You Have Built Your 2017 Financial Plan and Established Supporting Business Objectives – Now What?

If you are like many business executives, you are high-fiving your team for the accomplishments you achieved in 2016 but very quickly beginning to worry about achieving even more in 2017. You have built an aggressive plan for 2017 that ensures material growth year over year and developed a set of business objectives to support your plan. Now how do you ensure your team can successfully execute this plan?

There are five critical steps and one key question businesses leaders should follow to set their company up to achieve their financial plan and business objectives. These should be implemented as early in the fiscal year as possible.

#1: Make-or-Break Objectives

Create 2-3 business objectives that are critical drivers to your plan. Ensure you are not asking too much your organization. All too often, we see business leaders setting 6-10 business objectives that support achievement of the financial plan. This is too much for your organization to focus on and likely most of the objectives are not equal contributors to the plan. Pick the 2 to 3 that make or break your success.

#2: Communication

Communicate your objectives and the plan. Ensure your executive team understands the reasons behind the selected objectives and how the financial plan was built. It is imperative they understand the financial drivers of your plan.

#3:Cascading Goals

Develop performance goals for your team that align directly to the company’s business objectives and plan. These goals should cascade throughout the organization and each team member should understand the role he or she plays in the company achieving the plan and thus, success in 2017.

#4: A Reward System

Build a reward system that supports achievement of the goals. For example, create a bonus pool that rewards the entire organization when the key financial metrics and business objectives are met. Doing so will help your organization with #5.

#5: Focus

Focus, focus, focus. This starts at the top. You have built a solid plan — now execute it. Do not allow yourself or the company to take on new investments, special projects, and/or new business objectives without a lot of scrutiny. These can become distractions that ensure you fail. Clearly, as the year progresses, you may need to alter course but in Q1 — stick to your plan.

The Key Question

Now for the $50 Million Question: Do you have the right team in place to achieve the 2017 Plan, as well as continue to grow your company over the next two to five years? As you assess talent, you need to look well beyond the next twelve months.

Chances are, it is hard to be objective when answering this question because you like your team. At HireBetter, we specialize in working with business leaders of high growth companies and companies in transition to assess whether your company has the talent and organization structure to best achieve your one- to five-year plans.

[HireBetter’s] Strategic Talent Planning™ session provided us with clear direction and prevented us from being stuck in an entrepreneurial mode with a team we've outgrown.

Our Strategic Talent Planning™ consulting service might be just the key you are looking for to unlock business success.