Nothing sets a top-performing company apart from its peers like a team united around common goals and then working a plan to achieve them.
Yet each year hundreds of organizations fail to achieve their objectives– or fail altogether – because the leaders cannot overcome their assumptions about their colleagues, their company, and their competition.
Would it surprise you to learn that four out of five companies do not operate their business from a written plan? These companies have budgets, but a budget is only effective once you’ve determined your priorities. Planning gives you permission to re-think your priorities and then set budgets that support these priorities.
Even so, of those companies with plans, only one in four companies actually gets around to implementing their plan.
High-performing companies use the planning process to establish measurable objectives, build budgets and set performance benchmarks for the coming year. Exceptional companies leverage the planning process to give themselves something even more valuable: they leverage the planning process to evaluate new revenue opportunities, strengthen their competitive advantage and ensure the entire organization is energized around a common purpose.
The period between Labor Day and Thanksgiving is traditionally the period when companies set aside time to analyze performance patterns of the past nine months and make final adjustments to finish the year strong. It’s also the time to contemplate the year ahead and achieve alignment among members of the leadership team so that there is absolute clarity around who will do what by when in the coming year.
Are you prepared for the uncertainty that 2009 will bring?
Whether or not you believe we’re in a recession, there’s no question that certain spots of the U.S. and certain industries are experiencing difficult times.
Other companies report continued growth but at a pace that’s slowing.
Planning can help your organization finish 2008 strong, and enter 2009 better prepared to address the uncertainty that looms ahead.
Here are seven sets of questions that planning must help you answer as you move forward:
- Can our team define success in specific terms?
- Have we maximized our competitive advantage, or are we satisfied to let our competitors set the pace?
- What are the early signs that will alert us to trouble? How must we respond to these signals?
- What risks do we face? What opportunities can we pursue now?
- Where should we cut? Where should we invest?
- Is it realistic to expect that we can increase our performance in uncertain times? How?
- How can we maintain morale when things turn bad?
Lesson: When you view planning as an investment in your future and not as an expenditure of valuable time, you will achieve results that enable you to outperform your competition.
For a free 30-minute consultation with Greg Bustin about how to structure your planning process and the outcome you should expect, call 214.720.3707 or send Greg an email.
What are you waiting for?
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