VIDEO: The Six Areas of Annual Planning Exploration

In my blog last week, I discussed how you can involve up and coming leaders in your annual planning process. Today's Ask Rob is for your leadership team. In my short video below, I walk through six areas of exploration to discuss in your annual planning session. 

Ready to start planning for 2018? Contact me for a free consultation.  

Transcript

Hello everyone Rob Lynch here, the question for today is “What is my favorite exercise in annual planning?”

In my blog last week, I talked about how you get involved in your up-and-coming leaders in your annual planning process. Today’s video is for the leadership team.

My favorite exercise is where do you want to be in three years, specifically by December 31st, 2020 and it involves six areas of exploration.

First, what mountain are you climbing, what’s that North Star or BHAG as Jim Collins calls it, that you want to achieve in 10 years, 20 years and 30 years and that goal seems so daunting, yet it inspires your employees to go climb that mountain and as part of this discussion, what’s that basecamp that you want to get to within three years. 

Second, what are the key financial and operating metrics that you want to be tracking in 18, 19 and 20. In revenue, what percent of your revenue is going to come from existing products and service and what percent will come from new products and services.

Third, where are the geographies and the verticals that you want to plan and fourth, what are the products and services that you want to be selling. And if you noted in the financial section, that a certain percent will come from new products and services, then in this discussion you need to talk about what those new products and services are.

Fifth, who is your core customer and will it include distribution partners or referral partners. And will your core customer change, if you decide in the next three years that you want to enter new geographies verticals or offer new products and services

Sixth and final what’s that gap analysis between where you are today and where you want to be in three years and what are those strategic chess moves that you need to make in 2018 to set yourself up properly.

So, this discussion is not about building a detailed three-year plan, but rather an outline of these six key areas and how much of that do you want to accomplish next year. So, if you want any help or if you have any questions, contact me. Thank you.