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Business Planning Buzzword BingoTip! The opportunity to bring people of many different backgrounds together for a common purpose is one of the hallmarks of the internet, and it is certainly on display in the pages of the average business planning blog. It's not long past the season of completing business planning and it would be remiss of me not to provide a few helpful definitions of business planning nomenclature. Bottom up planning: planning completed from the absolute building blocks of the business so that the targets are in complete synchronisation with the resource requirements in terms of capital and operating expenditure, human resources by competency level, systems and processes taking into account any mandatory legal, corporate, government and community requirements. A plan built up from the bottom, brick by brick so that all elements of cause and effect are known. Top down planning: that which occurs when bottom up planning gives the wrong result. Key Result Areas: the areas of the business where the result is key to the business performing well; in most plans written as a list of tasks. Objectives: the objectives of the key result areas of the business; in most plans written as a list of tasks. Activities: the activities required to reach the objectives of the key result areas; in most plans written as a list of tasks. Key Performance Indicators: those variables in the business which indicate whether the objectives of the Key Result Areas are likely to be met; in most plans written as a list of tasks or target dates.
Targets: the target range of a variable which indicates whether the objectives in a Key Result Area are likely to be reached; in most plans written as a list of tasks. Tasks: the specific list of tasks which need to be completed for each activity to reach the objectives of each Key Result Area; rarely ever included in a business plan. Decentralisation: a management strategy that involves the diffusion of power throughout different levels of a company. Empowerment: a strategy intended to increase employees' motivation by increasing their involvement in their work. Job satisfaction: the combined attitudes and beliefs (positive or negative) that are held about a job, usually on a real downer when the decentralisation project does not devolve power but just tasks. Planning: the formation of goals and the development of strategies and tactics to achieve these goals. Strategic planning: planning. Corporate planning: planning Tactical planning: planning Business planning: planning Deck: a requirement of each corporate planning presentation; the PowerPoint deck of slides. Fact-based management: consultant speak for evaluating and measuring a given business process, and using those "facts" to streamline it. Tip! Business seekers often spend so much time trying to find ideas for products or services they can create; they miss the obvious already-created opportunities in plain view. The best part of these opportunities is that all the market research and business planning has already been done. Anecdotal evidence: information gathered through conversations with a handful of customers, suppliers or salespeople used by stubborn executives to counter fact-based management. Customer Relationship Management: Treating customers as individuals and customizing what you do to make them happy. Large companies do this with multimillion-dollar computer systems. Small companies generally do it with a coffee, handshake and a smile. CRM: see Customer Relationship Management CRM: Consultants Raking in Millions Downsizing: An invented word which is usually paired with re-engineering. It means to have a smaller number of people being employed. Rightsizing: An invented word meant to allay the fears of employees by suggesting that there may be an increase in the number of people employed. Nine times out of ten, read downsizing. Capsizing: downsizing gone awry. It's the process of a company repeatedly reducing head count, but not the work, until it goes under. Ducks: as in having one's ducks in a row sometimes as a result of careful bottom up planning. Tip! Much of the apparent drudgery of business planning comes from the poor, if any, processes adopted in business or corporate planning. Business planning does not have to be complex, but it does take process, thought and data. Duck shuffler: a duck shuffler, usually someone in senior management, comes around and rearranges them for you just when you do get all your ducks in a row; usually as a result of top down planning. Employees: people Associates: people Colleagues: people Consultants: people Human resources: people Human capital: people Living assets: people Head count: number of people Contractors: less important people Dotted line: organizational speak for people in a division who do not have direct reporting responsibility to a manager in another division, but have shared responsibility. They always defer to their own division before contacting the manager whom they "dot" into, thus the dotted line is a guaranteed means of confusing people and abdicating accountability. Bubble up: The act of letting an idea or issue rise up the organization chart to a superior; much like bottom up planning. Tip! Developing a Strategic business plan is a crucial element in determining your ongoing business success. You can maximise business growth and minimise risk through effective strategic and contingency business planning. Core competencies: What we do well. "In this plan, we are concentrating on our core competencies". Translation: "We have been overstretched and our last plan did not work". Key learnings: that which went wrong with the last plan. Learning opportunity: mistakes made that will somehow be turned into future breakthroughs; a nice way of saying we're trying to make the best of a bad situation. Matrixed environment: an organizational structure where people report to a divisional manager, but have most of their work assigned and managed by a project manager from a different area; working for two bosses. Kevin Dwyer is Director of Change Factory. Change Factory helps organisations who do do not like their business outcomes to get better outcomes by changing people's behaviour. Businesses we help have greater clarity of purpose and ability to achieve their desired business outcomes. To learn more visit http://www.changefactory.com.au or email kevin.dwyer@changefactory.com.au
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