by Koralia & Nicos Timotheou
 
It is the time of the year, when most people take the time to reflect back on what has happened during the outgoing year and plan what they would like be done in the incoming one.

In personal life, this is usually an informal reflection of our achievements and failures and a visualization of our new, improved self. 

In business, the process is formal and comprises:

• the comparison of the targets that had been set for the current year versus the actual results achieved and
•  the business plan for the forthcoming year. 

Assuming that the current year’s targets that were set a year ago were realistic, for the assessment to take place, actual results must be collected and presented in a meaningful format through the organisation’s various reports, such as the Financial and the Management Accounts, the Annual report and various Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) generated by the corporate Business Intelligence systems (BIS).  

This is the first step for a fair and accurate comparison: data needs to be real, up to date, thorough and comparable. 

Assessment should then focus on:

• the targets that have been achieved;
• the targets that have been exceeded;
• the targets that have come short;
• why each of the above happened;discovering hidden strengths and opportunities or people that have led to excellence, in order to capitalize on them in the future and weaknesses, people or unforeseen barriers that have caused failure, in order to work around them or improve on them.

Annual assessment and planning should not be restricted to the hard business side, it should cover the soft one as well:the value added to each and every stakeholder group;

•  corporate culture;
• risk management;
• environmental management;
• corporate governance;
• corporate ethics; and
• personal assessment!

Once you have the whole picture (always based on scrutinized hard evidence), assemble at first your top team, then your middle managers and then all your people, in one or more meetings, depending on the size and geography of your organization, and:

• compare financial and non-financial targets, market positioning, customer and employee satisfaction/dissatisfaction, internal and external audit findings, any comments made by sector regulators;
• be fair and give a fair chance to people assigned to each target to present openly their case. There might be more complications than appear on first sight;
• share the results with staff at all levels; and
• praise and reward high achievements and achievers and make constructive and empowering comments as far as failures are concerned.  Honesty and transparency help build pride, trust, ownership, a sense of achievement and belonging and the feeling of people being recognized and valued.  Where things went wrong, the process will hopefully help low achievers to be motivated and agree on setting personal improvement targets (in addition to the corporate ones).

New Year’s planning is summed up in the annual business plan and the annual budget. Ideally, this should always be the first of a three-year plan and budget and be analysed in monthly targets. It should be formulated, scrutinized and presented very close to the turn of the year.

Targets should be revised for the following year(s) based on the corporate mission and vision and the potential of the organization as derived from last year’s results, strategic project deliverables and market trends and developments.  Therefore:

• the organization’s mission and vision are either reconfirmed or dully revised;
• last year’s results are finalized, accepted and investigated as to their driving forces; and
• market is analysed in detail as far as product and customer lifecycles, customer needs, competition developments and technological advancements are concerned.

Targets need to be realistic and feasible, though ambitious, in order to motivate staff and have a fair chance of being achieved. They need to be set in consultation with the people involved, their concerns taken into serious consideration. The means necessary for their achievement (including personal development and empowerment) need to be provided.

Again, the Business Plan should be shared and become owned by all involved. The organisation, even though subdivided into many teams and sub-cultures should strive to cultivate a unique corporate / tribal culture, one big team responsibility, one big team success, depending upon all and beneficial to all.

The turn of the year lends itself to your personal assessment and personal development and goal setting, as well.

Do remember: High quality planning is the prerequisite foundation for business success and the framework for a leader’s successful delivery of value to all his organization’s stakeholders.

29.12.2015