PLANNING ... for long-term success

Imagine driving from Dover to the south of France with no map. Your may have luck on your side. But without good data you can't identify the swiftest routes, worst congestion areas, best sightseeing opportunities, or measure your progress. Businesses need proper plans.

Strategic planning is vital when organising and managing a successful business. Most people have a good idea of their goals. Surprisingly few really know how to achieve them.

With a methodical approach you can assess your products or services against market demand and calculate the turnover needed to meet your goals. Armed with these figures, you can work out staff, property, plant, machinery, utility and IT requirements. Then you can set a realistic budget.

Tools for progress

More importantly still, proper planning gives you the tools needed to plot progress, continuously improve your performance and make any adjustments needed to achieve year-on-year growth.

You are then well equipped to make key decisions, such as judging when to recruit a senior sales executive, expand into new product lines, buy your own premises and review your financial base.

KPIs that work

A tried and tested method is to set meaningful Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). These are reliable pre-defined fact and figure targets that give you an accurate current picture of your company's health. They must also give you the power to make practical changes when required.

There are many ways to keep track of budget and KPIs. The 2D-web model illustrated here is pictorial and easy to follow and control.

Wonders of the web

This particular model has three elements: -

• Concentric rings are used to denote business years, in this case 2017, 2018 and 2019
• The spokes represent business activities - budgets, sales and productivity measures
• How well the spokes cross the annual rings marks the success or failure of KPIs

Many other individual metrics can be built into this basic model, which shows when and where strategic management decisions need to be made to keep you on track.

The Premier team can help you to develop an appropriate planning system, populate it with meaningful information and interpret the results.