Your Silent Partner

BUSINESS GROWING PAIN SPECIALISTS

Your Silent Partner Peter Ellis
Company Action Plan

                Company Action Plan

The first action to take when starting a plan, is a long-term vision for the company over the next two to three years. Not just overall, but for all sectors of the company.  These visions should then be listed in order of significance and next step is to set a number of shorter-term objectives for each vision. Then decide how to go about getting the results to show that the firm is achieving its objectives towards the long-term visions. The dynamic approach to this is circular – For this system to work, dynamic action must follow.

Headings:

  • First the Vision: look into the future for your goal.
  • Second the Strategy: prepare a number of strategies framework to reach that goal.
  • Finally the Tactics: set out interactive objective frameworks to enable those strategies.

Before starting, the first thing to ask is this.

What is Your policy? What should it be?

What is your Policy? What should it be?

If you really want to change your long-term vision, then your policy must change and so must the way you approach the next phase.

Areas to consider for each sector of the business.

Sales Opportunities

  • What is the potential for you?
  • What do you have?
  • Who wants it?
  • Who will want it?
  • How do you reach them?

Service

  • What do you provide?
  • What are the features?
  • Can these be quantified?

Market Place

  • What are your current markets?
  • Which markets are available to you?
  • Are there any niche markets that you can concentrate on?
  • How will we evaluate performance?
  • Return of investment?
  • Total sales?
  • Gross profit?
  • Percentage of work to billing?

The Vision

1. Commercial direction, rationale and priorities.
This should provide a focus, describe the rationale and priorities where appropriate, and reflect the degree of ambition of the Management Team.
E.g. To become the most outstanding company operating in your area. To develop the business throughout the area within the next five years using a systematic program of income opportunities and an autonomous management structure.

2. Philosophy, policies and values.
These should be features, central to the development of the company.
E.g. Quality Assurance should be a key feature to all aspects of the business as it grows. Every new area and new office will have a Quality System maintained once it is operational.     

3. Qualitative goals to achieve.
This is to focus the attention of the entire staff on the crucial areas for the success of the business.
E.g. You will continue to maintain and advance our Quality System in every area of our business as you grow. Where possible, members of staff will have the opportunity of advancement within the organisation.

4. Financial performance.
E.g. The aim is to achieve a situation of increasing our turnover in each area of business by at least four times in the next five year.

5. Future ownership.
The question of ownership, size and management are closely connected. 

For example:                            

The Vision
  • What type of partnership do you have?
  • Do the partners wish to work harder and longer as the company grows?
  • Can the company be split into further partnerships or franchised?
  • Should new managers have the potential to become partners?
  • Will the partnership provide an attractive standard of living for the present partners, and enable the firm to promote talented people to equity partnership whenever they deserve it?
How do you make business growth happen
  • How do you make it happen?

In order for the vision, strategy and tactics that you are discussing may be achieved, particularly if it demands high performance, it is not enough to write it down. The Management Team and everyone involved in the management of the vision needs to:

1. Organic growth

This is developing the business from within. Which is what you are doing today.

  • Should you focus solely on major customers ?
  • Should you concentrate on what you do now and increase your market share? 
  • Should you widen our geographic parameters and take on work from further afield
  • What should your cost approach be – low-cost no-frills and high volume?
  • What do other people in different industries do that you might adopt?

2. Licensing and royalty deals

A five year licence may be granted to use your Q A guide notes and system and a royalty for every client. This will be known because the Questionnaire and Guide Notes are published and copywritten and numbered for each client.

  • really want the vision to become a reality
  • believe that it is achievable
  • be totally, 101% committed to making it happen
  • not let any setback deter them
  • communicate their belief and commitment to others in the company
    The areas of growth development.

3. Franchising

This is the arrangement whereby a company enables people to run their own business, using a proven format and the support of the franchisor. If successful, the customer should not be able to tell if a particular branch is owned or franchised, because the quality and presentation will be the identical.
The fundamental requirement for a franchising operation is an original concept of widespread duplication given the necessary support from the franchisor.

4. Joint ventures

        To bring clients closer in connection to you for the following reasons

  • You have a range of organisational and management skills in training that are beyond their scope.
  • The size of the projects vary, if they use too many small companies it takes up too much bureaucracy.
  • If they like the idea should a separate company be set up to manage this ?

What should be the outcome?

  1. There should be some concrete decisions made.
  2. Major business – development projects should be authorized.
  3. Further analysis and evaluation should be planned.

                                 

At the end of the meeting, there should be a number of objectives to achieve and actions to be taken. These should cover

  • Any change in direction agreed upon (if any).
  • Expected achievements
  • Future prospects

                                 

What should the outcome be?
Making the Vision a Reality

Making the vision a reality

1. Business development projects

List the improvements or changes or new projects and who is the person responsible and when they should achieve certain results.

The ‘Project’ must be an action eg complete certain work, change the way something is done or relocate something somewhere. These projects may be short or long term but they must be able to be seen regularly to be moving towards achievement. It is possible that one project is important in itself yet it is, in fact a part of a longer term company objective.

2. Structure
The structure must be designed expressly to help turn the vision into reality. The steps required are as follows. Once the vision is defined, a weighting must be given to this in the organisation structure now to help make it happen. 

Therefore if you are looking to grow, you must decide when things will be needed to be done to organise and manage the growth.

  1. Identify internal obstacles to success.
  2. Review the present organisation to identify features to retain and aspects which need to be changed.

Finally you should review the present organisational structure, because this can only be done effectively in relation to visions, strategies and obstacles which have been identified.