Each company can establish an operational action plan. This document consists of a complete and rational planning of all the actions to be carried out over one year. When and how to prepare it? We take stock.
What is a business action plan?
The action plan is operational translation of the business strategy. It gives the different services a guideline with objectives and / or results to be achieved. This roadmap makes it possible to project over a full year by transforming reflections into concrete and operational elements. We also sometimes speak of a “business plan”. Its interest is no longer to be demonstrated in the sense that it gives a global and exhaustive vision of the workload ahead. It clarifies the role of each employee in the projects, as well as the resources made available, and makes it possible to control the implementation times, by setting deadlines.
When to prepare your action plan?
An action plan is anticipated. Most often, it is after evaluating the results of the action plan for year N, at the end of the year, that we look at the action plan for year N + 1, therefore between the months of September and December. Although the latter is sometimes established over a quarter, it generally covers a year.
How to write an action plan or “business plan”?
The action plans are presented under the form of tables. They are all built almost in the same way with the listing of the objectives to be achieved, the actions to be implemented, the resources allocated, the people responsible for carrying out the work and the planned deadlines.
Goals definition
Objectives are the goals you want to achieve through your projects. They are mainly figures (turnover to be achieved, number of leads desired, etc.) but can also be qualitative (being a leader in a market segment, developing internationally, targeting a particular category of customers, etc.). Be ambitious while remaining coherent with your capacities and your means.
Listing of the different actions to be performed
After this step, you will need determine all the actions to be implemented to achieve your goals. These must be precise and concrete. They can be classified by priority. Describe the content of the action without going into too much detail, to prevent your document from losing its clarity.
Staff assignment and details of the necessary resources
The next step is to assign an employee or service provider to each assignment. The role of the latter is to ensure its proper implementation, in compliance with the conditions previously defined. He must therefore have the necessary skills to be able to carry out his task. Add the resources to be mobilized to enable him to carry out this action, in other words material and financial resources. Therefore, by referring to this information, the manager of the action plan can ensure that the pursuit of the objective does not exceed the resources initially planned.
Setting of deadlines
Finally, it is important to set deadlines for each of the operational actions. Some are associated with a very specific deadline, while others are subject to a certain frequency (twice a month, three times a semester, etc.). All of this must be indicated. It’s your turn !
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