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132 • The 100 Greatest Ideas for Building the Business of Your Dreams

For the moment let us imagine that, either before or during the event, the ac-

count manager has briefed the planning team on the information necessary to take

part in the creation of the plan.

In one very The team will never have all the facts at its fingertips. Indeed in a new

large privatised account penetration plan there will be little information to hand and the

business the planning session will be quite short, but the more information availableto

organisation the team the better.

chart did not Soft data is in many ways as important or even more important than

reveal - without hard data. It includes all the prejudices and politics of the people side of

further exami- the business. This data consists of the subjective views of customer man-

nation - the agers or the account team.

fact that many Do not take things at face value. In any large company there is an

established organisation chart. It contains hard data such as, 'That person reports to

and up-and- that person, who reports to that person, who reports to that person, etc'.

coming execu- The soft data asks, 'Yes, but who actually runs the business, who has

tives had not influence, who can make things happen and equally- who can stop things

only attended happening?'

the same In many large British companies there is a network of people with

university, but similar backgrounds who, though in different divisions and at different

also the same levels in the business, form a powerful virtual team.

college. In one very large privatised business the organisation chart did not

reveal - without further examination - the fact that many establishedand

up-and-coming executives had not only attended the same university, but also the

same college within the university.

The environment section of a creative planning process includes the background

knowledge including the soft data brought by everyone in the team.

Analyse this data
The analysis technique for sorting out your knowledge and different team members'