You’ve seen all the flow charts…you’ve heard all the lectures… you’ve listened to all the war stories… you’ve seen all the printed bound volumes …on dusty shelves and in desk drawers….and you know you’ve got to do it.
This is the 4th article in a series The Business Plan for Small and Mid-sized companies. For the past thirty years I’ve been deeply involved with the Business and Marketing Planning Process as a planning consultant and as an operating manager. I have observed and concluded that the most difficult phase of this logical, pragmatic and critical business processes is the implementation.
All too often…
The Business Plan was created and written as an annual ritual after which the senior executives would sit back, congratulate each other; and have it printed and sent to the Board of Directors, lawyers and accountants and go back to running the business the same old way.
Or…
The business plan was created at the top level of the organization and the final result is presented as a “fait accompli” to the operating staff charged with getting the job done.
However, the senior executive of the Small or Mid-sized business must create the Business Plan with considerable collaborative input from the operating staff charged with implementation. The operating staff then feels it has a significant stake in both the outcome and performance of the Business Plan and direction of the enterprise. In my experience this operating staff then become the Planning cheerleaders and owners of the process; – a significant opportunity for the following years planning process.
I’m reminded of my personal experience as a Product and Brand Marketing Manager in the electronics industry. In general, the Product and Brand Manager has no direct line operating authority over the functional activities which carry out the strategies, tactics and actions of the Brand Marketing Plan. Therefore, The Product Manager’s key to success is to create a highly collaborative environment with the functional units during the preparation of the Marketing Plan anticipating the functional issues which will come to bear during implementation. In this way the functional units “buy into” the brands activities in most positive manner.
I created the two week Product and brand Management Course for the American Management Association and was privy to meeting thousands of product and brand managers from all industries and locations. They reinforced the view that their job was to create the collaborative planning and implementation environment described above if they were to achieve product success.
In my view the Product and brand Managers successful approach to the creation, writing and implementation of the Business and Marketing plans for their product success is a critical template for the senior executive of the small and Mid-sized company as they plan to exit the Recession and Take their Business to the Next Level.
I’m not suggesting that the CEO suddenly operate in a “touchy- feely” manner but recognize that the operating staff charged with the getting the job can make a significant difference between success and failure.
The create the Business Plan, CEO must leave the “it wasn’t invented here” attitude in the briefcase.
About the Author:
Bernard C. Steiner, Consultant
Steiner Business Planning Consulting
Trust Your Most Important Planning Decision To An Experienced Business Plan Writer and Consultant in Business Planning!
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