Building strategies will help you to achieve your goals. But unless you're equipped to act on these strategies, strategies are all they will remain.
This is where an annual plan comes in. Remember, your financial budget is not an annual plan, although it will naturally be an important part of one. Budgets only focus on outcomes so they don't provide you with the necessary guidance on how to get there.
Plan for the future
Planning is about discipline and the tourism industry presents unique challenges in this regard. In a customer-facing environment, it's hard to structure each day and as a result it’s not that surprising that planning might not always be as effective as it could be.
Some tourism operators make the mistake in believing that because things are going reasonably well, then a lack of planning is not a problem for them. This kind of mentality can be dangerous.
It takes time to see the benefits of effective planning, just as it does to see the damage that arises from not planning. Just because things look good today doesn’t mean that there aren’t seeds growing which will produce problems later.
Adapt your plan to your own circumstances
Your annual plan should therefore define the range of finance, marketing, human resources and operational actions necessary to implement your strategies in any given year. The approach you take to developing this plan will depend upon your specific circumstances but whatever process you adopt, it should be structured, organised and occur within a defined timeframe usually aligned to your financial year.
Prepare your annual plan along this five-step model for maximum efficiency:
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September (of the current financial year)
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Step 1: Identify the broad priorities and targets to be addressed in the annual plan for the following year. Make concrete links between your goals and strategies.
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Step 2: Meet with your key managers and employees and outline targets (financial and non-financial) for their area in the following year. These targets should again be related to achieving your overall goals and strategies.
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Step 3: Key managers and employees should then draft action plans for their relevant areas based on the agreed targets. These action plans identify what needs to be done, by whom and by when.
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Step 4: Finalise the annual business plan (a number of meetings may be required to achieve this). Summarise all financial, marketing, operational and human resource actions under one integrated plan.
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December (of the current financial year)
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Step 5: By now, your annual plan should be finalised and sent to stakeholders, with all relevant points summarised.
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Your annual plan doesn’t have to be a detailed document but simply well thought out with actions defined, implementation schedules and responsibilities agreed.