Social Impact May 2007 Implementing the Business Plan Hyderabad India May 2007

Social Impact May 2007 The CVE Bakery: How Can You Plan for the Impossible? In-Facility Work: The Bird Seed Fiasco! What Happens When a Good Plan Goes Bad…

Social Impact May 2007 And Even When Things Go Right, Things Can Go Wrong… NW Works Janitorial and Business Plan Actual growth exceeded plan by 330% Board of Directors, staff and infrastructure issues Mission in question

Social Impact May 2007 “To stumble is not to fall... it’s just a way to move ahead more quickly!” - Ben Cohen Implementation Snafus

Social Impact May 2007 Mouse trap’s built and nobody comes Grand expectations Insufficient marketing Wrong product Wrong market

Social Impact May 2007 All things to all people No clear: Niche Target market Differentiation strategy We do everything!!

Social Impact May 2007 But we still have checks… Undercapitalization Slow start up Unexpected expenses Overstocked inventory Didn’t plan for business cycles

Social Impact May 2007 Low capacity to deliver Inexperienced business management Untrained/wrong staff Weak systems & infrastructure Chaos

Social Impact May 2007 Inability to Measure Performance Objectives are not clearly stated in business plan No plan on how you will manage to objectives Benchmarks tell you if you’re on track Know what and how much to measure Inform decision making Measuring takes time—and costs money so choose wisely

Social Impact May 2007 Contingency Planning Build capacity to make accurate projections Add in buffer for expenses Use “what if…” scenarios Develop “Plan B” (and Z) for major decisions Test Business Plan assumptions Objectivity

Social Impact May 2007 Before Implementation “Failing to plan is planning to fail” -Effie Jones

Social Impact May 2007 Pre-Launch of Your Business Plan Ask the hard questions up front Bring negative people to the table early and let them hit you with their best shot Have contacts lined up for future issues- get stakeholders and the community behind you before you need them!!! Just do it! No business plan will cover all of the potential issues, but if you know that up front you’ll be ready to tackle the unknown Know what and how you will measure your performance

Social Impact May 2007 Valuable Questions to Ask What if scaling has risk some negative impact on clients? What if the success or failure of scaling threatens to change your mission? How will your stakeholders deal with a failure? How will your stakeholders deal with a success? What is your scale?

Social Impact May 2007 Post Launch Get your negative critics to S.T.H.U. Be Flexible Ask for Help Even if your new plan looks completely different than the original, as long as it serves your mission, who cares? Be ready to drop the whole thing if you’ve given it your best shot and it’s still not working

Social Impact May 2007 Lessons Learned: Reality!!! Business plans are living documents. Where you start is not where you’ll finish. Flexibility is key Constant adjustments Expert tyre-kicking Keep your eyes on the road

Social Impact May 2007 It’s a Road Map - Use it! To Vision 2,000 Poor Served 40% Cost Recovery Achieved Client Income up 35%

Social Impact May 2007 Implementation Planning

Social Impact May 2007 Implementation Planning Implementation planning turns strategy into reality. Implementation planning details tactics of the business plan execution: activities, deliverables, timeline, who’s responsible, cost or level of effort Short term - i.e. 1 year Implementation planning is tightly integrated with the annual budget.

Social Impact May 2007 Set Realistic Targets Unrealistic targets sets everyone up for failure Conservatism - rule of thumb - do not be overly optimistic or ambitious with targets Flexible to changes If you do not have clear objectives and targets you CANNOT develop an implementation plan

Social Impact May 2007 Team effort Not a one person job Functional skills team Include stakeholders Include resisters

Social Impact May 2007 Implementation Plan 1. Objectives – what are the main objectives and intermediate objectives? 2. Deliverables – what will the outcomes be? 3. Milestones – what are the important check points? 4. Activities and tasks – How will you execute? 5. Accountable party – who will be responsible? 6. Implementation schedule – over what time period? 7. Budget – How much will it cost? 8. Assumptions and Risk – what are the underlying assumptions and potential risks?