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Your Roadmap to

SME Business
Success

Unit 1 Strategy &


Planning
Your Roadmap to SME
Business Success
Unit 1 Strategy & Planning
If you do not change
direction, you may end up
where youre heading
Lao Tzu

3
If You Dont Know Where Youre
Going
Deciding on which way
to go depends on
knowing where you want
to get to your goal
Without a goal you
cannot have a plan for
getting anywhere you
might as well just go for
Every Business SHOULD Have
a

Business Plan
Dont leave your success to chance
Success comes from not just producing
quality products or services, but having
clear objectives, understanding the market
and managing your money properly.
Developing a business plan gives you the
information you need to MANAGE your
business and LEAD your team
Its your Roadmap to Business Success
What is a Strategic Business Plan?

Wikipedia - Strategic planning is an organisation's


process of defining its strategy, or direction, and
making decisions on allocating its resources to pursue
this strategy, including its capital and people. Various
business analysis techniques can be used in strategic
planning, including SWOT analysis (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats ) and PEST
analysis (Political, Economic, Social, and Technological
analysis) or STEER analysis involving Socio-cultural,
Technological, Economic, Ecological, and Regulatory
factors and EPISTEL (Environment, Political, Informatic,
Whats In A Business Plan

Typical content (chapters) in a business plan:


Executive Summary
Industry Analysis
Market Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Marketing Plan
Management Plan
Operating Plan
Financial Plan
Appendices And Exhibits
Strategic Planning Cycle
DIAGNOSIS
Where am I
now & why?

CONTROL GOALS
Monitor, Where do I
Manage, want to be &
Review & when?
Revise

GAP ANALYSIS
ACTIONS Difference
What needs to between where
be done, when, you are and
by who? where you want
to be!
STRATEGY
What do I have
to do to get
there?
Business Profile

Provides a big
picture view of
the business
Focuses on how
good your
business idea is or
how saleable a
product you
actually have
Where You Are Now - Reality
Check
Being forced to focus on issues
provides a reality check for
your business
Start with a SWOT analysis
Strengths
Weaknesses
Opportunities
Threats
Where Do You Want To Get To?

Goals are really important because


they will determine your whole
business strategy
Goals need to be based on a good
grip on reality and need to be
SMART
Specific
Measurable
Adaptable
Realistic
Time based
Business Objectives?
Products and Services What are my products and
services? Where are these in their life cycle? What
products and services should I introduce? How will I
manage their procurement, production and distribution.
Marketing and Sales How do/will I take my product to
market and sell it. What needs to be done to ensure sales
helps me achieve your Vision?
People What is my organisational structure and is it
appropriate? What additional or different resources are
required?
Systems and Processes What systems and operational
Gap Analysis
Whats in my way?
What do you need to
change to achieve your
Vision & Objectives?
There cant be progress
without change people,
systems, structures and
processes.
How Do You Get There? Strategies
Develop strategies to make the
goals a reality
Where are you going to play?
How are you going to win?
What capabilities do you need?
What structure & systems do you
need?
Clarify the key drivers behind
your value creation
Identify the critical few challenges
If you cant measure it, you cant
manage it
Set up a process to
measure your actual
results against the
results you had planned
Use Milestones and Key
Performance Indicators
Use financial reports and
financial ratios
Milestones and KPIs

Milestones are destinations on your


journey
Key Performance Indicators are
measurable values that demonstrate
how effectively you are achieving your
objectives.
Set financial goals and budgets and
regularly monitor for deviations
Journey is more important than
destination
Excellence is not a destination, its a
continuous journey that never endsBrian
Tracy
Ask questions to understandfor example:
Who am I selling to?
What value am I delivering?
Where do I want to be?
When do I want to be there?
Why do I want to be there?
How do I want to get there?
Its Not DifficultSimply Reach
for the STARS
1. STRATEGY 3. ACTIONS
. What are you trying to achieve? . What needs to be done?
Vision . Who needs to do it?
. Where are you going? Vision . When does it need to be done?
. What are longer term aspirations? . What resources are required to do
Vision it?
. How will you get there? Strategic
Initiatives 4. REVIEW
. What will you measure to monitor
progress?
2. TRANSFORMATION . How will you manage the Plan?
. What do you need to change to
achieve your Vision & Objectives? 5. SUCCESS - Celebrate and move
. There cant be progress without back to 1.
change people, systems,
structures and processes.
Use Your Business Plan
Your Roadmap to Business Success
It can come in useful for:
Communicating your vision to staff and other
stakeholders
Negotiating supplier arrangements
Raising capital
Selling your business
Attracting high quality staff
Plans Need To Be Usedand
Planning Doesnt Stop
A business plan is useful, only if its used.
Markets and businesses are not static, so your business plan needs regular
review
Potential triggers for reviewing your plan:
The start of a new calendar or financial year
You have missed milestones
KPIs are trending the wrong way
You need to review business financing
New competitors or disruptive products or technology appear
You have developed/are thinking of developing a new product/introducing a new
service
Summing Up

The nicest thing about not


planning is that failure comes
as a complete surprise and is
not preceded by a period of
worry and depression.
- John Preston, Boston College, Graduate School of
Management

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