Case Study - business planning
Challenge
The company’s business plan was a revenue target, broken down from the global revenue target. The brand, the company mission and global initiatives were sometimes out of alignment with local activities. The management team met weekly but the remit of the discussion was the week’s business, giving no opportunity for longer term planning.
Response
To promote a sense of engagement in, and ownership of, the business and to give a sense of strategic direction, I changed the management reporting structure and redrafted the business plan. The overall business plan was broken down into ‘pillars’ (sales and marketing, client, media, people, quality). The account manager peer group was invited to take ownership of developing and driving a plan for each pillar, with an account director sponsor. The plans had quarterly targets and were reported against in a monthly management meeting.
Results
The management of the business became more proactive with more emphasis and opportunity for planning. There was a marked improvement in sales and marketing outreach. The people pillar was the most popular among the AMs which brought morale improvements with increased social activities taking place. The quality team’s work influenced a drop in over-servicing. |
