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

Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth"Page 158a week. Compile all the planning information (from all those sheets hanging up around the room) anddocument and distribute a draft version of the plan to the attendees by the next day or shortly thereafter.Remember that the plan should be only five or six pages long. Once it is finalized, brief the plan (noneed to include the action plan) to all your employees. As stated earlier, it's a morale booster.Just prior to adjourning, start going around the room to gather any closing comments (you go last). Ihave always found these closing comments to be a real boost to the general good feeling of the group—''We're organized; we have a direction, a focus, and a business plan."End PointThis chapter presents the approach to holding a planning session. Who to invite, session logistics,presession preparation, and the agenda are described. At this point, you have completed your businessplan. You have learned of a process for managing the plan to success, and you now have a means forgetting your management team involved in the planning process.Page 159EPILOGUEBegin with the end in mind.—Stephen CoveyThe purpose of this book is to have CEOs and other senior managers understand that to increase theodds of developing and maintaining a successful business, you must define and document the necessarystrategies and supporting tactics (the business plan), and you must implement a process in the companyto effectively manage the plan to success. It all boils down to Stephen Covey's suggestion to "Beginwith the end in mind" 1 —plan your business—which completely supports the thesis that one of themajor reasons that businesses are not successful derives from a lack of business planning.Response to Business Plan Failuresfile:///C|/Documents and Settings/gasanova/Local Setti...orward_MBA_in_Business_Planning_for_Growth/e-book.html (171 of 219)16.02.2005 13:54:23