Let’s talk about annual planning

At the beginning of 2024, it is time to make an annual plan. So, how to make an annual plan? This article summarizes the relevant process and hopes it will be helpful to you.

Note: What I am talking about here is not personal planning, but how I, as the head of an organization, think about what to do, how to do it, and what to achieve in the coming year.

Whenever I receive such a topic, I will evaluate my performance over the past year, make a judgment based on some insights into future trends, and finally propose new goals based on this judgment and make plans accordingly.

When thinking about my goals, I always ask myself: What is the focus of this year?

• For students working in marketing, it may be: convert the budget into advertising resources and arrange them throughout the year.
• For students working in operations, it may be: turning the budget into various activities to attract new customers and conversions.
• …

These cannot be said to be wrong, but we still have to go back to the starting point and think about it.

The origin is vision, mission and values. It may sound a bit "virtual" but it is actually very "real".

What should we think about when we return to the starting point?

Is what you are going to do next in line with your mission? Is it helpful to achieve your vision? Does your action reflect your values?

For example, the most familiar Double Eleven was not originally intended to let singles celebrate the holiday. Instead, November was originally the off-season for traditional retail, and the purpose was to help merchants boost sales and clear inventory at the end of the year. As a result, the off-season was even turned into a peak season.

When we look back, we will find that its existence is still on the way to fulfilling its mission: to make it easier to do business in the world.

At this point we understand that when making plans, we must go back to the starting point and then propose strategic goals for the year.

For example, the mission of the non-profit organization I worked for in the past was to forge an independent, forward-looking and responsible group of young citizens through creative socialization actions.

Based on this I need to figure out:

• Which target groups to reach?
• what cognitive actions to address;
• Which key results are to be driven?

After sorting, we can get: covering xx people, allowing them to move from state A to state B, and ultimately producing xx results.

However, the target population will not change according to our ideas for no reason, so there is still a process of intervention.

We also need to solve the following problems:

• Key points throughout the year;
• resource management and allocation;
• Content and form of communication;

Solving the above problems will form a complete narrative thread:

At what time, what resources should be organized, in what way, and which groups of people should be covered to enable them to transform from state A to state B and ultimately produce xx results.

The main narrative line of a single year is determined by the organization's strategy.

For example, some organizations may have insight into future trend changes and start planning a few years in advance. Then the main narrative thread of each year is to serve this strategy. Usually, we can interpret it by taking stock of a company's marketing actions throughout the year.

In terms of a one-year period, we can see: Spring Festival, Valentine's Day, Women's Day, May Day, 520, Mother's Day, Children's Day, Father's Day, Dragon Boat Festival, Chinese Valentine's Day, Mid-Autumn Festival, National Day, Double Ninth Festival, Christmas, New Year's Day, Winter Solstice...

For example, female users will prefer various Valentine's Days, gifts for elders will choose traditional festivals, etc., and stationery or 3C digital products will be given at the beginning of the school year.

Simply planning according to the holidays and filling up the year will not really achieve your goals. On the contrary, you are kidnapped by these nodes.

Before doing this, we have to do:

1. Clarify the strategic focus of the year and break down the core tasks

For example, our strategic focus for a certain year was to cultivate 1,000 outstanding young social leaders (equivalent to today's KOLs or benchmarks).

At this time, we need to break down what the core tasks are.

• Overall goal: 1,000 outstanding young social leaders
• Phase goals: time point, school, city, number
• Operational model: operating core projects + executing campus activities
• Business model: Brand authorization, no cooperation with other institutions
• Collaborative resources: type, function, quantity

2. Adjustment of business structure

For example: a team responsible for the development and growth of the community, a team responsible for project operations, and a team responsible for resource management. Make clear the goals and responsibilities of each team.

3. Break down the main battles of this year

For example, for us, our main target group is college students.

The beginning of each school year is a critical time for us to enter the campus. It not only carries the expansion of the campus team, but also is the best opportunity to operate the project. In addition to these two time points, winter and summer vacations are also important opportunities for us.

4 time points, 4 battles. This determines where my focus should be for the year, and then I match resources according to the goals. Then I consider more fine-grained time points to set the work rhythm for the whole year.

4. Take stock of the team’s execution status

Are there any relevant mechanisms for management, such as the real-time status of team members, whether there are records, reviews, evaluations, feedback, etc., and whether things can be used to train people, cultivate them, promote them, etc.

5. Review of execution results

Here we need to return to the goal and strategy. We need to provide comprehensive feedback, such as whether our team members care about and approve of what we do, and whether our target audience really feels the value.

Planning is the construction of a blueprint, and planning is the specific implementation.

There are two core elements to implement the plan, namely: budget and KPI management.

1. About the budget

When making annual plans, everyone always encounters a problem: how to ask the boss for money?

Regarding this issue, most people believe that if you want the boss to pay, you have to calculate the accounts carefully, such as the cost and benefits of an event, so that he will be willing to pay.

But that’s not the case.

For example, among my community members, there is a classmate who plans to find influencers on Xiaohongshu to promote content and wants to apply for a budget.

Then she searched for some information about competitors, and then analyzed the various modules to estimate the budgets of competitors in various places. Finally, she calculated a more accurate input-output ratio and tried to convince her boss, but she didn't expect her boss to refuse decisively.

Why was it rejected? This reflects the boss's concern: Can you spend money wisely?

There are actually two questions: Have you ever spent money? The other is how much you spend?

When I was still at the executive level, I was tortured by this problem.

My boss’s approach at the time was to set an effect requirement for each activity, and then set a budget limit. Then she would ask me to come up with a budget, and finally make a final settlement. What this actually reflected was the requirement for my resource management ability, that is, to what extent could I spend the money?

So the boss’s general thinking is: I’ll give you some resources and see how well you can do it. If you can do it well, I’ll increase the investment.

Therefore, the correct way to persuade your boss to give you more budget should be: use the minimum cost to step on the pit, and then find out the core key to make it happen. Only then will it be effective for you to persuade your boss.

2. About KPIs

Every company is more or less different, but when I formulate KPIs, I usually make a division: one corresponding to people and one corresponding to things.

It is generally related to the capability model of people, and it is generally related to the indicators broken down from the business.

The specific method of determination will not be elaborated here.

The above is today’s sharing, I hope it will inspire you.

Author: Zhizhong

WeChat public account: Shixian Operation (ID: yyshixian)