Integrated Tactical Planning

CHAPTER 1Great Execution: An Overview

Do you ever feel that your business signs off on a solid plan every month, but it is never actually delivered? Does everyone seem to be running around putting out the latest fire, crashing from one crisis to another, but thinking that each one is an isolated incident that could not have been predicted? Is your team stressed out with trying to keep their heads above water with all of these changes so that they never actually have any time to work on long‐term fixes for problems and only ever apply a bandage before moving on to the next fire? Or is everyone looking over everyone else's shoulder to make sure that things are done because they either don't trust them to do things or don't really know who should be doing what?

If you feel any of these symptoms apply to you, then read on.

Most businesses now have some form of a monthly planning process that looks to balance supply and demand over at least the current year. This type of process started life as sales and operations planning (S&OP), but Oliver Wight evolved it into what is now known as Integrated Business Planning. What many businesses don't appreciate is that this type of process is fine for the mid‐ to long‐term future to identify and address the gaps in strategy and business plans, but in the short term you need a complementary suite of processes with more frequent cadence and more granularity of detail to actually make the monthly plan happen. This is called Integrated Tactical ...