The 3 Ps to Successfully Manage Your Business
You need the three Ps to successfully manage your business – plans, people and process. These are complemented by metrics and results.
Plans
Plans are your roadmap to achieve the goals you have set for your business. Without plans, your goals simply become dreams that are unlikely to be realized. There are two types of plans you should have in place – strategic plans that focus on a 3-5 year time horizon and annual operating plans that focus on the current fiscal year.
The strategic plan is your big-picture plan. It considers longer-term challenges such as product development, facilities expansion, and political, economic and market trends. While a strategic plan looks out several years in the future, you should update it at least once a year to account for changes in your market environment.
Annual operating plans or AOPs focus on your immediate operational needs to accomplish annual goals such as revenue, EBITDA, market penetration or product sales mix. AOPs are short-term in nature and may be reviewed and tweaked over the course of the year to drive greater efficiency and effectiveness.
People
People execute your plans. They are in sales, marketing, production, logistics and every other area of your business. Part of your plan is to have the people to achieve your goals. It’s not enough to just have people though. You need to have the right people with the right skills, the right training and the right motivation. If any of these areas are lacking, your likelihood of successfully achieving your goals or plans falls precipitously.
Imagine fielding a football team without enough players or without the right players with the right skills to play the various positions. Just as you wouldn’t beat your competition on the football field without the right players, you won’t win in business without a complete team.
Process
The final ingredient is process. You need to have the right processes in place to execute your plan. People need to know what to do as well as how and when to do it. Processes are important in production to build your product. But, they are also necessary in sales, marketing and all the other functional areas of your business.
Metrics and Results
Having the 3 Ps in place are critical to success. Adding metrics and tools gives you the ability to measure your progress toward your goals. They can also lead you to drive even better results. Metrics allow you to identify if you have the right people in place with the right skills. They allow you to identify training needs and “bench strength.” Metrics give you the feedback necessary to fine-tune your processes driving greater efficiency and effectiveness.
TechCXO Can Help
As a partner at TechCXO, I can help you put the 3 Ps in place to drive consistent, predictable revenue. Learn more at techcxo.com.
We’d like to help you achieve your business success goals. Contact us at (203) 856-9400 or david.wallace@techcxo.com to discuss how we can help you drive more business.
