thing, at the wrong time, to the wrong person. Controls includes training, recruitment, policies, and procedural development and ensuring that you are paying your vendors on time! What are the controls that could end your business and what can you put in place to consistently manage those? If you manage people to KPI Performance metrics, make sure that the KPIs show you the statistics that you need, to reach your goal.
Write your plan down, present it to leaders, give information to everyone at all levels of the business, and be sure that everyone is reading the same recipe for success. Together we are stronger.
SWOT Analysis and Planning
Have you heard of SWOT analysis? It is a great planning tool used in businesses of all sizes, from the smallest one-man bands to multinational companies with thousands of employees. Using a detailed SWOT analysis can dictate your planning process and help you to become laser focused on what needs improving and what direction to take. During your planning processes, you should have a SWOT analysis for every department, every function and they should all be focused on you achieving your goals.
What is the task that you want to want to focus on? Let’s do a quick SWOT Analysis for it to get you started:
Strengths.
These are what is going well. It could be in your whole company, or in a specific task. What makes you better than someone else who is trying to do this? What skills and experience do your staff have that make them perfect for the role? What are the assets that you own, that gives you strength? You could have an amazing website, the best vans, millions of pounds in the bank. This is a review of all that is good about you, your staff, and your company.
Weaknesses.
These could be examples of things that you know you need, but do not have. This could be investment, tools, equipment, or better trained staff. This also includes things that your competitors do better than you. They could have better marketing, bigger sales, or control over a geographical location. The weakness could be in your messaging, or not being clear in your direction. Whatever you are weak in, it takes a strong leader to identify and fix.
Opportunities
You know that you have a great product, but are you doing the most that you can with it? Where are your customers and how can you reach more of them? If you have a new product, or you are an innovative company, making sure that your product is known to as many people as possible are great opportunities. This section identifies the possibilities and can drive your planning process. Finding a lucrative opportunity and maximizing it will lead to growth and profits.
Threats.
There are so many companies that go bust due to not identifying up-coming threats. Maybe there will be a change in regulations, or your competitors have received a lot of investment. If there is negative press coverage about you, your business, or your sector, it could damage your brand. During recent years there has been a huge swing towards green products and social consciences, monitoring the changing attitudes of customers and consumers to minimize these threats is very important.
Why is planning important?
If you are good at planning, you have a realistic goal that you have tested and reviewed to make sure that it is achievable. It allocates time for reviews, and more importantly, when your company will be the success that you only dream about now.
A good plan defines how you will monitor and measure success and what success means to you and your team. Keeping your eye on the goal means that every step you take it a step towards it.
Planning sets objectives and keeps teams focused. If every department is working towards the same goal, then teamwork makes the dream work! Planning involves performance management and sets the standards that you expect to be achieved and maintained. Consistency is important. Where there are bad months, good planning covers the hard times and expects the good times to follow.
Good planning reduces those unexpected issues. You plan for them and if they happen, you are already prepared. If there is a customer complaint, solid planning prevents it from escalating. If there is a sudden downturn in sales, your plan will guide you to success. Contingency planning is always having a plan B and C just in case you need them.
Perfect Planning Prevents Poor Performance.
I am sure that you have heard of the 5 P’s and understand their meaning!
Where every department knows what it is doing, there will be no overlap or wasted energy. People will stick to their tasks and will only do what they are assigned to do. This accountability for each person, and each team means that efficiency is increased.
Efficiency also means that materials and human resources are used effectively. You can cut expenses and reduce staff if needed. People can be reassigned to tasks that need attention.
During the planning stage there is a great opportunity for innovation. When you see threats, you plan work around solutions. Where you see opportunities, you plan to maximise them. Creative ideas and solutions come during the planning discussions. This is an exciting time for staff and management to delve deeper into management planning techniques.
Planning develops into strategic thinking and innovation.
Decisions that need to guide the company can revert to the planning discussions and are faster to make. When you have a clear plan, and a goal to work towards decision making is easier. Will doing this thing help us to achieve the goal faster, or distract us from the goal? Simple questions to guide the decision makers in choosing the best options for the business.
Without detailed planning, managers decisions are based on best guesses and feelings, they come from limited data and only the current situation, not what it could be in a few months’ time.
Where every member of the team is involved in the planning process, it boosts team spirit and motivation. People are all working together to achieve something, and every idea is considered valuable. If people know what the goal is and know how relevant their work is to achieve that goal, they are motivated and focused.
Where there is accountability, people are irreplaceable because their small cog in the wheel of success is a vital cog, and they have the knowledge and experience to make it work. People stay in work longer and people engage with work more.
Businesses looking for investment always have a plan, and that plan has been discussed and approved by investors. Investors buy in to the company and the process. They know when they need to release funds and when they will get their investment back.
Failing to plan is planning to fail
Some managers do not plan, they miss it out and think that their intuition and brilliance can guide the company. These managers fail, or they fail to achieve what they could have achieved if they had planned better.
They under-value the importance of a good plan. Planning take time, and some managers have very little time to plan, they are busy fighting fires, seeking investment, dealing with problems, all of which could have been avoided if time was spent on a solid plan.
Managers might be skilled in task management, or people management, but lack the oversight that it takes to plan every part of the business. Managers that are constantly fighting fires and dealing with the day-to-day operations struggle to get perspective and to be objective, both are key skills in strategic planning.
Planning takes self-discipline, and time away from the office to focus on the future. Where there is too much reliance on past experiences, the future cannot be seen clearly. Where there is too much going on today, tomorrow seems too far away.
Next Steps
Make sure that you find time in your month to plan. Take half a day off every week, or at the start of each month to plan, review the goals and make sure that you, and your business are still heading in the right direction. It will be worth it in the long term. If part of your planning involves improving communications, you cannot go wrong with mobile communications to guide your team, and no-one does that better than ConxHub.
