Executive Sales and Operations Planning: An Essential Set of Management Tools--Aug. 7, 2009
Failure to implement a successful operations plan in your business could lead to you continually drifting from one crisis to another instead of focusing on profitability and growth, according to John Pennington, an adjunct faculty member at the IU Kelley School of Business Indianapolis.
Pennington brought more than 30 years of experience in successful operations planning to his Aug. 7 presentation for the Main Street Institute, titled “Executive Sales and Operations Planning: An Essential Set of Management Tools.”
The Main Street Institute is a partnership between Kelley Indianapolis and the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce to provide continuing education to local businesses through a series of interactive workshops.
Much of Pennington’s presentation focused on enacting a workable plan with every arm of a business to achieve set goals. The operations plan should be revisited and examined monthly to adjust to changes in the business climate and supply and demand. In addition, a successful operations plan will give the executive management the necessary tools and data to make informed decisions about the short and long-term future of the business.
“You implement a detailed operations plan so you can have a strategy for survival,” said Pennington, who teaches operations management at Kelley Indianapolis. “You have to know where you are going as a business and where you are going as an individual.”
The key to successful operations planning, Pennington said, is reaching a consensus on the short-term, tactical plan of the company. The plan should project two to 18 months out; anything beyond that time frame becomes more of a strategic decision best left to the high-level executives of the company rather than a tactical plan to achieve goals.
When done correctly, however, a well-researched operations plan will be simple to implement. The real challenge rests in changing employee behavior from the top to the bottom to keep the plan relevant.
“This is really about changing the way we do our jobs,” Pennington said. “When executed properly, the sales and operations planning process links the strategic plans for the business with execution and reviews performance measures for continuous improvement,” he added.
Pennington conceded that operations plans are almost always wrong by some amount, either in projections or quotas or some other measurable benchmark. However, the plan should account for the steps needed to achieve continuous improvements in performance in every department of the business. In addition, it will provide for better working relationships with planners and executives involved in the process, he said.
“I can assure you as a former president of a $175 million company that this sales and operations planning process allowed me to not get caught up in the details” and focus on continued growth, he said.
In addition to his teaching duties, Pennington serves as president of PCI Associates, a national business consulting firm founded more than 20 years ago.
For more information, please contact Dave Hosick, coordinator of communications and media relations with the IU Kelley School at Indianapolis.
