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Implementing strategic plans |
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“The directors were clear on the strategy but we realised that our employees were not. We needed to fix that quickly”.
SA, Marketing Director The business A large IT corporation with high volumes and thin margins in a fast moving competitive market. Revenues and profits were continuing to grow but this was dependant upon the company being agile enough to respond quickly and well to business changes. Their challenge Stop “seat of the pants” decisions being made by managers and staff in response to day to day needs. While decisions were being made with the best of intentions they were often inconsistent making more work for staff and, even worse, confused customers. Tactical decisions were impeding the overall strategies of the business and departments didn’t always work together. Profits were being impacted. Find out what employees think The first step was to better understand why this was happening. We asked employees what they thought and what they knew about the strategies and objectives of the organisation. This was done by electronic survey and follow-up interviews. In the survey employees were asked to rate their response to 25 questions from “strongly agrees” to “strongly disagree”. The questions asked included: • I understand the company strategy • I know the top objectives of the company • I know how my job supports the company strategy and objectives • The business always thinks about the best interests of the customer The survey results surprised some of the directors and a goal was set to significantly improve them. But, before driving an improvement plan the directors needed to check their own understanding of strategies and directions. As in most companies we found some different views among the directors on which objectives and strategies had been agreed and which were most important. We helped them to set priorities as well as agree the top objectives and strategies. Only then could we create a clear strategy to communicate to employees. Where is the strategic plan? The overall plan for the business was large stack of PowerPoint slides. Directors just pulled out selected slides to discuss aspects of the strategy or inform people about a specific aspect. Other than the financial numbers the strategy and objectives was not written down as a single agreed document. It became clear that employees were not implementing the plans and strategies because the overall plan had not been clearly and consistently communicated to them. They needed a written Simple Plan. Writing it down The directors decided that a simple, clearly written and well communicated plan was essential and it was required quickly. They also decided that they were too close to the subject and asked us to help simplify information on the slides and capture their current thinking. The end result was a three page document that was designed to be quickly and easily communicated to all employees. A Simple Plan. It would become a consistent reference point for all decisions and crucially, progress against the plan would be reported back to all employees. Components of the plan included: • The company purpose • The top 5 objectives (not just financial) • The key strategies to achieve those objectives • What “good” looked like Communicate, and communicate A programme of employee communications was devised and the directors agreed to make it happened. Workshops were held to communicate the plans and strategies business managers so that they could “live” the plan and use it to build their own plans. Regular employee surveys checked that progress was being made. Talk to customers and suppliers too The directors also shared parts of their plans with customers and suppliers. This had not been done before in a structured manner and got a very good response from customers. It led to customer surveys changing from “happy sheets” completed for each delivery to asking customers what they really cared about in their business and acting on that information. The involvement of customers in shaping the strategy also had the impact of reducing the number of objectives in the company. Any objective that did not help customers meet their needs was critically reviewed. People skills and processes As the customer focused Simple Plans were better understood and lower level plans were developed the project gained momentum. This led to changes being made in various processes and focused training to improve people skills. What were the results? Employee satisfaction improved. Measured against the survey at the start of the project employee satisfaction and understanding of the strategy and objectives improved significantly. Less “hands on” management required from the directors. Directors have more time to spend on strategic and leadership issues. Managers also felt more empowered to “do the right thing”. Plans and projects are approved quicker. Because a common basis is being used to evaluate plans and project proposals decisions are made much quicker. Equally it is much clearer why plan and projects are accepted or rejected. The objectives of different departments are now more compatible. Using Simple Plans to cascade common understanding down and across the company encouraged departments to work together better and have fewer “issues” with each other.. The business got much closer to customers needs Asking customers the right questions improved relationships and resulted in happier customers. Plans and strategies actually got implemented. Most importantly it became obvious that plans and strategies were getting implemented. A process is now in place to ensure that it continues to happen and progress is closely monitored. Summary Successfully implementing plans and strategies starts with having something that is agreed and easy to communicate. A Simple Plan. Asking employees for their views provides an invaluable reality check. Using customer surveys to find out what they really care about provides a consistent foundation to build and review business strategy. It’s becoming a key approach to stay ahead of the competition. Malcolm Wicks Director, SimplePlans 0118 989 1107 |
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