If Not Now The When?

Posted: May 27, 2015 by Jaime Stenning

The excuses for not buying now are many:

• too small,
• too big,
• too soon,
• too fast,
• too slow,
• too expensive,
• too complicated.

But sometimes the hesitancy to buy is not about the seller and the seller’s service but about the internal thought processes of the buyer. More specifically, I am curious about why people don’t buy into a process that they know, in their heart of hearts, is one that they not only want but also need for the development and growth of their business.

The need for what is called strategic planning is recognised as being a cornerstone of developing, running and growing an organisation. There are plenty of trite quotes like, ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ and so on. However, at the core it is pretty much universally recognised that it is better to have a plan than no plan. And it is better to have considered the various options while being aware of the changing pressures in the business environment. I call it making your mistakes on paper.

Despite strategic business planning being almost like ‘motherhood and apple pie’, a good thing, something that is required, I am still astounded at how so many people manage to delay or put off the process.  This is madness as a little bit of thinking and reflecting can help to direct and focus one’s actions on what is important and to understand what one’s priorities are.

Why would one not want the sense of order?

If we are doing a big shop we prepare a shopping list. If we are going to build our own house we bring in an architect to design it before we start buying the bricks and roof tiles. Yet so many businesses delay or postpone getting their own ducks in a row.

I’ve been doing a bit of research to understand why so many postpone what they know makes sense. Answers vary but can be grouped together as follows:

• “Cash-flow is tight right now but it is at the top our list of things to do next financial year.”
• “We are still building the platform so that we are ready to do the work properly when it starts.”
• “It will be the next thing we do when we have finished the new website/rebrand…”

I suspect that the real reasons are:

• Cash flow and/or profitability and/or sales are tight
• Petrified of having to do even more work
• Petrified of not being able to deliver
• Petrified that the business won’t look quite so pretty with a ‘warts and all’ examination
• Pure ignorance, stupidity or negligence.

Why has such a fundamental and powerful process (when done properly) got such a bad name?

Robert Craven
rc@directorscentre.com
01225 851 044