Business Planning at Your Company
Want to try something new?
This is business planning time at Schinnerer. I'm always amazed at how differently folks go about planning their year. Here are some examples.
1) Some departments come into our planning meetings with the entire plan already outlined. They take last year's plan and just rewrite it. After all, how much does business change every year?
2) Others come into the meetings with a list of all the things they want to do next year. Timing, priorities and expected results are not considered.
3) Still others come into our meetings with no concept of what they want to do next year.
Based on the three teams above, I can almost predict which team will be the most successful. This might surprise you. We'd rather do business planning with the team that has no concept of what they want to do next year! Why is that? Because this team is willing to listen. We brainstorm. Everyone asks questions. We talk about new business and renewal business. Where it's coming from. What we are not seeing. We talk about what pleases their customers and what doesn't seem to work.
We also discuss problems. Why CAN'T we get that piece of business? How can we reach a certain audience? What can we do to make things easier for our customer? As we bat around ideas freely, the business plan seems to form itself. The notes from the meeting turn out to be the basis for the plan. It's been vetted, discussed and it flows. We've addressed the problems and provided solutions. We usually even have time frames for each event.
But best of all, it's creative. Everything new is considered. We certainly borrow from previous year's experience, but we don't mind changing to a new direction. Everyone gets pumped up and excited. And everyone owns the plan.
That team is excited to get started.