What’s the Plan for ‘08?
Planning for long- and short-term success
By Jim Terry
It seems to me we just finished planning for 2007, but as we approach the end of the year, it’s time to begin planning for 2008. One of the challenges we face is balancing long-term objectives with near-term demands. In an ideal world, we would develop an annual plan and manage its strategy as the year progresses. For most of us, there are too many variables that require consistent review and modifications of plans on an ongoing basis. The good news is that while we can’t predict the future, we can prepare for the unknown.
The key to a strong plan is having a long-term guiding philosophy, an annual plan and a process that drives modifications on a monthly basis to make that plan relevant at any point in time. This allows you to keep an eye on the long-term brand success, annual communications success and short-term priorities.
Maintaining and building your corporate brand should be top priority not just for 2008 but well into the future. All programs should support the brand platform, and the brand platform should be your focal point for messaging and priorities.
When developing your annual plan, you should look to your brand foundation as input and match it with the annual objectives as the basis for year-long strategies and tactics. Prioritizing the objectives, as well as the target markets, is beneficial in deciding how best to allocate the resources for the year and provide control as priorities shift. The annual plan should serve as the umbrella communications program with the high-level programs to reach the communications objectives. It should document not just the programs but roles/responsibilities, measurement standards and the desired outcome.
While the annual plan gives you a long-range outlook, there are too many variables that will make it obsolete without disciplined, ongoing updating. Product launch slips, competitive pressures, budget adjustments and any number of other variables require you to supplement your annual plan with short-term tactical plans. One option is to use 90-day tactical plans that are updated monthly for current outlooks on the next three months. Those plans account for timing and priority shifts and are used in day-to-day execution. Then you can track active projects on a status report that you update and issue weekly. The weekly status reports outline future steps, timing and responsibilities and drive the daily activities.
It’s important that, as you execute your plan, you evaluate your progress against your goals. A good time to check progress is during the monthly tactical plan updates. This allows you to make adjustments that will improve your progress. Additionally, you should reconcile your goals with actual results at the end of the year to evaluate the year’s communications effectiveness and plan for the coming year.
It’s time to start thinking about the plan for 2008 and, in doing so, accounting for the variables that affect an annual plan to make it most relevant and actionable.
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