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IMPROVE BUSINESS PRACTICE

LEVEL III

Major General Mulugeta Buli Technical College

Holeta Genet
 LEARNING OUTCOMES
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At the end of this module the trainees should be able

to:
 Diagnose the Business

 Benchmark the Business

 Develop Plans to Improve Business Performance

 Develop Marketing and Promotional Plans

 Develop Business Growth Plans

 Implement and Monitor Plans

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Develop Business Growth Plans

 The Implications of Business
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Growth
 A larger firm is likely to be more complex,
demanding and time-consuming.
 It will probably require greater commitment; and
likely to have to spend more time doing things.
 Have to concede some responsibility or control to
others and invest in greater resources, such as larger
premises, more equipment and more employees.
 Growth Options
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Fast growth is easier to achieve in sectors driven by

innovation, and launching new products or services can
fuel considerable growth quickly.
 Most businesses option for gradual, organic growth that

is more manageable and involves less risk.

There are a number of well-established strategies:
 Sell more to existing customers.

 Attract new customers through increased investment in

promotion
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 Expand existing sales channels, or create new

ones.
 Introducing new products or services
 Introduce new technology to your business.

 Create partnerships with other businesses.

 Successfully tendering for contracts

 Networking can introduce you to potential

customers, business partners, investors and mentors.


 Business activities to achieve
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growth
 Regardless of how you choose to grow your business, you
may need to undertake some basic activities to help you reach
your goal.
To support your business' growth objectives, you may need to

get financing to hire new employees or research new markets.

To help you gain efficiencies, you could look at improving

your supply chain, such as finding new suppliers or

outsourcing portions of your operations.
Forming strategic alliances or partnerships with similar or

complementary businesses can be beneficial to both parties.

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 You and your partners can gain efficiencies by sharing

resources, such as distribution channels or marketing
efforts.
 Find resources that may help you undertake those tasks:
 Conducting market research -Learn more about market
research, how it can improve your business decisions,
and how to conduct a market research campaign.
 Grants and financing -Find out how to access funding
for your business.
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 Employees -Discover how to recruit, hire and

effectively manage your employees.
 Expand, move or open a new location -Have you
outgrown your current business location?
 Supply chain management -Effective management of
your supply chain can help you create a seamless
process from pre-production right through to delivery
and consumption.
 R&D and innovation -Innovate to get new products and
services to market or improve your business processes.
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 Get the right advisors for growth -Learn how to find suitable
advisors and manage your relationships with them.
 Business Retention and Expansion Program -Increase your
competitiveness by participating in a business retention and
expansion project.
 Importance of knowledge to a growing business -Discover available
information sources, the best way to use the information, and learn
how to create a knowledge strategy for your business.
 Review your business performance -Identify the steps in assessing
your business' performance and learn how to highlight areas that
could be improved.
 Developing Plans to Add New Clients
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 Before you can find new customers and increase sales, you
need to understand
 who your customer is.
 What value proposition you offer to customers, and
 what your competition is currently offering in the market

and
 where there are gaps for a new entrant.

 "Attracting more customers is really about listening to their

needs, not being a solution looking for a problem.“
 "There are many existing problems out there that need to be
solved that customers are willing to pay for today."
 5.3 Developing an Action Plan
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 Generally action plans are limited to a small and

manageable number of goals.
 This helps to keep the plan realistic and achievable.
 For each action you should identify:
 The timeframe and priorities for each action.
 The people who will be responsible for undertaking each
action.
 Specific performance indicators to help you determine in
the future whether your business has succeeded in
achieving the business goal.
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 An important step is being able to evaluate within a set

period of time if the action plan has been a success.
 To evaluate your action plan, go back to the initial
objectives you set out and decide if they have worked,
not worked or are in the process of being achieved.
 Be critical of each objectives success or failure in this
stage.
 If your original targets were too optimistic, then you need to admit
this so that you will be able to move on.
 Steps to Develop a Plan for
Action
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 Planning is preparatory to action. Analytically at

least, planning must be separated from
implementation so that the major policy decisions
can be taken and their implications understood prior
to action
1 Express your solution as a series of goals
Having agreed on a solution to a particular problem
within your organization, you first need to define
that solution in terms of number of goals and
objectives.
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 2 Generate a list of Actions for each goal

Use brainstorming to compile a list of actions to achieve
a particular goal and record these below the goal.
Arrange this list of suggested actions in sequential order.
3 Prepare a timeline
Beginning with a time point labeled "now" and ending
with a point labeled "goal achieved", build a timeline on
which you allocate dates by which you intend to
complete each of the sequential actions listed under a
particular goal.
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 4 Allocate resources
Financial, physical and human resources must be
allocated to each action step. If resources are limited, or
fall short of requirements at any stage, it may be
necessary to return to an earlier step and revise the action
plan.
5 Identify possible problems
Consider all of the things that could go wrong in the
process of achieving a particular goal. List these
problems and identify causes and suitable actions to
resolve them.
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 6 Develop strategies for monitoring progress

List ways in which progress of the action plan can be
monitored.
 7 Assign tasks
 Take each point on the timeline in turn and ask :
 Allocate these tasks to appropriate individuals or teams.
8 Estimate costs
Give consideration to any expenditure required to
complete the task. All costs will have to be taken into
account when preparing a budget.
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 9 Implement the plan

Translate all your information to a clean copy,
listing the actions required, the person responsible
for a particular task, and when that task is to be
completed.
 Reviewing Work Practices to Ensure Growth Plans
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 As a Team Leader you perform and oversee or guide a

number of tasks every day.
 Each task has its own end to end process.
 When learning a new task or training someone to perform a
task, you should focus on understanding the process
followed to complete the task successfully.
 Processes ensure that:
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 Roles are clearly defined so that everyone

impacted by the task is aware of their
responsibilities
 Every component of the task is completed to

an agreed standard
 Business rules are adhered to

 Industry codes and legislation are observed

 Who is to be Involved?
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 Your first step is to determine the key players or

stakeholders in the process. Stakeholders can
include:
 End users
 Customers
 Suppliers
 Other Departments
 Management
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Implement and Monitor Plans

 Developing Implementation Plan with Relevant
Stakeholders
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 The implementation plan details the activities and

overall timeline for each work stream.
 It specifies who is accountable for each of the activities,
the resources required, and the methodologies needed to
ensure quality and management of risks.
 The plan is a management tool and must be revisited
regularly to determine the progress essential to achieve
the outcomes set out in the strategy.
 The expected outputs of each activity have been fully or
partially achieved by unit.
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 The expected outputs of each activity have been

fully or partially achieved by your unit, you may be
able to skip some of the activities.
 Articulate the desired end-state envisioned with:
 (a) a detailed roadmap including milestones,
 (b) within a realistic timeline, and
 (c) with clear accountability.
 Establish Indicators of Success Plan
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Indicators help you decide whether your program is effective and

successful.
 They are the units of measurement used to assess the extent to

which objectives have been met.

They help answer the questions:
 How will you know the program has been implemented?

 How will you know the objective has been achieved?

 How will you measure progress toward your desired outcome?

 How will you know what is different after your program?[

 Monitor Implementation
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 Good management practices include regular monitoring on

both a short- and long-term basis.
 An effective monitoring process provides ongoing, systematic
information that strengthens plan implementation.
 The monitoring process provides an opportunity to:
 i. Compare implementation efforts with original goals and targets,
 ii. Determine whether sufficient progress is being made toward
achieving expected results,
 iii. Determine whether the time schedule is observed.
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 Monitoring is not an event that occurs at the end of a

management cycle, but rather is an ongoing process
that helps decision-makers to better understand the
effectiveness of the action or system.
 An effective monitoring and evaluation programme
requires collecting and analyzing important data on
a periodic basis throughout the management cycle of
a business.
 Monitor Implementation …
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Monitoring Indicators are of four types, namely;

 Input indicators: describe what goes on in the

project
 Output indicators: describe the project activity

 Outcome indicators: describe the product of the

activity
 Impact indicators: measure change in conditions

of the community
 Adjust Implementation as Required
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 What can management do to plan and implement a change programme more

effectively?
 The key stages in a successful change venture are likely to be to:
 Identify the changes required (a role here for SWOT and PEST analysis)
 Determine the major issues
 Identify and assess the key stakeholders
 Win the support of key individuals
 Identify the obstacles
 Determine the degree of risk and the cost of change
 Understand why change will be resisted and how it can be managed
 Adjust Implementation as Required
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 People are the key factor in overcoming resistance to

change.
 The successful implementation of new working methods
and practices or integrating new businesses into a group is
dependent upon the willing and effective co-operation of
employees and management.
 Many change initiatives and programmes fail because they
are derailed by the “people factor”!
 A key part of successful change is, therefore, building and
communicating the reasons & the vision for change. 
 Adjust Implementation as Required …
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Employees need to be clear about what a change involves and

how they are involved in it:
 What is involved?

 What are the proposed changes?

 What is the timescale?

 Why should we do it?

 What will the major effects be?

 Ways to implement change
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 Great ideas do not offer much if you can't put

them into action.
Use these key rules to make change happen.
Get Executive Management on Message
 Management communications should be

short, clear and consistent when explaining

the reason for the change.
 Ways to implement change …
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Position the Change

 If you want acceptance of a new idea, position it in such

a way that busy people with competing priorities can

process quickly.
 Here are three possible positions:

 Force the change by eliminating the old system.

 Create context choices that favor the change. People need
a framework to evaluate against.
 Frame consequences in a negative context.
Show the alternative to change as being even scarier.
 Ways to implement change …
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Make It Safe and Celebrate Success

 You create the positive experience when people

feel that the implementation.

 This is where task leadership and communication

have the greatest impact.

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Thank you for your time.