Enhance your Planning and Execution

We all have experiences in planning and executing projects whether at home or at work. It is given that a proper planning and execution lead to success. We have learned it from our experiences to plan properly then work the plan. This is simply true, however, there are other dimensions of planning and execution based on our experience consulting and working with SMEs that we would like to streamline. We categorize four outcome scenarios depending how an SME is weak or strong in planning and in execution presumably the resources remain constant equally in each scenario.

1 - Success: we all like this outcome in the relationship of planning and execution. It happens as a result of a strong planning process followed by a strong execution. The reasonable plan gets done by a proper and accurate execution. This happens when an experienced business owner plans or engages the right consultants to advise and plan for a new product or project. There are always risks in the process, which can be assessed during the planning phase and mitigated during execution. 

2- Failure: this outcome happens quite opposite of strong planning and execution. If a business owner does not have enough experiences in planning and is not motivated to execute properly, the result is wasting resources and opportunities. We have seen people who fall under this category who come back to us after a while to dissolve their corporations or partnerships as their business efforts have failed. They could have engaged the right people at least in planning to map out what they would face if they insisted to pursue their business idea. 

3- Opportunity Cost: there are occasions that businesses plan for a product, project or a change. They put a lot of efforts to map it out, but they fail to execute the plan on time due to the internal or external forces. The outcome is losing market share or missing an opportunity. For example, if a restaurant owner had a plan to set take out and online ordering system but did not execute it prior to Covid-19, the business could not respond properly to the market when all dining restaurants were closed and people were looking for ordering online and take-outs.

4-In-efficiencies: there are a group of people who are doers. They are driven to get things done to a point that they act upon their guts and/or ideas. They may not process any planning in their operations. They go ahead and correct themselves by a feedback system. We hear from this group of people when they reach out for help in a challenge that they wish they knew better ways or discussed their ideas with professionals prior to pursuing their business ideas to increase their efficiencies.

We conclude that business owners need to balance their planning and execution to ensure they are set to succeed. Working with professionals like bankers, lawyers, accountants and management consultants are always helpful to prevent imbalances in your planning and execution processes.