Go beyond planning, execute

Entrepreneurship

Matters

Dr Kudzanai Vere

Almost all well-to-do organisations spend some time either before year-end or at the beginning of each year in some resort town with external consultants on some strategic planning sessions. The biggest question is: Of all that you have strategised and planned for, were they implemented to the letter?

It is good to plan and best to implement a strategy that comes up with a game plan. It only make sense to go ahead and play the game rather than just having a game plan whose game will never be played. What makes individuals and businesses famous is not the length and depth of their plans or strategy but executional excellence.

Do not just plan, execute. Oftentimes plans and strategic documents are shelved after the week-long expensive strategy retreat. You then wonder the motive behind the expense. As we get into the meaning of business, plan and execution, you will notice that without execution, there is no business to talk about.

What do you think a business is?

A business is defined by Wikipedia as the activity of making one’s living or making money by producing or buying and selling products. The issue of service provision can also come in as part of business.

On the other hand, Investopedia defines business as an organisation or enterprising entity engaged in commercial, industrial or professional activities.

Of these two definitions of business, we can extract some verbs defining what business is such as making, producing, buying, selling and enterprising. All these are doing words. Business is, therefore, full of doing things rather than talking about doing or planning about doing.

The difference between those who succeed and those who struggle and later resign in business and life in general lies in the way they do things.

Because of the various literature and exposure, almost everyone is trying to do something but the difference comes when you then try and find the how part of it.

If you visit certain companies, you might be greeted by some activity but without any visible progress. So, busyness does not translate to business. To get results, you must be busy doing the right things, at the right time and at the right place.

Planning is not enough

Progress and success are proof that there are people who have gone beyond the drafting into actually implementing the planned. How many of you have house plans drawn for the stands bought years back and they are still renting? I have not seen anyone staying in a building plan. The paper can only make sense to your kids and visitors when it is converted into a building through the necessary executional steps.

Supplying, buying, selling, manufacturing and servicing speak of action. It is good to have a plan but it can only benefit your organisation and the community when executed, otherwise in its plan state, it will remain just a paper marred with ink.

As a business going into 2023, do not waste time planning if you know you are not going to implement the plan. Time is of the essence. Do not just go to those strategic planning sessions as a ritual. They must bring positive impact and transformation to your organisation.

On planning, there is this important issue of planning within the resources that you have. A business plan without resource backup can easily suffer a stillbirth. Execution is, therefore,  necessitated by the availability of the means to do so, which are the resources.

Execute

How many action steps and daily plans died in your diaries? December and January come with a hype of activity, people buying, while others request diaries from their business colleagues, suppliers and counterparts to write some new year resolutions and action plans as they navigate the year.

Ask them mid-year how they would have gone with their plans. Some would not even know the whereabouts of the diaries. Embrace a culture of executing plans. Do not just write down, follow up and do it.

The word execute is derived from a Latin word exsequi, which is a combination of the prefix ex- and a suffix -sequi. Ex- means out and -sequi stands for follow. So, the word exsequi means follow up. So, the word execute means to follow up, implement, carry out or accomplish.

Execution translates business plans into actual businesses. You see people ordering, buying and selling as a result of execution. Do not just know, talk about or plan it, move a gear higher and execute.

Executional efficiency comes as a result of that extra effort that others put within their work. This makes them outstanding and achieve better results than others in business. I have heard in business circles people saying 2022 was a difficult year. There has never been an easy year. It is the way you respond to the situations that you encounter within that year that makes you outstanding or outlashed.

In the same year you are complaining about, others are celebrating milestones. It goes back to how you execute your plan.  Execution converts capital into business, raw material into finished goods, ideas into ground-breaking innovations. So, as you get into 2023, execution efficiency must be your mantra. Do not just plan, execute.

The writer, Dr Kudzanai Vere, is an entrepreneur, serial award-winning transformational speaker in the areas of entrepreneurship, business development, leadership development and organisation development. He is the CEO of the Institute of Entrepreneurs Zimbabwe. He can be contacted on +263719592232, email [email protected]