When moving forward in the business world, a company is like a ship – it must have a rudder. In the corporate world, this comes in the form of a business plan. Here are three components of an effective business planning process.
1 – Pay attention and respect the opinions of all stakeholders equally. In the business planning process models that many companies follow, strong personalities receive rewards; their ideas are highly respected. More introverted personalities are viewed as “not team players” or people that “never contribute.”
To move the business forward successfully, an effective business planning process needs to judge all of the team members’ ideas on their merits, not on how charismatic the person is who brought the idea to the table.
2 – In order for a business planning process to be successful, both the “hard” and “soft” sciences need must be included. The soft side of the business deals with people skills and emotion – for instance, marketing and customer service. It must meld and work perfectly with the hard side of the business – the cold, hard facts, such as accounting and production.
3 – Regardless of how the higher levels of leadership feel about each other on a personal level, or how much they agree or disagree behind closed doors about the direction that the company needs to take, they need to agree publically. The rank-and-file workers in a company do not need to see dissension in the upper ranks – it is distressing for the workers, and it can negatively affect stock prices as well.
By following these guidelines, your company should be able to develop a planning process for the future of your business that is highly effective and profitable.
