Tài liệu Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan Chapter 12 pdf

Implementing and Sustaining

Your Business Plan

This chapter describes how you implement and sustain your

business plan. It suggests how you can assemble the plan from

different levels, initiate the plan, and provide sustaining activities.

These are the third and fourth steps in the four-step plan (see Figure

12-1) that began with preplanning and planning activities.

Included in the implementation phase are suggestions for measur￾ing the performance of your plan.

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One of the key steps for implementing the plan is the removal

of heat loss or organizational inefficiencies inherent to any system.

This chapter provides the steps for you to successfully map and cor￾rect any deficiencies.

The chapter concludes with information on conducting orga￾nizational change activities, along with suggestions on leadership

and managership skills development. For the plan to succeed it

must be implemented by people with the basic skills of leading and

managing the workforce.

324 Seven Steps to a Successful Business Plan

Figure 12-1. The implementing and sustaining phases must work

together in a seamless flow to ensure execution of the plan.

HOW TO IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN

The implementing period begins with a consolidation of the vari￾ous levels of plans. Once your subordinate planning teams have

taken the planning details of Level 1 down to Levels 2, 3, or 4, they

must be reassembled to ensure plan continuity. To do this, schedule

a one-day conference with representatives from each team where

they present their own supporting plan and display their interpre￾tation of the concepts. The idea is to cross-check the viability of

plans across a single level, then roll the information upward to the

next level. If the teams have properly followed the provided plan￾ning templates, the plans should fit together with minimum adjust￾ment. If one subplan is out of alignment, that particular planning

team must go back to adjust its targets, objectives, or goals.

If the plan fits together at Level 1, implementation begins with

a communication from top management to execute tasks found in

the action plan initiated according to the schedule. This leads to

the most important part of implementation—the use of perfor￾mance measurements.

Monitoring Your Plan to Ensure Compliance

Your plan should be monitored frequently to make sure it is being

implemented in the spirit and intent of the planning conference.

Some businesses in certain situations elect to monitor their progress

or success on a weekly basis. This is probably appropriate for oper￾ational levels in an organization. For example, in a manufacturing

environment you may choose to monitor daily and formally report

weekly. Some organizations choose to report on a monthly basis.

Tracking sales monthly is a common example. The minimum

length of time allowed without formally checking your plan is a

quarter. Reporting results on a quarterly basis is the most accepted

business practice for performance measures. The framework is con￾sistent with financial reporting, shareholder expectations, and pub￾lic acceptance. I recommend this as your minimum reporting

schedule (see Figure 12-2).

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