Business Solutions

I need to make one statement right away and get it out in the open, and that is the fact that no business or strategic plan is ever 100% dead on accurate, but of course having no plan is absolutely never the right thing to do either, so let’s look at the actual results of the business compared to those projected in the business plan.

Another seemingly contradictory statement is that most plans are wrong and yet extremely vital, it’s an unexpected and surprising thing to hear from someone who forecasts and prepares business and strategic plans for a living, especially for those that have never developed and put a plan together, so after making a statement like that where else do we have to go, except to the very core of what business and strategic planning is.

Let me start out by saying that those who are deeply involved in plans prepare projections that many times are incorrect, and of everyone I know, only a few even came close in predicting the steep plunge in the global economy last year in the summer and fall of 2008, so it goes without saying that those who are deeply involved in business planning processes around the world have been going through a lot of changes, adjustments and corrections, and multiple reviews and revisions, a classic true learning experience for everyone.

So you see why my opening statements about needless ineffective business and strategic plans, and yet their importance should start to make sense, and as we look ahead to the rest of the 2009 and further ahead to 2010, many upbeat forecasts that are being questioned, are in the review and revision process and starting to reflect the realities of the global economic situation, which always brings up the question why do business and strategic planning in the first place, is everyone just wasting their time developing plans and forecasts?

The answer should quickly become obvious that although the results are inaccurate at times, how we can determine where we are, if a map hasn’t been produced to show us how we got there in the first place and of course, where we are going.

If and when you look at your plan prepared last year, and of course the results should be greatly different from what actually took place, you would compare the two in detail and look not only where the differences are, but where the greatest differences exist, for example, where expenses were tied to sales, where sales performed as expected, and look for how all the numbers were supposed to tie together, not just why they didn’t, and many times contributing factors that exacerbated the economic impacts can be identified, and those factors can be planned for and possibly eliminated as adjustments are made for the future.

And If you are like the many thousands of global entrepreneurs and organizational leaders that did not have a business or strategic plan, then this might be a really good time to get the process started in order for you to develop and have a much clearer view of your future business, and you can start by making some simple projections for sales and revenues, costs and expenses, and at this time don’t worry about whether they’re wrong or not, just try and make sure that you check each month to determine where and how, and in which direction the numbers were incorrect so that you can make necessary adjustments as a result of the information, and this whole process should bring you much closer to the action of what is taking place in the local, national, and global markets, and increase your awareness of the actions you need to take to increase your success.

By implementing the review process on a monthly basis, if you are wrong you are only wrong one month at a time, and as you use the plan’s comparison to actual results and associated analysis to see more closely what is happening exactly, your adjustments will improve, become more accurate, and the future results will be much more in tune with market activity, and you should begin to see monthly improvements.

These planning and analysis steps will increase your analysis skills, and put you in a better position to forecast more accurately when the markets should finally start to improve, and they will at some point, and you will be able to use what you learned in the process to see the signs, anticipate what will take place, and plan your actions accordingly.

So although the results of planning may be wrong and inaccurate, it is still a critical key component to an Entrepreneur’s or organizational Leader’s strategies for success, and an essential tool for successful global Entrepreneurs, as they learn in addition to preparing an initial business or strategic plan, an important part of the process is making necessary changes and adjustments, ultimately determining how to recover in the most effective and efficient manner, and how would you know how to recover if you didn’t prepare the business and strategic plan in the first place.