IBIS Services for Effective business planning and monitoring
Background
Ibis started work in the 1980's with an attempt to identify for its various clients whether there were quantifiable links between business plan elements and the chances of a successful outcome for investment in those companies. This led to the creation of an evaluation model which has been used to forecast the outcome of over 3000 plans; and in many cases to test whether actual outcome matched the forecast.
Since then, the experienced Ibis team have continued to look at how enterprises can improve their planning through best practice.
Services offered
Today, four services are available to the enterprise to improve their profitability and operating effectiveness:
Creating expert systems
Training
Standard operating procedures
Evaluating business plans
Creating expert systems
A step by step process has been developed which enables any enterprise to decentralise its planning systems, and build a powerful and robust “bottom up” rather than “top down” methodology. The questions that it answers are:
Where are we?
Where do we want to be (and when)?
How are we going to get there cost effectively?
Though each organisation will pose slightly different challenges, but seven stages are normal:
The creation of knowledge centres within the enterprise to allow for the development of expert systems and improved core competence;
The establishment of improved business monitoring systems within each knowledge centre;
Developing parallel planning and monitoring teams as a result of better understanding of the operating environment and giving each the responsibility for operational planning;
Building planning and monitoring teams at a corporate or strategic business unit from knowledge centre staff;
Defining a series of building blocks for future plan development based around the golden circle concept, incorporating consolidation (including cost cutting), market penetration, market development and product/ service development strategies, generating a robust and detailed plan with benchmarks, key performance indicators, balanced scorecard, in-built risk management and contingency planning;
Translating the strategy into clear action plans with tasks, timelines, milestones and individual responsibility and authority for completion as part of action planning and implementation which are incorporated in divisional or enterprise level monitoring systems;
Re-enforcing lessons learnt during the development of planning and monitoring through the modification of standard operating procedures that are specifically appropriate to enterprise requirements.
The timescale for the conversion from a centralised to a decentralised planning system will depend on the speed at which the enterprise wishes to move and existing core competences, but in each case a programme is established with the client which incorporates tasks, timelines and milestones, enabling continual review of the success of the
programme.
The development of such an expert system within the enterprise will drive profitability and productivity, improve levels of core competence while enhancing motivation and reducing the need for high levels of central control.
Ibis offers one or three day training based around its expert system development for the established company;
A business plan game which incorporates key learning material in a less formal approach;
Training based around the use of standard software for the start up enterprise.
These training sessions provide a basis for the enterprise to enhance its planning skills, providing a template which can be steadily introduced into corporate operations.
Ibis has a large collection of general standard operating procedures which have evolved over the years for a variety of key business operations. These can be modified for specific company requirements.
Standard operating procedures enhance productivity; they provide a training format for new and existing staff, and they have enormous value as an audit trail.
Two simple evaluation systems are available on the Ibis web site:
For the established company
For the start up company
A far more detailed report is available for both, using a comprehensive model which incorporates all the latest data from the comparison of forecast and actual outcomes.
A report on a business plan improves objectivity; it will also identify major strengths and weaknesses and areas that need improvement.
