Planning: That’s My Story and I’m Sticking to It – Part 5

Actions, Targets & Champions: Make It All Public

The last ‘big rock’ is the financial piece. As the calendar comes to a close, we can better predict some financial numbers for the new year.

It’s vital to get the finances right because that’s where the budget will come from, as well as the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that form the pay-for-performance program targets.

Action Items. At this point, we are starting to determine some action items for the next year, and we’ll prioritize them in order of importance. But, of course, you can’t do everything at once!

The real secret is to focus and not try to do everything at once.

So, what are the big rocks for the new year? Who’s going to be the owner-champion of the big rocks? Who’s ultimately responsible for success? (That would be the owner-champion, usually a member of the management team.) The action items are prioritized by quarter – first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, and fourth quarter. Next, we set up quarterly reviews during the planning process to continually hold ourselves accountable in the future.

Steve, our CFO, continues to fill in the financial budgets. Once we’ve set some financial targets for the new year, we must decide what resources will be required. How many people do we need to make these goals happen? How many phone calls (leads) do we need? Will we need more salespeople?

I’ve learned that the best way to run a business is to figure out the targets and then make them public.

Make them public immediately, then try to get everybody to work together to hit them. Finally, tie in a pay-for-performance program that rewards them for achieving the targets.

Financials, action steps, champions, and targets: make it all public!

Build muscle. See you Thursday.