Integrated Business Planning Toolkit
...cont'd

Facilitated by Charles P. Sitkin

Use this Plan as a guide and as a format. As you work through your plan, try to understand the message the BMIA planners were attempting to convey and model your message in a similar manner for your unique situation. It is useful to note that in the preparation of this plan, the issues analysis was documented separately. This is a stylistic decision; if it serves your purposes you may want to include a summary of the issues analysis forms in your plan and/or the forms themselves as an appendix.

As each element of the plan is introduced, there is a note to the facilitator presented in a box. This is followed by the BMIA example and additional explanatory text. When first drafting your plan, it is suggested that this text be retained so that your readers will have a context for their reviews. As you work through the process, replace the examples in each section with your organization’s specific information.

Introduction   |   Current Situation   |   Mission Statement   |
Strategic Excellence Positions   |   Goals and Objectives   |
Action Plans   |    Appendices   |   Appendix 2: Action Plans

Introduction

The bread machine industry sales are $400 million annually. These sales are spurred by the appliance manufacturers who have sold to over 15 percent of the U. S. households. The growth of bread machine sales and sales of the additional products it has spawned have changed the way Americans make and eat bread. It is anticipated that the manufacturers will sell an additional four million units this year.

The Bread Machine Industry Association (BMIA) was recently formed to assure the long term life span of this industry category and to further the sales of all its segments—the appliances, ingredients, premixes, accessories, and cookbooks. As observed by A. J. R, an industry researcher, the customer that is considering buying a bread machine today is not from the same consumer group that triggered sales of the first bread machines. Today’s customers are less upscale, less risk takers, and less knowledgeable about the product. These potential consumers need to know more about making bread than the risk-taking consumers that preceded them.

Additionally, there is a need for a common language to be used between the members of the industry themselves, for the industry to attain its full potential.

The BMIA was created to meet the needs of this growing industry. The Association’s challenge is to define and prove its relevance to its members. In order to find its focus and begin the action-oriented phase of its evolution, the Association held a strategic planning session November 7-8, 1996, in San Diego.* Prior to the meeting, the consultant engaged to facilitate the session conducted a telephone survey with 21 of the Association’s 26 members. The results of the survey are included as an appendix to this document. This document constitutes the plan developed during the session and provides the action plans to which the BMIA is committed in the coming year.

The plan is presented in the following order:

• Mission Statement
• Strategic Excellence Positions
• Goals and Objectives
• Action Plans.

To be successful in executing this strategy, there must be a commitment to the action plans. They must be monitored during the coming year and the plan itself reviewed and modified as conditions change and defined efforts are accomplished.

*  The names and organizations of the BMIA members participating in the Strategic Planning Session appear in Appendix 1.

The foundation for this for this strategic plan was established through discussions between the participants of the strategic planning session, and extensive telephone interviews with 21 of the Association’s 26 members. A copy of the Member Survey is included in this document as an appendix. The environment into which the BMIA is entering can be characterized in the following manner:

• Vendors are isolated from other vendors;
• Retailers are isolated, because of competition, from each other;
• The industry (stakeholders) is composed of:
• Manufacturers
• Retailers
• Consumers
• Engineers and technicians
• Sales associations
• Accessories distributors
• Ingredient manufacturers
• Premix manufacturers
• Cookbook publishers
• Media/Public relations firms;
• Industry members’ resources are limited for participation in joint activities; and
• BMIA has yet to establish itself as a critical player in the industry.

The BMIA members at the strategic planning session recognized they had their work cut out for them and that the BMIA has the important, yet difficult job, of helping the industry help itself.

Mission Statement

A mission statement for an organization includes the purpose and values of that enterprise. The mission statement articulates, in an enduring way, the reason for the very existence of an organization. It clearly states who the beneficiaries should be, and the nature and quality of what the enterprise can provide in a manner better than any other type or form of similar entities. The statement of purpose sets the direction for the enterprise. The values, the shared beliefs of the members of the enterprise, define the criteria to be used in the development and management of the enterprise’s strategies for meeting its objectives.

The mission of the BMIA is:

Mission

The mission of the Bread Machine Industry Association is to expand and promote the long-term growth and use of all aspects of the bread machine industry for the mutual benefit of our members and consumers.

Strategic Excellence Positions

Strategic success means to achieve better and more stable results than any other similar organization. Achieving that requires superior competence, or the ability to excel, in a set of distinctive capabilities that have special value to a particular part of the marketplace.

Excellence by itself is not enough. It must be excellence in areas of strategic significance, i.e., that determine the outcome of competition in the marketplace.

That strategic excellence then forms the basis for the organization to achieve better results than its competition. In this sense it is a position that the enterprise "occupies" from which follows strategic success.

A Strategic Excellence Position (SEP) sets forth that position of strategic importance that can be accomplished by an enterprise better than any other organization. For a SEP to be useful and relevant, it must be able to be accomplished by the enterprise with excellence and it must be in an area that contributes to the future of the enterprise’s key stakeholders.

Two Strategic Excellence Positions have been chosen for the BMIA:

Strategic Excellence Positions

1. Provide for the Unified Presence of the bread machine industry category in its marketplace.

2. Provide for Intra-industry communications within the bread machine industry.

The goals, objectives, and supporting action plans flow from and focus this strategic plan around these two SEPs.

Goals and Objectives

Goals and Objectives define the way in which an enterprise attains its SEPs.

Goals expand on the mission statement. Although more specific, they are still broad statements of the organization’s aspirations for the future. They are generally timeless, enduring, and often not measurable in quantitative terms.

Objectives are achievements that are specific and measurable—or at least can be assessed. They are internally focused, indicating desired results for specific internal organizations and people. Performance against these objectives will be the primary indicator for judging whether the BMIA goals are being achieved.

Since objectives, once approved, become the yardsticks to measure the Association’s performance, consideration must be given to constraints under which the Association and its members operate—principally availability of members’ time and financial commitment.

SEP One—A Unified Presence in the Marketplace

There is a need to educate consumers about the benefits of bread machines, facilitate their purchase decisions, and encourage usage.

Goal One

Educate consumers about the benefits of bread machines, facilitate their purchase decisions, and encourage usage.

OBJECTIVES

1.1  To create a media kit for distribution to key newspapers, magazines, and the 1997 Housewares Show by January 10, 1997.

1.2  To develop, publish, and distribute a consumer "How to choose a breadmaker" brochure—via multiple vehicles by June 30, 1997. Create a simple neutral brochure available in quantity to the membership, on what a bread machine is and how to select the best bread machine for the family by June 30, 1997.

1.3  To host a New York City magazine editors event "Coming Out Party" for all new bread machine products (members Only) by June 30, 1997.

1.4  To explore partnerships with like minded industry associations for the purpose of producing a jointly sponsored media campaign in 1997.

1.5  To increase the membership to fifty (50) by 9/30/97.

1.6  To evaluate and report on the possibility of a BMIA web page by August 31, 1997.

1.7 To develop a plan for the production of a standardized (neutral) presentation to be announced at the 1997 annual meeting. The presentation to be used by the members to further the B/M industry.

1.8  To increase operational revenues to $75,000 for FY 1998.

SEP Two—Intra-industry Communications

There is a need for on-going dialogue, alliances, and participation among members in the interest of growing the industry and BMIA’s sphere of influence.

Establish regular and on-going communications between bread machine industry participants and by so doing establish BMIA as the authority on bread machines and related products in the minds of its membership, retailers, the media, opinion leaders, and consumers.

2.1  To host a "State of the industry' seminar at the January Housewares Appliance Show featuring latest statistics and forecasts.

2.2  To publish a quarterly newsletter for members, that provide a regular update on industry goings-on by 12/31/96 concentrating upon the following areas:

• clipping review
• FIND/SVP
• members profile
• events and activities.

2.3  To develop a technical paper, by September 1997, which identifies the elements for successful bread machine usage, and recommends common terms, and terminology for presentation and release at the annual meeting

2.4  To hold the 2nd annual meeting in September 1997 to provide members with an overview on the status of the industry and showcase the achievements and future plans of the BMIA.

Action Plans

Action plans are the specific means by which objectives are accomplished. They incorporate five factors:

1. The specific steps or actions necessary to accomplish the objective it supports.
2. Who will be held accountable for seeing that each step or action is completed.
3. When these steps or actions are to be carried out.
4. What resources need to be allocated in order to carry out each step or action.
5. What the feedback mechanism is to be able to track the progress of an action step or action and to know when it has been completed.

An action plan to support each of the previously defined objectives is presented in Appendix 2

Appendices

This document has two appendices:

• Appendix 1: Session Participants (Not included in this example), and
• Appendix 2: Action Plans.

Appendix 2: Action Plans

This appendix contains the Action Plans corresponding to the Objectives for the BMIA defined in Chapter V—Goals and Objectives. (Two examples of Action Plans are presented below.)