Key objectives can’t be accomplished by one individual. It is necessary to develop teams and coaches to work on each objective. Members of the team should include individuals that cross department lines. For example, the company that had as an objective to improve gross profit by 1 percent per quarter should include members of the accounting, estimating, purchasing, production, and administrative departments since all groups should have input in accomplishing this goal. In smaller custom builder organizations where many people wear multiple hats you need to be careful not to overload one individual by putting him or her on too many teams.
The coach is responsible for keeping the team on track toward achieving the ultimate objective. In my experience, the owner should never be a coach. It is the owner’s job to be the team’s general manager, making sure all of the coaches are on line and that all of the teams are keeping in step with the company’s purpose and values. Even though the owner should not be the coach, he can be a valuable team member.
Work the plan. Now that you’ve got teams set up, the next step is to determine strategies for accomplishing each objective. This can either be done at the team level or with the input of the entire group. Strategies need to outline how the objective will be achieved. In the example of improving margins one strategy may be to hire a person to handle purchasing and estimating by July 1. Once the strategies are established, these too must be prioritized. When prioritizing the strategies make sure to start with strategies that can be easily accomplished in a short time period.
Now we’re getting down to the nitty-gritty: The next step is to break the strategy into goals with mini-milestones. By doing this we don’t keep reaching for a big, far-away goal but instead set realistic tasks. In the example of hiring a new estimator by July 1, it is important to identify mini-goals to accomplish this by the targeted date. Start backwards and identify all of the tasks necessary to get a new estimator on board by July 1. Set the mini-goal of making a job offer by June 15. In order to do this we need to incur many steps such as interviews, checking references, testing, reviewing resumes, collecting resumes and advertising for the position. Each of these tasks should be set up as a mini-goal with a specific due date. It is the coach’s responsibility to make sure that whoever is responsible for completing the mini-milestones stay on task and keep the general manager (owner) up to speed on the progress of the goals.
Over the years I have seen companies become extremely successful after meeting the goals set out in their strategic planning process. Find out what defines success for your company and go after it. As the old adage says, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.”
Steve Maltzman, CPA, is president of SMA Consulting in Colton, Calif. Visit him at www.smaconsulting.net.
