“Nice plan, well-thought out. Conceptually, it makes a lot of sense. What’s next?”

I spend a lot of time at this point in the year, helping companies develop their 2007 business plan. There is no magic to the process. I use a simple model that we teach in our management program.

“What’s next?” I ask again. Ross was thinking. “In what way could you make this plan more effective?”

Finally, Ross spoke up. “Well, we have done a pretty good job of talking about what we want to accomplish, but we haven’t said much about how we are going to do it.”

“So, what might you add to this plan?”

“Action steps?”

“Exactly, it’s all well and good to establish your goals, but you also have to have an action plan. A plan without action just sits on the shelf gathering dust. In fact, that’s what happens with most strategic plans, they just sit there.”

“So, where do we start?” asked Ross.

“At the beginning, of course. That’s why I asked, –what’s next-? Whenever I look at a strategic plan, I always want to know what the next steps are. Next steps convert the plan into action.” -TF