Advice Counts By Mike Kunkel profitteammike@gmail.com

Strategic Planning Process

trategic planning deals with 4 pri- mary points that need to be identi- fied. Here is a concise explanation of an effective plan. 1. Where are we

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A goal must be reasonably attainable in order to have any value (80% confidence level is the number I use for sales goals).

2. What do we have to work with 3. Where do we want to be 4. How do we get there

Where are we?

When planning, we need to know where we currently are at. Is there a par- ticular problem that we are working to solve or plotting a long-term direction for the company? Being honest with the assessment of the situation will start the process from a realistic position.

What do we have to work with? Being realistic with the assets that you

have is very important. We have people, money, and things as assets and all have a somewhat limited supply. We have to know the good and bad of all 3 of those areas. We cannot ask people to do things that they are not capable of. This is also to know their strengths and weaknesses.

Where do we want to be? What is our goal? This can be a short-

or long-term goal but we need to clearly identify what we are trying to accomplish. If you do not know where you are going, all roads lead there.

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How do we get there? We now know where we are starting

and where we are going to end up. We have also identified what we have avail- able to work with. The final piece of the plan is the steps that are required to meet the objective. The longer it is going to take to accomplish the goal, the more milestones to measure will be required. A goal must be reasonably attainable in order to have any value (80% confidence level is the number I use for sales goals). Various measurement points need to be determined and a time table attached. Once measuring points have been set, the details can be filled in and tasked out. The teammates can be consulted at any point in time but once the measure- ment points have been set, they need to be involved so that the people responsi- ble take ownership of their portion of the plan.

Mike Kunkel has 35 years’ experience in the auto industry, with 20 years serving as general manager of a salvage facility. He is immediate past president and a founding member of TEAM PRP, a noted speaker, and past chair of the Used

Parts Committee at the Collision Industry Council. His ex- pertise is streamlining processes and maximizing the rev- enues per employee, measuring historical data when buying to build a growth/profit strategy, and the Pinnacle system.