How Planning Leads to Value

“A man who does not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door.” – Confucius, Chinese philosopher.

Many believe that plans rarely work, particularly when everything changes rapidly in today’s fast-paced world. On the other hand, when developed ahead of time, proper plans assist leaders and organizations in completing projects, achieving their objectives, and realizing their vision.

Consider the following questions when planning to create value:

• What do your stakeholders and stockholders expect regarding financial performance and social outcomes?
• What value must you deliver to your consumers to achieve your objectives? What is your unique selling point?
• What must you excel at to provide value to your products and services?
• What talents, competencies, and organizational structure are required to drive your processes?

The Benefits of Planning

Set Your Direction

A good business strategy eventually determines the worth of a company. Growth is inevitable when business owners prioritize value creation.

Strategic planning helps identify values, develops a unified vision, maps a course, and sets goals for future growth. The process starts with defining a company’s vision and goals and performing a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats). Management may then plan, implement, and monitor a successful strategy based on the SWOT analysis.

Simple strategic plans with goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics exist alongside more complicated plan structures with several levels and layers.

The amount of responsibility you want to delegate, the time scheduled for implementing the plan, and the culture of your business all influence how well-developed your plan should be.

Every business confronts the problem of aligning big-picture strategy with tactical implementation. To create value, you must bridge the gap between strategy and execution while remaining laser-focused. Too frequently, value creation planning is carried out without precise alignment among key stakeholders, compromising execution and missing strategic and financial objectives. Without agreement regarding priorities and value, projects that do not provide value may distract management. To meet objectives, management teams must work together to select those projects that will have the most impact.

When your teams work together, the collective effort will set the tone for your company’s goals and form a roadmap.

Plan Toward Your Goals

Planning entails choosing what to do, where to do it, when to do it, and who will do it. This systematic procedure determines the actions to achieve organizational goals while reducing risk.

According to Management Study Guide, planning aids in identifying a company’s objectives (what to do). Business leaders may examine the influence they want their organization to make and strategize how to make that happen. When a group works together to define objectives, consensus ensures everyone works toward the same goal. Common understanding better equips workers to figure out how to collaborate toward a common goal and which behaviors to avoid that might impede achieving those goals. Individual and societal goals should be aligned in a strategic plan.

Leaders don’t know where to focus their efforts if they don’t know their goals. The lack of a business strategy wastes time on tasks that offer little or no value to the bottom line. Planning prioritizes tasks so that adequate time may be allocated to essential ones.

A solid strategy positions management to deal with uncertainty. Planning is essential to be prepared for any event. Uncertain conditions may drag a business down, but effective planning may help a company stay afloat.

When creating a strategic plan, companies should expect all members of the planning team to:

• Determine and agree on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and challenges that the company faces.
• Make an accurate mission statement.
• Create a vision statement that supports the ambitions of a better, more powerful organization.
• Fulfill the goal(s) and prioritize initiatives and resources.
• Select leaders who will advocate for specific strategic planning activities.
• Make agreed-upon plans to achieve your objectives (including valuation expectations).

Keep You on Track

Teach your employees the importance of having a value-creation mindset. Break down your annual goals into quarterly and monthly targets to get the best outcomes.

You and your team can evaluate how far you’ve come by reviewing your progress and assessing the outcomes. This management data keeps people and activities on track, highlights needed modifications, and enhances your business. Implementing and rigorously maintaining an efficient strategic planning process greatly influences your business.

Value creation and ownership attitude are critical to speeding an individual’s growth and development. Cultivate employees with a long-term vision: they have a higher chance of success than those with a short-term vision.

A person’s decision to create and hold a value-creation mentality has a significant influence on both the individual and the company:

• It improves the relationship between employer and employee by instilling mutual trust and confidence.
• It improves an employee’s performance while also promoting professional progress.
• It aids in the development of ideas for a specific activity or project that may have been dormant due to a lack of time or resources. In addition, as an ownership attitude takes hold, employees gain self-confidence and become more results-driven and solution-oriented.
• It enables employees to channel their efforts and ambitions in the most effective way possible.

When employees take ownership of their work and provide value, they quickly gain the trust of corporate executives. This leads to promotion to corporate leadership positions, owing to their decision-making abilities, leadership strides, and trust.

When you provide value, you essentially contribute value for yourself. The effort eventually pays off, so it behooves you to train your employees to be value creators and encourage them to build a value-creating mindset.

Quantive Can Help You Plan

The best plans arise from collaborating with people from various fields brought together to contribute to the organization’s goals. The people involved in the planning process acquire better awareness of themselves and the organization, which improves the social climate. Get in touch with Quantive’s team of Value Growth experts to learn more.