340 CHAPTER 13 NOW MAKE IT HAPPEN
And into the next business plan
At an appropriate point in your operating cycle, you have to start developing the next
plan. This should be easy. Your execution of the current plan includes continual monitor-
ing of all the internal and external influences that affect strategy. You need to make sure
that you isolate yourself from day-to-day pressures, cast off your blinkers, and re-appraise
this feedback in as unbiased a way as possible.
This time the work will be easier. You have laid the groundwork, established planning
procedures. You will be able to delegate more. Share the work and halve the burden. The
essence of business. So if you will be kind enough to turn back to Chapter 3, we can start
all over again …
‘If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.’
DR LAURENCE J. PETER
Trying to catch the tail
Business planning is similar to a dog chasing its tail. The end is always in sight but you
never arrive there. A new business-planning cycle always starts before the old one is
over. Targets are continually shifting in this ever-changing world. Plans are always being
revised. You never quite know whether your original plan was accurate. You always think
that it was, because you measure the present against the latest modification to the plan,
not the original plan which is invalid now anyway.
Once in a while, grab the tail and see what you can learn from the current divergences
from the very first plan. Congratulate yourself if you have successfully steered a course
through the changing environment.
The plan is where you start from. Its objectives are your destination. What
happens in the middle is down to your good captaincy – with the aid of
your crew. Without a good lookout you might founder on the rocks. I think
that this sums it up quite well. Bon voyage et bon chance.
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