Executing A Plan Depends on Commitment
The most critical time many businesses have faced in the last 30 years is upon us. Strategic planning for 2010-12 should be getting serious attention, but many business owners neglect it because execution failures have given the process a bad rap.
Here are 10 common pitfalls to avoid:
1. Sending the plan down from the mountain. I know a business owner who wrote his strategic plan with his accountant and a consultant, then handed copies to his managers. A year later, he wondered why nothing was happening. He should have included managers of all relevant functional areas in the process. He bypassed high-performing individuals and managers at other levels. He passed over some of his best people, excluding those who could help sell the plan to the organization.
2. Planning without gathering accurate information on markets, customers, competitors and suppliers. To paraphrase Dilbert, some think market research is brainstorming the products we would want if we were customers. Getting facts from the outside world is critical. Make sure conclusions are drawn from facts. Weak analysis is as dangerous as bad data. Build your plan on a solid foundation.
3. Juggling too many goals and projects. Ever been listed as a key resource on several “critical” projects? It doesn’t work. You can excite people about participating on a really important project, but you demoralize them when you push a large number of initiatives at once. Your plan should include only a few “move-the-needle” initiatives.
4. Failure to properly plan and commit resources. Tactical plans should include specific resource details. Who will participate? What percentage of time will they devote and at what priority level? What funds are needed in which departmental budgets? The plan should be explicit and every affected department manager should be committed before the plan is launched. When resources aren’t planned and committed properly, they evaporate and execution tanks quickly.
5. Forgetting to balance today’s work with tomorrow’s strategic projects. One of two things usually happens: You either put “people you can spare” on special projects, or you assign “people who are already encumbered”. Either way, you lose. Leaders should demand the best people for strategy execution. If department managers have a problem with that, they should start improving depth their departments.
6. Failure to align department and individual goals and incentives. If you are trying to reposition your business, charging higher prices for innovation, you don’t want your sales people pushing for lower prices because their bonus is based only on volume. Such things are common because goals and bonuses are set out of synch with desired end results.
7. Assuming you’ve communicated. George Bernard Shaw said, “The single greatest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” An all-staff meeting and blurb in the newsletter are not enough. Quarterly meetings, monthly department meetings and monthly newsletter reports are good, but you can always do more. It’s harder than ever, these days, to keep your message front-of-mind.
8. Failure to measure results. Hold monthly tracking sessions. What gets measured gets done. Top-management must devote one meeting a month to strategy execution. Are the dates being hit? Is the plan working? How do we get back on track? If your strategy isn’t worth one meeting a month, what is?
9. Failure to adapt. Dwight Eisenhower said, “Plans are nothing. Planning is everything.” In warfare and business, conditions change rapidly. Plans and leaders must be flexible and adaptive. Many strategic initiatives that fail to produce results are simply good ideas executed too late by a management team that didn’t adapt.
10. Lack of leadership commitment. When the boss puts the strategic plan binder on the shelf, so does everyone else. The owner, CEO or president must be the one who drives the team to avoid all of these pitfalls. If top management lacks commitment, persistence and focus, strategic planning is a waste of time.