Chapter 1: Planning
Create no small blueprint. Dare to dream the big dream. Once a big dream is recorded, it will never die, until you can touch it with your hand – and see it with your eye.
Earl Nightingale
Thomas I. Watson, the founder of IBM, was asked to what he attributed IBM’s great success. Mr. Watson said it boiled down to these three things.
1. Have a clear picture of what the final product will look like when it is finished.
“At the start, we had a model in mind of what IBM would look like when our vision was in place,” he said.
2. Decide how the product will act.
“We created a picture of how IBM would look when the dream was in place, and then how such a company would have to act. We realized that unless we acted that way from the beginning, we would never get there.”
3. Measure progress on a regular basis.
“Each day,” observed Mr. Watson, “we asked ourselves how we did. We discovered the difference between where we were and where we were committed to be. The next day we set out to make up for the difference.”
Planning comes before the doing.
Watson’s three-pronged approach to building a successful organization all began with the building of a clear-cut vision and a commitment to a model carried in his mind. So must yours!
If your principles can become dated, they’re not principles.
Warren Buffett
Unspectacular Preparation
Surprisingly, most agency builders don’t take the time to construct in advance a blueprint for success. They have no five-year plan or operational plan. Why? Because planning is inglorious. It’s not exciting. There’s seldom instant feedback. Most agency building success stories don’t appear suddenly and fully formed; they bloom over the years as intelligently set benchmarks are reached.
We often quote Roger Staubach’s reflection used in his response after being introduced at Canton, Ohio, on his selection to the professional football Hall of Fame. Roger stated, “Spectacular achievements are almost always the result of unspectacular preparation!” That’s true in life—and in agency building.
Planning Before Doing
Planning comes before the doing—and planning is just as important as the doing. Planning focuses on philosophical beliefs, organizational structure, production and producer numbers.
Your attitude and thinking exert an enormous influence on what happens in the organization. You play the dominant role. You provide the directional force that brings about the desired results. Making the right things happen is achieved when you consistently reinforce the basics and demonstrate your belief in them.
Commitment climbs when your associates see your passion. They catch the feeling. Commitment is highly contagious.
The more consuming your commitment, the more your associates will rally to the cause and the achievement of your plan. Your passion and intensity—your focus, drive and dedication—carry the maximum influence over the level of commitment you can expect from associates.
Like it or not, you set the climate. Associates always take a reading on the individual in charge. When it comes to building the plan and gaining total commitment to its fulfillment, you must take the lead.
Attitude is the speaker of our present; it is the prophet of our future.
Make your commitment to a growth plan so exciting that it becomes a cause, and watch your agency come alive. It’s worth noting that Martin Luther King shouted, “I have a dream!” and he created a crusade.
Build A Five-Year Plan – Key Questions
Carefully study Exhibit 1.3, the Five-Year Model. This simplified format will prove helpful to you when thinking through your answers to the big question: What do you want your organization to look like at the end of one year? At the end of two years . . . or in 60 short months—five years?
In order to plan intelligently for the desired results, you’ll need to think about your responses to these important questions with respect to the next 60 months.
- What will be your production objectives?
- How many starters will you need each year? What retention rate must you achieve? What must be their per-capita productivity?
- What kind of training program will you need? Will you have sufficient facilities? Will you need a training specialist?
- What kind of support services will you be expected to offer?
- Will you need to develop new markets? Which ones? How? When?
- How large a staff will you require? Administrative? Marketing?
- What size of a management team must you attract, develop and appoint? How many specialists?
- What facilities, equipment and computer support will you need?
- What will be the amount of your budget?
Again, carefully study the example provided in Exhibit 1.3. This was a scratch organization in 1990. Toda...