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

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Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth"Figure 9.1Managing the plan to success.Page 135out the year, of your progress toward both achieving your annual objectives and implementing youraction plan. Referring to Ferdinand Foch's quote at the beginning of the chapter, even with everythingelse in place, it still requires "stubborn will" to successfully implement your business plan.Holding Action Plan ReviewsYou need management reviews of your progress toward completing the action items defined in youraction plan. These reviews should be held on a regular basis; at least every one or two weeks (Exercise41). For small companies, this review activity should take only 5 or 10 minutes. For larger companieswhere a management team is involved, consider holding these reviews as part of your staff meetings. Inthis case, the review should not last more than 10 to 15 minutes. Chapter 10 says more about staffmeetings.Whether you hold the action plan review weekly or every other week, select a day and time that's mostconvenient for the team (e.g., every Monday at 9 A.M.), and stick to it. If one or two members of thesenior team can't be present, hold the meeting anyway, and meet with those who could not attend at alater time.Updating the Action Planfile:///C|/Documents and Settings/gasanova/Local Setti...orward_MBA_in_Business_Planning_for_Growth/e-book.html (150 of 219)16.02.2005 13:54:23
Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth"The purpose of the action plan review is to go over the status of the business plan action items,eliminate those items that have been completed, and add new action items to continue the pursuit ofeach annual objective.As an example of updating the action plan, refer back to Table 8.10, where the first example action itemwas for T. Smith to develop a list of Fortune 500 companies with headquarters in the Boston area. Thisaction item supported the annual objective of securing $2 million in revenues from Fortune 500companies. During the review of the Action Plan, if this action item has been completed, theappropriate question is what the next action item is. It may be forPage 136T. Smith or somebody else to contact those candidate clients with the intention of setting up a meeting;or perhaps to develop a letter, including company information, to be sent to those candidates after aninitial contact call. Assume that as the result of the first action item, 25 candidate companies have beenidentified. The next action item might be for T. Smith to contact all 25 candidate Fortune 500companies by November 15 to set up a meeting to introduce the company. Following action itemsmight include conducting specific introductory meetings or making invitations to the potential clients tovisit the company for a presentation and a tour of its facility. Based on this example, it can be seen howthe follow-up action items keep you on the path of striving to attain the $2-million annual objective.The Action Plan Is Never CompletedYour action plan isn't finished until each annual objective is achieved. The action items define the nextactivities to be completed in support of achieving (or exceeding) your annual objectives. I have hadclients tell me soon after their plan was developed that they have completed all their action items. Myresponse is always that they may have completed the initial action items, but they never asked what'snext. With a few exceptions, every annual objective in the plan should have action items until theobjective is achieved. In some cases, actions for selected objectives might be put off until a later date,for example, hiring a director of marketing and sales in the third quarter.Be Diligent in Completing Action ItemsIf an action item is not completed on schedule, inquire as to why and then select a new completion datewith the commitment from the person responsible (it may be you) for getting it done. Not all actionitems will be completed on time, but most should be. To be successful, you and, iffile:///C|/Documents and Settings/gasanova/Local Setti...orward_MBA_in_Business_Planning_for_Growth/e-book.html (151 of 219)16.02.2005 13:54:23
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Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for ...

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