BUSINESS PLANNING SERIES – Part 3

Assuming the team is right, the situational analysis has been done, what next ?

Any business plan has to be based on the underlying assumption that the status quo is NOT satisfactory and there is enough initiative to move from that position towards some alternative and better vision or goals.

So the next step is to define that VISION.

“all his life a man struggled to reach the top of the ladder

and he finally does…..

only to discover it’s against the wrong wall !!’

The VISION for an organization is a general statement about where they would like to be in say 5 years time. It might say ” we want to be acknowledged as the pre-eminent firm in the financial services space in the South West of WA” or ” we will be a leader in the insurance and financial planning professions in Australia”.

The MISSION for an organization will be far more specific such as ” we will increase shareholder value with every transaction” or ” we will be in the top 4 companies in terms of gross tax fees by 31/12/2016″

There are other statements of belief which can act as a catalyst to ‘rally the troops’ or get staff to buy into these are variously described as PURPOSE or reasons for existence, corporate values etc.

These statements try to get a group of people to suspend their own goals whilst at work and come together under one banner for the good of the company. Obviously if the personal and corporate values align, there can be some synergy but if the conflict, there has to be some careful management of those issues to get good outcomes.

There is a huge amount of organizational work around the questions of vision, mission, values, purpose and so on. My own experience suggests that a core group of leaders must be brought together under one simple goal if possible and there must be genuine buy in for it to have any real benefit to the organization in terms of guiding/influencing behavior.

I think its true to say that a lot of corporate goal setting is meaningless to employees who are disempowered, disinterested and disconnected from senior management. On the other hand when everyone buys into the goal and sees tangible outcomes for everyone [ staff, suppliers, customers, society and the environment] then powerful changes can occur. There is an old saying that without a clear and meaningful vision you cannot set your moral compass on anything.

On balance, I am a big believer is setting clear goals and a clear VISION ( the rest of the pseudo military words like ‘mission’ I can do without)