Spending time thinking about growth

March 29th, 2006

One thing that is different between large corporate/Government organisations and small and medium enterprise is the way they plan. One probably spends too much time on it, the other too little. Here are a few ideas that may help in getting more direction.Firstly, you have to understand why you want to plan. In a large organisation this is often more aimed at satisfying internal needs than it is to achieve specific results; big generalisation, but I don’t think I’m too far off the mark. It is because the boss expects it; it is about corporate governance, accountability, demonstrating that the MBA really did have value.

In small organisations, it is something that tends to be done when things are not going well, or when there is a need for documentation for finance purposes. With typically limited resources, planning is seen as taking too much time, and on top of that, people may not want to admit that they don’t know how to create a plan.

On the other hand, almost everyone agrees that planning is something they should really do more of.
In my experience any planning is better than none. If there is only time to just get together and write down specific goals, and some high level ideas about how to get there, it’s better than nothing.

It doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect; the planning process is what will give you the benefit, not the actual piece of paper you end up with. Having said that, when you write it down it does become a commitment, and it does become measurable.

How does your business deal with this?