The Art Of Writing Things Down: Your Operating Plan

One of my good friends that works at Amazon was talking to me recently about how every group during their annual planning and budgeting cycle doesn't use PowerPoints -- they actually write out their operating plans.  Heavens to murgatroid!  They actually write out their plans!  I am sure that we have all relied too much on PowerPoint in our respective careers.  It is always a great way to present things without having to present the heavy lifting that hopefully contributed to what the slide is portraying. 

During our companies (Mpire) annual planning session, we've just finished writing out our operating plan.  Its over 40 pages.  We've always been in the habit of writing things down.  I was actually looking forward to it.  We had constructed some slides already that presented topics like supply chain analysis, competitive diagnostics, etc.  You know the types of slides that makes your team stare at you with a glazed look in their eyes.  It is a glaze that literally feels likes your team is saying, 'I can't believe that I have to sit through this stuff."  After I completed my write up , it was really liberating.  I am happy with how much our team at Mpire tracks, measures, and analyzes.  I did a blog post awhile back that captures some tips on writing things down.  Try writing out your operating plan.  It keeps you and your team honest.  It also tracks your assumptions that either become right or wrong. 

Comments

[David Stern]

Hi Matt: Happy New Year. It always amazes me how reluctant new CEO's are to do this under the guise of "too busy with actually running the business". And while that sometimes is actually true for those that have an innate sense of a market having been in it for awhile, the more reluctant they are, the more likely their business is to be a science project rather than a real business. This is especially sage, and surprisingly obvious and simple but not often heeded, advice for the days when operational excellence trumps vision. Perhaps those of us on the money side of the table should be requiring it with every one-pager and PPT get!