Professional Accountants in Gravenhurst & Barrie, ON
Business Decision MAP – a tool for preparing a strategy to guide your decisions and their implementation to achieve the business of your dreams
Running a successful business is all about setting a direction and making the right decisions to get there. Some decisions are so massive that you sit down and carefully plan them out. Do I buy a new office building? Should I invest in that equipment? But, in most cases, the decisions that ultimately will decide whether you succeed or fail are the ones that you take on a daily basis.
The ones that you take without any guidance. The ones where you hope it moves you in the right direction. Here’s a question...
Are the outcomes of the decisions you’ve taken today consistent with the direction you want to take your business tomorrow? Do you measure each decision against that direction – should I stop doing something because its leading me off track; what small steps must I take today, tomorrow, next week, next year so that I can achieve my goals; and, how do I know when I have achieved my goal?
We are not suggesting you spend 5 days closeted talking about woo-woo stuff like mission and vision and preparing a heavy binder of strategic “rhubarb” words that will sit on your shelf and never be opened again. This is a plan on one page with specific, measurable outcomes that your team will expand into a weekly, monthly annual ‘to do’ list until the plan is achieved. There will be very specific instructions to all employees to evaluate their activities and only do those activities that move the business towards your goal - all other activities and “busy work” are to cease immediately. Imagine the freedom in knowing all your employees are rowing in the same direction as you!
The Business Decision MAP is a proactive tool that you give to every employee to display in their workspace, so they can see the direction the business is going. It enables everyone in the business to measure the impact of their daily decisions on the future of the business. Every discussion and new suggestion will be measured against the Business Decision MAP. How fundamental to your freedom and success is that?
Here’s how it works:
- We meet with you and your key staff one on one to ask a number of probing questions in a series confidential information gathering phone calls and/or meetings. We compile the information into a presentation for the group that highlights the patterns and common points and any obvious points of diversion.
- We then facilitate a one or two day group session where your customised Business Decision MAP is created and completed by the end of the session. You will have set the direction for next 3-5 years; developed the three areas of Strategic Focus; mapped out the activities required to achieve the three areas of Strategic focus; determined the qualitative and quantitative benchmarks for determining success.
- Key employees will then use this Map to create a 3 - 5year “to do “list for their area and all future decisions will be evaluated against the Business Decision MAP.