5 Point Plan For Growth Point 2 – IBP – Integrated Business Planning
We recently shared our 5 Point Plan for Growth that could be used in these tumultuous times to smooth the waters. Point 2 we said was Integrated Business Planning – IBP.
It is that time of the year again when business thoughts turn to the plan for the next financial year, so I have a question for you…
How integrated is your business plan, and how aligned are all of the stakeholders in your business to it?
Clients are telling us that they are uncertain as to how to tackle their IBP this year. With the changes we have seen in the last few years affecting consumers, shoppers, channels and customers, we need to make sure that we develop our plans for the future in a different way. No longer can we just copy and paste with some edits, we need to reflect the changed behaviour we have seen and consider what is the best way to drive growth and optimise our activities.
If we look at how most businesses create their annual plans, they will predominantly still be formulated within a functional silo:
1. The strategic business planning team will have provided a three or five-year strategic plan that outlines the company’s overall direction within that timeline.
2. The consumer marketing team will take this strategic plan and create brand plans and the way that they wish to engage with consumers.
3. The shopper marketing team will then pick up the consumer plan and brand plans and design how they will bring those plans to life for shoppers.
4. The category team looks at the plans for their brands and identifies any specific initiatives that require bringing to life in-store/at point of sale (hopefully including eComm). They will include any category activity and any activities identified in the category vision (if they have one).
5. Sales will take the above plans, create the customer plan which they then take to customers to co-create into a JBP.
None of this feels very aligned (the baton is passed over, from one silo to another). A good business plan should be a single business plan for every company’s function – one supply plan, one demand plan.
This leaves a few questions:
Does your Strategic Plan drive shareholder value?
Do you understand how your business is performing?
Do you know what your competitors are doing and what they have done better than you?
What are your business issues and do you know how to solve them?
Do you understand what these are across consumers, shoppers, customers?
How robust is your IBP process and will it allow you to reflect the new ‘norm’ in your plans?
Why not let us review / refresh your IBP process or help you through the process?
If you would like to see how you are doing, try our quiz below.
Quiz
How well does your organisation align strategic goals with operational planning?
a. Not at all
b. Somewhat
c. Mostly
d. Completely
How often do you update your business plans?
a. We don’t update our business plans regularly
b. We update our business plans annually
c. We update our business plans quarterly
d. We update our business plans monthly or more frequently
How do you measure the success of your business planning efforts?
a. We don’t measure the success of our business planning efforts
b. We track basic metrics such as revenue and expenses
c. We track more advanced metrics such as profitability and return on investment
d. We have a comprehensive system in place for tracking and analysing the success of our business planning efforts
How well does your organisation collaborate across functions and departments during the business planning process?
a. Not at all
b. Somewhat
c. Mostly
d. Completely
How do you address changes in the business environment or unexpected events during the planning process?
a. We don’t address changes or unexpected events
b. We make minor adjustments as needed
c. We have a process in place for assessing and responding to changes and unexpected events
d. We have a comprehensive system in place for anticipating and proactively responding to changes and unexpected events
Scoring
For each question, give yourself 1 point for a, 2 points for b, 3 points for c, and 4 points for d.
Add up your points for each question to get a total score.
Your score can help you identify your biggest integrated business planning pain points:
5-8: You have a lot of room for improvement in your integrated business planning process. You may need to start by aligning your strategic goals with operational planning and updating your plans more regularly.
9-12: Your integrated business planning efforts are decent, but there is still room for improvement. You may need to focus on measuring the success of your planning efforts more effectively and improving collaboration across functions and departments.
13-16: Your integrated business planning efforts are solid, but there are still areas where you can improve. You may need to focus on addressing changes and unexpected events more effectively and investing in more advanced tracking and analysis tools.
17-20: Your integrated business planning efforts are highly effective. Keep up the good work!
