Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for ...

Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth"The third and final step of the planning process is to manage the plan to success. The literature isreplete with the call to business owners and managers to implement the business plan you havedeveloped. Recall the citation in Chapter 1 of Nolan, Goodstein, and Pfeiffer's Plan or Die!, where theauthors stated that "strategic planning and strategic management (the day-to-day implementation of thestrategic plan) are the two most important, never-ending jobs of management, especially topmanagement." 1Recall also Covey's counsel, presented in Chapter 1, that it is critical to spend time doing those "noturgent but important" things. 2 This is where effort must be expended to implement the business planyou have just developed.Your plan won't happen by itself. Putting the plan you have just developed aside and opening it up onthe last day of your fiscal year to see how you did robs you of the opportunity to take charge of yourcompany's future. You need to undertake and complete the necessary actions to meet your annualobjectives. Recall from Chapter 1 that one reason business plans fail isPage 134that there is no management process in place to support plan implementation. The process described inthis chapter presents a methodology for managing your plan to success.Managing the Plan to SuccessIn Chapter 7 you developed your vision statement, mission statement, and five-year goals, whichcomprise the strategies for making your business a success. These three strategic elements of the planmake up the road map you decided to use to take this company of yours where you want it to be. Thestrategy serves to lay the baseline for the two tactical elements of the plan you developed in Chapter 8,the annual objectives and the action plan—the vehicles for ''getting there."As shown in Figure 9.1, the annual objectives and action plan are the elements of your business planthat you must manage. In the end, they are the crucial steps that must be achieved in the near term. Theonly purpose of the broader strategy you developed in Chapter 7 is to lend a direction to your near-termobjectives and actions.Referring to Figure 9.1, managing the plan involves holding management reviews,through-file:///C|/Documents and Settings/gasanova/Local Setti...orward_MBA_in_Business_Planning_for_Growth/e-book.html (149 of 219)16.02.2005 13:54:23