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Are You Truly Serious About Business Success?
Patrick Hinchy, General Manager, Shalom Business Development
In recent times I watched an interview with Louis Gertsner Jnr (former long term CEO of IBM). His commentary sparked my interest and hence prompted me to research some more.
Gertsner is revered in the US for his very long and successful business career. Significantly he is recognised as steering IBM from the point of extinction to resuming its place as one of the worlds most successful business enterprises. Not only is IBM big by anyone's measuring scale but has now been successfully operating for some 100 years. |
What has this to do with you and your business? As it so happens a great deal.
End of financial year for many prompts that it is time to again take 'time out' to refocus, reflect and plan the year ahead.
Gertsner has these gems of wisdom to share with those serious about business success and in particular those embarking upon the planning phase.
He proposed so much has been said and written about what constitutes good management practice that anyone who is truly serious about business success can readily learn the fundamentals. Of the fundamentals however the one that often is berated by the misguided is the importance and value of planning.
Further he proposes "that a Plan fails is not necessarily because the Plan is flawed, but because of poor execution".
The Commonwealth Banking Corporation Limited funded a study of the Australian SME fraternity and this revealed incredibly that still only about 30% of business owners undertook any form of satisfactory planning. Of these the most significant reason for failure of the planning process is what Gertsner describes as poor execution.
Should we undertake comprehensive business planning on a regular basis? If we are not sure of the answer then according to Gertsner; if we are not in business then we need to learn more before we begin or if we are in business we are obviously not intending to be there for long!!!
The far more relevant issue then for those that are serious about their business success is that their planning process will include how the Plan is to be effectively implemented, measured and validated on a continuing basis. This is much of what working 'on' the business is all about.
Shalom typically works with its clients to develop a comprehensive Plan. We also work with those clients to undertake the implementation phase. For us, by far the most challenging of these is the latter.
It is appropriate to leave with you a pertinent criticism of typical SME business planning by Michael Gerber (E-Myth author). Gerber has worked with many SME's over a long period of time when a consultant with the Gerber Institute in the US.
He proposed 'If you think you have a good business Plan and it does not specify your exit strategy then think again. The planning process is far from complete.'
He is referring to the common problem for SME's who having achieved considerable business success have the majority of their wealth represented by their business. For many of these their exit strategy is to live in hope of a cashed up mystery buyer magically appearing to help them extricate from the business at full value. Sadly this rarely happens.
We welcome contact from you if you need help with the planning or the execution.
Happy new year and great prosperity in 2005-2006!!
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