Plan, Prepare, Progress.

By James Murchison - Director at Murchisons

 

The planning process is a critical stage in the journey of any successful business. Many small to medium companies make the mistake of becoming complacent, without actually thinking about their planning process, potentially leading to future setbacks.  

 

Companies can vary in the length of time it takes to implement change – there can be slow, consistent (incremental) change or the opposite case where a business redevelops and starts again when something large happens. 

 

CASE STUDY

 

AGL announced its plans to move out of coal fired plants by 2050, whilst building solar and wind capability in the interim. AGL recognises the role they need to play in reducing greenhouse ga s emissions whilst providing “secure and affordable” electricity. We need to keep building up the alternatives – it will keep monitoring and moving towards the end goal: to move out of coal; an eventual game changer.  

 

On the flip side, change is also about improving the day-to-day things you’re doing and this is what typical planning is all about. You don’t need to constantly talk major strategic change; just keep making small changes and continually evolve.  

 

 

When compiling your business plan, detail how you’ll improve what you are already doing and how you’ll keep up with consistent change, but also be mindful not to make any massive alterations in the first stages of your company’s life cycle.  

 

Here’s a simple but effective matrix method for how to work out what is most important to your business:

 

  • 1) First, list the top ten crucial things that will reflect a change in the business. These will most likely include functions such as resourcing (people and capability), training, marketing, recruitment and professional development (examples only) 

 

  • 2) Identify which of the items in your list are going to have the greatest impact on the business and give these a score out of 10. For example, after auditing your staff’s skillsets you might say that training is the most important to your strategy so you give this a score of ten

 

  • 3) Next look at the cost and lead time (we consider these ‘risks’) and this might be the most expensive so you might give this a score of one. You will then score training a total of 11

 

  • 4) This matrix can be conducted either annually on a larger scale or as a small audit whenever needed 

 

 

As a small business, it’s really important to look at what will make the greatest impact with the least amount of dollars or time. If you continue to do this, you’ll see those incremental (or hopefully - big!) wins in no time. 

 

 

If you'd like to chat through what could make a big impact on your own business, please give us a call for professional and tailored advice on 02 9959 5599

 

Jenna Setford