Tag Archive for: #businessplanning

Values or Culture – which comes first? It’s a “Chicken or Egg” question.

All organizations have a unique culture and company culture can affect
the success, or failure, of a business.

So how do you change the culture of your business to support long
term success?

If Culture is the “chicken” in this story, then Values is the
“egg”.

Culture is driven, to a large extent, by the Values you embrace
in the day-to-day activities in your business.

Culture is often described as a “feeling” we get when we work with
certain organizations. We may not be consciously aware of the values
of these companies, but if we pay close attention, they are observable
in the behaviours and appearance of the employees and the physical
appearance of the premises.

The values you practice in your business can attract, or repel, three
important audiences: Customers, Employees, and Business Partners
(your suppliers and/or distributors).

We prefer to do business and work with people or companies we trust,
who enquire about and understand our needs, who are reliable and do
what they say they will do.

Creating company values has traditionally been a top-down exercise.
This makes the task of creating a Values document relatively easy and
quick. However, getting widespread buy-in by the employees is difficult
and time consuming and often falls by the wayside. The Company
Values poster is placed on the wall in the lunchroom, the entry lobby,
and web site, but the underlying behaviours are not practiced in any
meaningful way.

A better way to get early buy-in and widespread support is through
employee participation in creating the values statement.

It takes a little longer at the front end, but the return on the investment
is in earlier and more sustainable buy-in. In many organizations the values of the founder and current leadership are already “baked-in” to the culture of the company. It is important to capture and retain these attributes as a starting point then build on this
base information through collaboration with your employees.

Below are a few questions to open the discussion with your staff about
the idea and importance of personal and company values. The intent is
to expand and clarify a draft Values statement so that it is complete and
understandable for everyone in the company.

These questions will generate a list of desired behaviours,
physical attributes, and general beliefs that you can later organize
into a coherent document for final review and revision.

  • What behaviours and attributes do you value in a team member?
  • What are the positive things our team members do to make
    this a better place to work?
  • Think about your best manager. What are the characteristics
    about that person that sets him/her apart?
  • When you have a tough problem to solve, what are the things
    that are helpful to the process?
  • What do you value in companies and organizations that you do business with as a customer? (desired behaviours, physical appearance or general beliefs that you have observed)
  • What are the positive things we do to bring value to our customers?
  • What do you value in your best busines partners? (suppliers/distributors)
  • What are the positive things your best business partners do that sets them apart?

Once you have a list, find someone on your team who is good at
synthesizing information to organize into categories and tidy up the
language.

Here’s an example:

Stated Value – key attribute
observable behaviours that illustrate the attribute

Reliability and courtesy – (sample) At ABC we work hard at being reliable and courteous in all things we do.

Definition: observable behaviours that illustrate the attribute

Which means that:

  • We show up on time.
  • We do what we say.
  • We finish what we start.
  • We say please and thank you.

When your whole team is engaged in designing this document, you
should soon see individuals at all levels of the company start to hold
each other accountable to behaviour standards they had a hand in
creating.

In larger companies you may experience sub-cultures within
departments or work groups. This collaborative approach to clarifying
desired behaviours throughout the company will help identify these
anomalies and lead to corrective action.

Once you are satisfied with your first draft of Company Values, put it in
your Plan Genie Busines Plan, Part 2, for future reference and revision.
For more tips and advice on documenting your working business plan
please visit plangenie.com

Acknowledgement – Special thanks to Tom Foster for initiating some of
the ideas expressed in this post.

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Are you Batman or Joker?

What happens when we don’t plan?

Jim Collins, author of “Good to Great”, in his keynote address to a
recent international Vistage Chair conference summarized 12 attributes
of great leaders he has studied.

Observation number one: there is a strong correlation between
planning and improved results.

The criminal mastermind known as The Joker, who’s famous quote
includes: “I don’t have a plan, I just do things”. Which is why he has
never really achieved anything despite being this charismatic character.

He is the mirror image of Batman who observes, analyses, and only
acts once he has a plan of action… the Joker has a loose goal, but he
just does things hoping they will somehow help him reach that goal…
His luck is mistaken for talent.

Are you Batman or The Joker?

For more information on how to run your business from a written plan,
please check out our web site plangenie.com

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Let’s Get Clear about Purpose. Why does your company exist?

 

Why does your company exist? (from your customer’s perspective)

We are seeing a lot of attention being paid in recent years to this idea of knowing your “Why” or Purpose of your business, for good reason.

Discovering the answer to this question can have a profound effect on the success of your business. It provides context for so many other strategic decisions as grow your business, a foundation piece for your business plan.

On the surface, “why” seems like a simple question, yet many business leaders struggle to find a strong, compelling, and succinct answer to this question.

The key to getting to a clear Purpose statement is to focus on your customer’s perspective.

Start with this question:

What fundamental value or benefit do our customers receive from us?

Brainstorm a list of answers with your team. Mix and combine ideas until you have a good starting point. Review and tweak over time

Here’s an illustration. Imagine you are the owner of a company that sells lighthouses. What might be the Purpose of your business?

Something like: Our company purpose is to protect the lives and property of our customers at sea.

With this purpose in mind, the company has the foundation to build out and improve it’s products and services over time. Eg. Life boats, life jackets. GPS systems, charts, etc all flow from this strong purpose statement.

Pontish Yeramyan, CEO of Gap International, wrote in a recent article about being purposeful:

“The 21st Century Organization can also differentiate itself by operating within a bigger context than a vision or mission, something more expansive. It’s not enough anymore to simply have a clear direction – people must be able to throw their entire selves into the game to be successful, with full engagement of heart and mind.

We have found that when leaders leverage Purpose, it creates a competitive advantage that’s difficult or even impossible to replicate. Purpose creates the ability for people to care about something much bigger than their personal concerns and fully apply their talent to meaningful endeavours.

 If you think about it, Being Purposeful creates the platform for organization success, because it taps into a reservoir of potential energy latent within the organization. When peoples’ orientation to their job transforms from performing work to that of making a difference, they become exponentially more effective at coming together to produce extraordinary results.

 It becomes possible to consistently produce results beyond what is predictable in the normal flow of business. Powerful strategies can be created and re-created when purpose is present. Purpose gives people a far more expansive space to create and grow, where creative, purpose-based thinking replaces crisis-based, firefighting thinking.

 An organization of people who have connected themselves to something bigger can thrive rather than simply survive –they can move fast together and nimbly adjust strategies and tactics to succeed.”

 When your business plan starts with “Why” the other pieces will follow more easily”

For more tips on planning please visit plangenie.com

Clarity Creates Confidence

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What Makes you So Special?

No seriously.

Has a prospective client ever asked you this question? Even if they haven’t, at some level, this question is on their mind as they consider their buying decision. What is your answer?

Do you have a clear, succinct response that gets to the core of what is special, unique, or different about your company?

If you ask this question to your leadership team, how consistent is the answer? What answer would you get from your marketing and sales team, your operations team, your finance team, your front-line staff, your forklift driver, your business partners?

Most importantly, what do your customers say about your company?

In documenting your working plan, this is one of the first questions to address. What is your Unique Business Proposition?

Much like we are all different as individuals, every business is different, and unique. Discovering what makes your company unique will clarify your market focus and propel you down the path to attracting, recruiting, and retaining your best customers (and releasing, either through attrition or bold decisions, your worst customers)

Once you have your first draft you can review and revise it at each planning review.  It’s a dynamic exercise. How you described your UBP five years ago will be different today and will be different 5 years from now.

Here’s a few tips to help your search for your UBP:

 

Answer these questions is a sentence or two; What, How, Who, Where:

 

  • What does your company do? Is there something special, unique, or different about what your company does?
  • How you do it? Is there something special, unique, or different about how you do what you do?
  • Who are you?. Is there something special, unique, or different about you and your team or your culture? (Tab over to the Values section to look for clues here.)
  • Where do you operate, your geographic reach?

 

Somewhere in this mix you will find a starting point in your search for your unique identity.

Next, talk to your best customers. Ask, why did they become customers and why do they stay? Then, listen very, very carefully.

Another great source of insight are your business partners – your suppliers, and/or your distributors.

Finally, get your whole team involved, from the executive level to the front line.  Harness the power of collaboration within your company.

For more information on Unique Business Proposition and how it is used on a working business plan, please visit planegenie.com

 

Please pass along your questions or comments.

 

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I’ll Show you mine, if you show me yours!

I’ll Show you mine, if you show me yours!

 

Are you ready and willing to show me yours? – Your Business Plan, that is.

Sharing your written plans with others outside your business is one of the best ways to bring clarity and insights to this document, yet many business leaders are often reluctant to do this.

The key is finding the right audience, someone you trust and is willing to challenge your thinking and provide fresh perspectives. Ideally, you also want someone who has a broad business experience, and not necessarily in your industry.

 

Some possible examples:

  • Business leaders you may know in other industries who are not connected with your business in any way. Offer to review their plan and exchange ideas – “I’ll show you mine if you show me yours.” This could be done one-to-one or with a small group, spaced over time. (If you are involved in a CEO peer group such as The Executive Committee, you have access to this type of opportunity on a regular basis.)

 

  • Senior business bankers

 

  • Senior business accountants

 

  • Other professional advisors, such as M&A firms, business coaches or consultants

 

  • An advisory board (distinct from a formal board)

 

  • A mentor or coach

 

You are looking for a coach’s perspective: Does this plan make sense to you? What parts need clarification? What’s missing? Where are my challenges, opportunities, blind spots?

This may be too large a task to complete is a single meeting and may be better tackled one section at a time.

Presenting your plan to others will require you to be more succinct in documenting the plan and will lead to much greater clarity. And, clarity creates confidence.

Don’t be shy, ask for help. I think you will find most people you ask will feel flattered that you reached out to them.

If you need help in structuring your working plan, please visit our web site, plangenie.com

 

 

 

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Is your business vaccinated this cold and flu season?

I received a reminder from my physician’s office this week to book my drive through vaccination time slot, which got me thinking about business health.

How is vaccination related to business?

A vaccine stimulates your immune system to produce antibodies, exactly like it would if you were exposed to the disease. After getting vaccinated, you develop immunity to that disease, without having to get the disease first.

This is what makes vaccines such powerful medicine. Unlike most medicines, which treat or cure diseases, vaccines prevent them.

Business planning is a quasi vaccine for your business. The act of planning stimulates your business immune system. Resiliency and immunity don’t just happen, they are learnt and built.

Which component of your business do you want to vaccinate this season?

  • Re write your Unique Business Proposition?
  • Clarify your company Purpose?
  • Set new short and long term goals?
  • Document the new strategies you have adopted through the Covid experience?
  • Revisit your Value statements – would it be helpful to restate the required behaviors and beliefs you need from your team to succeed in the months and years ahead?
  • Any changes in your products and services, fees, or your target market?
  • Time to refresh and strengthen your relationships with your business partners – your suppliers and/or distributors?
  • Are your departmental plans current for the next quarter, priorities identified and moving forward, or has your leadership team fallen back to reactive mode?
  • Is your organization chart up to date, capturing the changes over the past six months

Some of us tend to be vaccine and needle adverse. Working on your business heath can activate the same feelings of resistance. It can be nerve wracking to know it might hurt a little, even make us feel a bit sick, to find out things aren’t working quite as we want.

You know what they say, “an ounce of prevention”.

Stay Healthy!

For help with these questions or any other help you may need to improve your business health drop us an email.

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Start with the foundation

The Foundation

We all know that building any structure starts with a solid foundation. The same is true of your business plan. The foundation for your business plan is your BUSINESS PLAN SUMMARY.

Your plan summary contains five important pieces of information. The rest of your plan extends from this foundation and is easier to assemble when you have this document clearly written.

The five pieces of your summary are:

  • Your Unique Business Proposition – what makes your company special, unique and different?
  • The Purpose of your business – Why does your company exist, as seen from the customer’s perspective? At a fundamental level, what value or benefit does your company create for your customers?
  • Your Destination – Your longer term goals, your picture of success 3 years from now.
  • Your One Year Goals – Desired outcomes in the next 12 months?
  • Your Strategy – In broad terms, how you will achieve these results?

Let’s look at the first two points on this list.

Unique business proposition: In a couple of sentences, describe what makes your business unique, special and different. This can usually be found in:

What you do.

How you do it.

Where you do it.

Who you are.

When you write this information down and begin discussing it with your leadership team, it will lead to crystallizing these ideas. (Tip: Always good to check with your customers for their perspective on this).

Becoming clearer about what makes your business unique will guide the future direction of your business and provide a reference for key strategic decisions as you grow into the future

 

 

 

Your Purpose:

Why does your company exist, as seen from the customer’s perspective?

Every business has a purpose. What is yours?

If your business is building lighthouses, what might your Purpose be?

Something like: “we protect our customers from foundering on hidden perils at sea”

 

 

 

 

Pontish Yeramyan, CEO of Gap International, wrote about being purposeful:

“The 21st Century Organization can also differentiate itself by operating within a bigger context than a vision or mission, something more expansive. It’s not enough anymore to simply have a clear direction – people must be able to throw their entire selves into the game to be successful, with full engagement of heart and mind. We have found that when leaders leverage Purpose, it creates a competitive advantage that’s difficult or even impossible to replicate. Purpose creates the ability for people to care about something much bigger than their personal concerns and fully apply their talent to meaningful endeavours.

 If you think about it, Being Purposeful creates the platform for organization success, because it taps into a reservoir of potential energy latent within the organization. When peoples’ orientation to their job transforms from performing work to that of making a difference, they become exponentially more effective at coming together to produce extraordinary results. It becomes possible to consistently produce results beyond what is predictable in the normal flow of business. Powerful strategies can be created and re-created when purpose is present.

Purpose gives people a far more expansive space to create and grow, where creative, purpose-based thinking replaces crisis-based, fire fighting thinking. An organization of people who have connected themselves to something bigger can thrive rather than simply survive –they can move fast together and nimbly adjust strategies and tactics to succeed.”

Once you have draft versions of your Unique Business Proposition and Purpose statement, it’s time to do some goal setting. Move on to sections 3,4,5 of your plan summary.

Here’s the good news, unlike a physical foundation, you can come back and revise these sections of your plan if you aren’t completely satisfied with your initial efforts.

 

 

 

 

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Turning New Ideas into Tangible Results

C19 is “disruptive Innovation” on steroids. Every business has been disrupted, even those that are seeing revenue growth through this period. C19 has been the disrupter, and the best leaders will, and already are, looking at their business critically, using this situation to find new, innovative opportunities, both externally (customers, supply chain), and inside their companies (deployment of people, operating systems).

The challenge for many SME leaders is transferring their new ideas and evolving vision into a working plan.

A number of practical questions arise:

  • Where do I start?
  • How do I get past the initial resistance from some members of my team?
  • How do I translate my future vision into measurable goals?
  • What are the most important pieces to include in a high level summary of our future vision?
  • How do I incorporate my values and cultural changes in the plan?
  • How do I integrate new ideas with our current methods of doing business?
  • How far into the future should we plan?
  • How often should I review and update my plan?
  • How do I maintain momentum when I need to make major changes (pivot) in the future?
  • How do I engage my team in creating departmental plans?
  • Who do I share my plan with and how do I do this?

The devil is in the details.

When you are ready to put some of your new ideas into play, a good starting point is drafting or refreshing your Business Plan Summary. A template with detailed instructions is available at plangenie.com.

This content rich web site will also help you find answers to the other questions listed above.

The act of writing a business plan is a powerful catalyst to self discovery and clarity.

 

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The Case for Planning: Brian and Jeff discuss the benefits of planning on The Jeff Andreas Show

Frequently confronted with the argument that you don’t have time to plan, we don’t believe this for a moment.

We all have the same 24 hours in a day, every day. This is not to say you aren’t busy, it’s to say that we know if you make time for planning, it is time well spent and invested. We challenge you to implement the practice of planning.

We adhere to the principle that there is power, or “magic”, in the act of writing our plans down. The magic is the clarity the act of planning provides and the “aha” experiences you have when you write your plans, you give them life. Running your business from a plan is a shift from a passive to active stance for your business.

We named ourselves Plan Genie because we know we all have those “3 wishes” for our business and while we can’t grant wishes, we can help teach and support you to make your own wishes come true in your business.

Planning is a catalyst for learning, growth and clarity in every aspect of your life. Why don’t more businesses plan? It’s a mystery.

To use the analogy of a grocery list. While a business plan is more complicated than a weekly shopping list, it is in essence the same principle and not that much more difficult to get into the habit of. How much more effectively do you use your time when you go to the store with a list. When you have a current written plan you start to see what’s both working and not working in your business. You get grounded and inspired.

Now, while we have so much uncertainty is a good time to get back to the basics of planning.

https://soundcloud.com/user-965676831/jeff-andreas-show-brian-gardiner-apr-21

 

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Use the Power of Positive Thinking in Your Business Plan

Business Plan Summary: Today’s tip is on Goal Setting

Once you’ve drafted your company Purpose and Unique Business Proposition, it’s time to turn our attention to goal setting.

There is something magical about goal setting. Most of us have experienced this at various times in our lives. We’ve set a personal or business goal, shared it with people around us, and we find that most, or all, of the things we wanted to achieve have actually shown up in our lives six months or a year later.

A resource speaker in my CEO peer group, Mary Lore, taught us about the power of our thoughts. In summary, her message was this:

  • When you change your thought, it leads you to:
  1. Change your behaviour, which creates
  2. Different results

Expressed another way, it’s about the power of positive thinking (vs. negative thinking = self limiting goals).

How to Get Started?

Thinking about goals is the starting point, but it is when we write our goals down that things start to happen. When we write our goals down, we are required to convert a vague notion bouncing around in our brain to a more tangible, concrete and specific result we aspire to achieve.

In this action, we make a conscious thought change that starts to automatically change our behaviour.

As the leader of your enterprise, goal setting starts with you. Once you get clear about your 3 year (we call your Destination) and one year goals. It’s important to get these same thoughts firmly imbedded in the minds of the leadership team, and in due course, throughout the company. This leads to changing behaviours throughout the company, and, before long, better results.

Goal setting sounds like an easy task and in many ways it is. In it’s simplest form, it is a list of outcomes, or results for our business at a future date. In business, we have so many ideas and options to consider, it can be a challenge to create a short list that is clear, concise, specific (quantifiable) and realistic.

One of the nice things about plans is that we are free to make changes as we move along into the future. So, go ahead and make a list.

Try this approach: Write a date down a point three* years in the future, then describe 5 to 10 results that would make you happy, your definition of success at that time in the future. Be liberal in your thinking. At this stage quantity is more important than quality. Please include your financial goals, both income and balance sheet outcomes.

Our next step is to cull the list down to a more manageable 3-5 solid outcomes and start to distinguish between a goal vs an action step, which we label Strategies in our Business Plan Summary.

  • Why three years?

For most companies, three years is about as far into the future for our goals to remain somewhat tangible. Beyond that horizon, our vision tends to become a little too blurry to be useful. It is also enough time to do the work, execute on the major strategies to achieve significant change. Every business is different and you may prefer a longer or shorter time horizon.

Additional Resources:

Mary Lore has excellent resources to further pursue this work of changing your thoughts. Link to her website: https://managingthought.com/

Chuck Reaves, TEC Speaker, shared a great message and reminder of an old message that still has impact. Have a listen to interview from the past which highlights where we find ourselves at the moment, approx 6 minute recording.
Link here on power of viral communication: What we think Impacts What we Experience: https://www.chuckreaves.info/ed%20foreman.m4a

 

 

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