Page 17 - GTA Lifestyle Oakville October 2022

Plan with Action
At Integram, our Strategic Action Plan (SAP) helps clients determine three-year, one-year and 90-day sprint goals for their business. is type of planning requires a commitment to setting goals, actions to meet targets and flexibility to continually update plans and keep pivoting when necessary. While this is a shift from the typical one-year business plan, by focusing on three years before you chart your yearly and 90-day goals you begin with the end in mind.
Keep Evolving
Most businesses don’t make planning a priority and tend to revisit plans only when things go wrong and, subsequently, need to dig themselves out of a situation.
According to a recent study by Harvard Business Review, 85 percent of executive leadership teams spend less than one hour per month discussing strategy. Another 50 percent spend no time working on strategic plans. When it comes to communicating strategy, 95 percent of employees don’t understand the company’s efforts in this area. Researchers attribute the lack of attention to planning as one of the key reasons why businesses fail to meet their strategic targets.
Planning needs to be a continual process so you’re ready for an uneventful situation (read: recession). It allows you to forecast foreseeable issues and be ready to shift focus when necessary. Crisis planning, for example, may include selling merchandise through an online store in the event of a physical store shutdown.
Don’t make planning “an event” but a “process,” explains Simon Sinek. “e process of planning” and not the plan itself is important. In other words, haphazard planning doesn’t make the cut.
SOUTH OAKVILLE Lifestyle October 2022 Page 17