Plan for a 60 minute game !

The Patriots are 18-0, why?  Because they play every game the entire 60 minutes.  The teams that have been close and took them into the 4th quarter, lost because they couldn’t stay focused for the entire game.  Why do the Patriots play 60 minutes? Experience.  They have a game plan and they run to it, making minor adjustments as they see what their competitors throw at them. Business is the same, management teams have to play 60 minutes and it all starts with a good game plan.  How many times do businesses panic and lose focus, away from their plan and travel down wrong paths.  Your number one competitor gets bought by a gorilla, how do you react, how do you leverage it to move your message forward.  Who can you get to help you get out this message and how does this affect your plan. You launch a new partnership, how will your competitors react?  How will your sales force leverage the partnership and how will the market react?

All of these events are predictable and should be part of a plan, as they happen, they should be considered market validation.  It is all part of the planning process. How a team reacts to these events will determine whether they will play 60 minutes or lose focus in the 4th quarter.

Trouble in Paradise

As consultants, we work with a variety of companies ranging from start ups, to the very large, in growth & in troubled conditions. One common thread we often see in both environments is a lack of  coordination between the strategic business plan & the companies operational, organizational & individual plans. Or worse yet, there are no plans at all, just really bright founders, sales teams with polished resumes & a potentially hot product.

This lack of coordinated planning can really sink a company. They have truly left port without a compass. Only a stroke of luck will get them to their desired destination.

It is easier to get this point across to executives at troubled companies. Getting it across to executives & investors at emerging growth & fast growing companies is another matter.  Why? In the latter, early on sales are brisk with their products & services flying out the door. Everything appears hunky dory. It’s a cash bonanza for everyone!

However, most likely, competition will eventually creep in, market conditions will change, & growth will slow. Without factoring these variables into your companies overall plans, it may be hard to recover.  Is it a product problem? A marketing problem? A sales problem? It will be tough to know since there is no orchestrated plan.

As a result, like in troubled environments, even these companies will begin to stagnate.  The deer in the headlights gaze will start to appear at company meetings as customers, executives, sales reps & investors begin to abandon ship for the life boats. Death is in the air. The industry is littered with great ideas gone by the wayside or sold off at bargain basement prices.

Only companies who are dedicated to coordinating their plans between all four phases: strategy, operations, organizationally & individually –  will be in a position to make seamless mid course corrections. Your customers, partners, employees & potential acquisition candidates will understand your mission. You will be rewarded in the marketplace by your consistency.

This does not mean companies should remain inflexible to their plans to take advantage of opportunistic events.  However an ongoing selling, marketing & operational du jour process is a recipe for disaster in the long term.