Developing a plan? Don't try to 'boil the ocean'

It seems there are as many small business strategic planners as there are small businesses. But Gaylord Villers may be different enough to warrant a look.

For starters, Villers thinks a small business should be able to develop a strategic plan in half a day, though he qualifies that timetable with some assumptions.

One, Villers says, is that "you don't try to boil the ocean." The other is that those involved understand the reason for creating a plan.

Focus is required.

"What's the purpose of the plan?" Villers asks. "Is it because of a threat? An opportunity? Has the environment changed in some way?"

While you're answering, he'll interject the strange thought that the purpose of the strategic plan is not necessarily the same as the purpose of the company.

Villers is managing principal of Transmedia, Inc., a Barrington planning firm that focuses on privately held companies. He will, if you choose, facilitate your planning meeting and 48 hours later provide an action plan intended to get the plan working.

Villers' small business planning process can involve as few as two people, the owner and Villers. More likely, the process will involve the company's senior team plus such trusted stakeholders as an accountant, attorney, and perhaps a dealer or major supplier. When appropriate, outside subject matter experts - maybe, Villers suggests, even a marketing expert - participate.

The goal, Villers says, should be to reduce risk by allowing management to use information and make effective judgments.

"Planning isn't magical," Villers warns. Rather, the process of creating a strategic plan should be "a logical way of looking at the (business) environment and leveraging the strengths you have."

"You look at the situation and come up with the best process to make judgments that will maximize your strengths," he says.

Forget about winding up with a thick three-ring binder to show your peers, even though Villers presumably can produce such a document. The entire plan should be "three to five pages stapled together and placed in a folder" for regular and easy access, Villers says.

"Plans are live documents that need to be modified when the situation changes. A new competitor comes in? One goes bankrupt? You should be able to back up and adjust."

The word doesn't come up much in a conversation with Vickers, but he clearly believes that a strategic plan should help a business maintain - or perhaps find - focus.

"Small businesses are run by smart, high-energy activity people," Villers says. Then he adds that high-energy activity people can be prone to ready-fire-aim responses.

The analogy isn't perfect, but it works because Villers has been there. "If your business direction is west, the free ticket to Cleveland is not a help," he says.

Questions, comments to Jim Kendall, JKendall@121MarketingResources.com. © 2010 121 Marketing Resources, Inc.