Changing Your Business Game Plan

Hello friends,

Regardless of the type of business that you are operating, the goal posts are forever changing and you should be adjusting your game plan accordingly.

Like any winning sports team, the coach has to keep changing the game plan to stay ahead of its rivals. The same principle applies in business. The game plan that worked last year does not necessarily mean that it will work this year.

For businesses, what you did last year may not work this year. Your competitors have adapted to the new market and trends. They’ve studied what you did last year and are hell bent on beating you this year. Even if you played exactly how you did the previous year, you will fall short, because the competitive landscape has changed. It’s time to play to the current market.

A business needs a great business plan, but it doesn’t give management enough information to have a successful, profitable business. You dramatically increase your chance of success with a game plan. A business plan gets you in the game. To use the sports analogy, it’s easy to see how you are going to win the game in from the locker room. Most businesses don’t have a working plan that takes into account what actually happens on the field once play starts.

A business plan is like an instruction manual and is not designed just to be used for seeking finance. You send a business plan to potential investors and others to excite them about the business. A business plan is about strategy.

A game plan is about tactics and strategy on how your business is going to win the game. A game plan is created by and for the people on the front lines. A game plan talks openly about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the business and is used by people in the business to make decisions every day. It talks about what to do in a crisis. Improvement should always be the goal.

So think about the essential internal and external strategies that you need to adopt now to revise your game plan.

So what makes a Game Plan successful? When looking at the Game Plan, there are five common elements but there are many more elements:

• A Focus on the Vision - The planning process starts by determining: What do we need to do? Too many businesses fail because the owners (and employees) did what they wanted to do, instead of what they needed to do in order to succeed.

• Stakeholder engagement - Game Plans must have a discovery process. Discussions with employees, partners, customers, potential customers help develop and sharpen goals and action items.

• Feasibility research - Anyone can sit in a room and write a plan. Well-meaning ideas always sound doable in a meeting. Every goal and action item requires a thorough scouting report that answers the question: "What does it really take to make this happen?"

• Investment in resources - If a goal is listed, then it is a priority. And, if it is a priority, there must be a commitment of dollars and time. If a Game Plan contains an unfunded mandate, send it to the sideline.

• Accountability - Every deliverable in a Game Plan should be assigned a person responsible for making it happen (and when). The team captain marshals the measurable outcome, and is graded accordingly.

Finally, one other extra point.

Game Plans also should be adaptable - especially if market forces change or opportunities present themselves.

Until next time, have a profitable day.

Peter Adams