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

Philip Walcoff - "The Fast Forward MBA in Business Planning for Growth"Develop the PlanThe second step of the planning process is to develop the plan. This involves the integration of strategic(long-term) and tactical (short-term) elements into a single plan that addresses questions ranging fromwhat business you want to be in (strategy) to who will make what sales call next week (tactics).Defining and managing to completion the tactical actions in support of the strategy is what makes thebusiness-planning process effective. The plan becomes a living document, in contrast to the plan thatsits on the shelf gathering dust. The detailed process for developing a business plan is addressed in Part3.If you own or manage a small company with one or more employees whom you feel are important tothe future of the company, or you head a larger company with a management team in place, I stronglysuggest that you hold a planning session of your own to involve these employees in the process. Thiswill enhance your plan and allow those key staff members to buy into it. Chapter 11 provides guidelinesfor holding this planning session with your staff.Manage the PlanThe third step of the planning process is to manage the plan. The first two steps—identify-ing issues and developing the plan—are relatively straightforward and can be accomplished in a weekor two. However, managing the plan requires a dedicated effort throughout the year. Recall fromChapter 1 that the majority of companies that develop plans don't implement them. Managing the planrequires continuous discipline, including taking the time to review your progress and keep the plan'sobjectives on track. It's about holding you and others accountable for achieving results.Recall from Chapter 1 Covey's remarks about management's responsibility to do the important things,and Nolan, Goodstein, and Pfeiffer's emphatic statement that senior management's primaryresponsibility is to implement the business plan. On any business day, accomplishing some small steptoward achieving a plan objective won't be viewed as urgent, but it is very important for meeting yourshort-term objectives and eventually your long-term goal—implementing your business plan.Page 19file:///C|/Documents and Settings/gasanova/Local Settin...Forward_MBA_in_Business_Planning_for_Growth/e-book.html (32 of 219)16.02.2005 13:54:23