Saturday, September 18, 2010

Iterate to Infinity

James P. Lewis-in his book Project Planning, Scheduling, & Control-states the need to control the costs associated with every project. This is to ensure that all of the resources available in the organization, be it human or financial resources, shall never be put to waste but truly maximized.

However, it's never really enough that you only get to plan and execute all of the tasks associated with it. You should also learn to control and avoid wastage or any dire consequences that can come up along the way. You also have to perform a review at your own plan.

The Idea of a True Business Plan

A lot of inefficient business persons believe that their job ends once they have produced a workable plan and executed the jobs with finesse. They have completely forgotten to actually conduct a review even before they're going to perform these tasks.

Keep in mind that when you're going to speak about plans, you're actually setting your eyes, heart, and mind on the results. Thus, if you're going to create a very poor plan, you can also expect reaping poor outcomes.

There are many benefits when it comes to plan review:

1. You can identify your priorities effectively. Though your plan is mainly based on a general objective or mission, there are still subtasks that you have to accomplish to ensure that you can fulfill the main goal. These jobs, nevertheless, should be properly prioritized.

Of course, you can't expect to do the multiple jobs all at the same time. Moreover, during the review, you can also at least initially determine some tasks that you can do without, saving you considerable amount of time, effort, and resources.

2. You have basis for your measure. If you like to know if you're definitely making excellent or poor progress in your business, you must be able to compare your plan with the actual results. This will just be accomplished if you can scan through your previous business plan.

Definitely, if you see great variances, you may need to take the necessary precautions. A good example is perhaps strengthening your advertising activities if you have been performing on the average or poorly in the sales department.

3. You can discuss your plans with others more efficiently. There are many members in an organization. You're not only going to deal with your subordinates but also your business partners and investors. Before you can actually ask for approval for any of your proposal or before you can implement some changes, you have to ensure that you have clear-cut bases for your actions.

Presenting an old plan alone may not be a good idea as it really signify the kind of change you want to employ. Thus, double-checking your plan for any loophole will provide you with the things that you need to compel someone or a group of people to take action, perhaps accepting your proposal for a budget or implementing new policies in the organization.

4. You can better establish the relationships among figures. Don't expect everyone to fully understand the figures that they see in their financial documents. In fact, you shouldn't be overly confident that you can simply get away with them without even explaining.

A review can help you identify the leading causes for the sudden drop in sales, the increase in your traveling and marketing expenses, or perhaps the amount of funds you have allotted for your investment.

The Ways to Review Your Plan

There are many ways on how you can review your plan. Here are some of them:

1. Establish how many times you're going to check your plan. If you're basically a very small business, you can always settle for daily, weekly, or even monthly evaluation. This is essential as you're practically trying to grow your business.

If you have already found some pattern, you may move to quarterly and yearly. However, if jobs at hand are really pressing and crucial, you need to double-check your plan as often as possible. After all, you can't afford any room for mistake at this point.

2. Be as informative as possible with your planning review. If you have been doing planning with the team, ensure that all members shall be informed of the schedule for the review. This way, they will be able to include this in their list of priorities.

Mobile Devices in Planning Review

There are already several computing devices that you can make use when you're going to review your plans. Usually, what is being utilized are PCs that are set up in a network, so it will be very convenient for everyone to share important documents that are vital during the planning review session.

Nevertheless, being on the road doesn't mean you can no longer participate in the planning review. There are still handheld devices that you can utilize, such as PDAs, laptops, smart phones, as well as mobile phones that are capable of transmitting data to another phone or computer.

For example, the Tablet PC, a type of mobile device, is equipped with a handwriting tablet and software that can allow you to produce documents needed for the review.

If your company has an internal database where all important files are stored, you can request from the IT department to hook your mobile phone to it, perhaps through the World Wide Web.

Hence, if you're in a WiFi hotspot or you can browse directly through the Internet, all you need to do is to input security information, access all the files that you may want to analyze while you're on the trip, and send your own personal evaluation as attachment.

By : Hans_Hulm

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