Objectives by Functional Area
The vision articulated where the company will be at a point in time in the future. To ensure the company achieves these long term goals plans need to be developed by financial period that keep the company on target to success. These plans need to be then broken down by every functional area within the organization (and then further broken down to set key objectives for each individual). Operations, Accounting, Finance, Marketing, H.R. etc All need to have objectives set that ensure each function and every individual goal is aligned with the company objectives.
Resources Required
once Objectives by each functional area have been documented, the company must determine the specific resources that each department need to achieve their goals. This may involve increased capital spending, additional human resources, access to a great piece of the operating cash, special project support etc. Once all the resource allocations have been documented and the company has clarity around that the return on these assets deployed meets investment criteria,they are then incorporated into the plan.
Operating Plan
The overall plan has been determined and now needs to be sequenced by function to establish timing of deployment, the inter-functional relationships and how they will interact. What the measurables are by period. This gets fleshed out into a comprehensive road map of who does what – when, what they need to accomplish by period to achieve their goals and when do they need these resources.
Key Milestones
The Business Plan will intentify the KPI’s by functional period by which the company will know whether it is on track to achieve objectives or not. These KPI’s are broken down by functional are so that the operating group, marketing, accounting, finance, H.R. etc all know where they are in relation to their objectives and each individual has signed off on these milestones to ensure commitment throughout the organization.