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The Organizational Changes To Support The Business Plan

March 9th, 2011

To carry out your plan you may need to institute change management activities. These are basic changes to the way you currently operate that will create resistance when altered or redirected. Normally these activities have long-term cultural implications and require the support of the workforce to be fully effective. A few areas frequently identified with organizational change are:

_ Changing the Company Vision. Any change in direction brings on concerns from the workforce along with a variety of reactions. Some employees may agree and support the vision shift while others may agree with the new direction but are fearful of the effort required. Still others will not agree with the new direction because it may be a radical shift from the very foundations of the company. This happens frequently when new management is brought into a sluggish, established company and tries to make a fresh start.

_ Changing the Company Drivers or Focus. A company focused on one driver attempting to shift to another focus will experience serious upheaval. For example, shifting from operational excellence to a customer-intimate focus will create confusion on the part of the employees. Just communicating the shift and describing examples of the required new behavior is time-consuming, painful, and tedious for management.

_ Changing the Company Structure. Just the rumor of an organizational change sends negative messages into the heart of the workforce. Structural change gets quickly translated into downsizing with the integral loss of jobs.

_ Changing the Company’s Management Behavior. If a company is autocratic, doesn’t share power, and uses centralized decision making, it is difficult to make a believable change.

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Posted in Management

Tags: Business BUsiness Plan Organizational Changes

Setting The Marketing And Financial Objectives

March 5th, 2011

A good marketing plan sets specific marketing objectives. Think about sales, market share, market positioning, image, awareness, and related objectives. Remember to make all your objectives concrete and measurable. Develop your plan to be implemented, not just read. Objectives that can’t be measured, tracked, and followed up, are less likely to lead to implementation. The capability of plan-vs.-actual analysis and the discipline to use it is essential. Marketing objectives are likely to be based on sales revenues and market share. They may also include related marketing objectives such as presentations, seminars, ad placements, review coverage, or proposals.

Sales are easy to track and measure. Market share is harder because it depends on market research. There are other marketing goals that are less tangible and harder to measure, such as positioning or image and awareness. Remember, as you develop the objectives, it is much better to include the measurement system within the objective itself. This is especially true when those measurements aren’t obvious.

In other side, in order to set your financial objective, state your financial objectives as clearly as you can. Marketing involves sales, costs of sales, and sales and marketing expenses, all of which affect profitability and cash flow. Financial objectives are very different from marketing objectives and generally easier to measure. A financial objective might be to increase 1999 profits by 10%, or sales by 10%, or contribution margin by 5%, or gross margin by 10%. Financial objectives might also be stated to hold spending to a specific level, as a percent of sales. One of the most common financial measurements for marketing is the contribution margin.