IBIS Services for Effective business planning and monitoring
Background
The modern enterprise needs to focus on core elements that drive profitability and growth over the short, medium and long term. These
key performance indicators must be incorporated into business planning and monitoring both at a departmental level and at a corporate level, and provide short, medium and long term goals (the
balanced scorecard) both at operational and at an enterprise level.
Different parts of the business must apply specific skills (acting as a knowledge center) to the identification of these key performance indicators and be responsible for the creation of
targets which are realistic because they are linked to that which is achievable through the creation of appropriate
benchmarks against which existing performance is measured. Such an approach enables the enterprise to apply a program of continuous improvement in each area of the business, with responsibility and authority delegated to the team based knowledge center.
These knowledge centers become the focus of both operational and business planning with
budgetary responsibility providing a bottom up rather than top down approach to the creation and management of
targets. They also provide a mechanism for the simple introduction of quality circles throughout the enterprise, a further mechanism for driving greater profitability and levels of repeat purchase.
Quality and operational efficiency will also be central in the role of the knowledge center in applying software solutions, improving the delivery of the
management information system to specific operational requirements, in creating
standard operating procedures to improve productivity in the enterprise, and in the development of
training (induction, maintenance and development components including relevant apprenticeship schemes) focused on improving operational performance.
Combining responsibility for program development and monitoring within the knowledge center improves skills, building the enterprise
core competence, and greatly eases the speed of team building and the ability to carry out effective
succession planning in the enterprise. It will also have the effect of decreasing the requirement for supervisory management (increasing the
span of control), improving stakeholder responsiveness (including the quality of
corporate governance) and shared values.
With their budgetary responsibility and focused involvement in the choice and implementation of change, knowledge centers also provide an ideal mechanism for delivering
bonus systems that relate to the achievement of the balanced scorecard, and to improve both
waste management and time management within their operating units.
The separation of budgetary and control responsibility, combined with separate planning, control and implementation, enables management within the enterprise to identify those areas within the business that need attention, greatly simplifying the demands of
change management.
Different parts of the business will also have a more detailed understanding of the requirements of the
contingency plan for their area of operation, and will need to be involved in its development through an understanding and management of
risk (strategic, macro-environmental, competitive, operational, project and disaster), the designation of authority and responsibility and budgetary implications.
Business monitoring systems which bring together key team members (normally on a monthly basis), and include the development of the annual
business plan, together with quarterly plan updates including a planning effectiveness review which will identify
successes, failures and lessons learnt. This approach will also develop an enterprise-wide understanding of what needs to be achieved, enhances presentation skills, and assist in succession planning.
Specific investments, including those involved with cost cutting, become part of this review process as they are converted to projects and subject to
investment appraisal, with a minimum acceptable rate of return (the hurdle rate) set by senior management. Each project will be controlled by its key performance parameters, which will normally be time, resources and achievement milestones. For resource intensive projects interim reviews, based on
stage gate criteria will provide further control over the progress of each major program. This project based approach to investment management will greatly enhance the control over
action planning and implementation.
This planning platform enables the enterprise to answer the three fundamental planning questions (where are we? – key performance indicators on a knowledge center by knowledge center basis), (where do we want to be? – the balanced scorecard on an enterprise and knowledge center basis), (how are we going to get there on a cost effective basis? - the analysis of alternative investments ideally based around a
golden circle strategy incorporating consolidation, market penetration, market development and
product/service development).
The Ibis business plan development program integrates all these elements through the delivery of an expert system which enables the enterprise to gain competitive advantage with the focused application of knowledge.
