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Paul St John-Wood<br />
PUBTALK<br />
THE IMPORTANCE OF A STRATEGIC PLAN<br />
By now all the holiday festivities have concluded and<br />
you are back to business as normal. From all reports,<br />
most pubs have enjoyed a positive January to kick off<br />
the year which has been very pleasing to hear. I have<br />
assisted a number of hoteliers with formatting strategic<br />
plans for the year ahead – the below information was<br />
provided to hoteliers last year and again it may prove<br />
timely to ask yourselves these questions to ensure you<br />
are focused for the challenges which may lay ahead;<br />
Developing a strategic plan - nine questions publicans<br />
should never stop asking themselves<br />
Your strategic plan should at least prepare you for,<br />
if not predict this evolution based on responses to<br />
the following simple questions. Your responses may<br />
change as rapidly as year to year so it is important<br />
to frequently revisit this strategic process and adapt<br />
where necessary.<br />
1. What business are you in? What business are<br />
you really in?<br />
A typical publican will answer this question by<br />
explaining their alcohol product range or list the<br />
counter meals that they sell. But this is not the<br />
business that you are in. The business that you are in<br />
is customer satisfaction. As a hotelier, you must always<br />
define your business in terms of what your products<br />
and services do to improve the life of your patrons<br />
through their experience and interaction at your hotel.<br />
2. What business will you be in the future, based<br />
on current trends?<br />
In business, the trends are everything. Which way is<br />
the market going for you today, and what changes<br />
do you need to make in your strategic direction to<br />
continue to exceed the expectations of your target<br />
market tomorrow?<br />
3. Who are your patrons? Your ideal patrons?<br />
Your perfect patrons for what you sell?<br />
You can’t hit a target that you can’t see! As society<br />
and culture changes, your ideal customer profile<br />
changes as well.<br />
4. What does your patron consider as value?<br />
What do your patrons want to enjoy or receive from<br />
your products and services more than anything else?<br />
What must your customer be convinced of in order to<br />
frequent your hotel rather than that of someone else?<br />
5. What do you do especially well?<br />
In what areas do you excel? What is your competitive<br />
advantage? What makes your products and services<br />
superior to that of any other offered by the competitors<br />
in your region?<br />
6. What are your goals?<br />
You know the importance of detailed, business<br />
development planning 12, 18 or 24 months ahead.<br />
Before you create a strategic plan of action, you must<br />
know the answers to the following questions: What<br />
are your sales goals for the next year, broken down by<br />
month, or even week and day? What are your goals<br />
for profitability? Most of all, does everyone in your hotel<br />
who is responsible for achieving those goals know<br />
exactly what those goals are?<br />
7. What are the constraints on your business today?<br />
What is holding you back from achieving your goals of<br />
sales, cash flow, and profitability?<br />
Of all the factors that are holding you back from<br />
achieving successful business development, what is<br />
the biggest single factor, and what could you do to<br />
alleviate this constraint?<br />
8. What are the 20% of your activities that can<br />
account for 80% of your results?<br />
What are the 20% of your products or services that<br />
can account for 80% of your sales? What are the<br />
20% of your patrons that account for 80% of your<br />
business? What are the 20% of things that you can do<br />
personally that can account for 80% of your results?<br />
9. Based on your answers to the above<br />
questions, what strategic plan of action should<br />
you take immediately? What should you do now?<br />
What should you stop doing? What products or<br />
services should you discontinue altogether so that<br />
you have more time to work on those few things, that<br />
20%, that can make an enormous difference in your<br />
business?<br />
<strong>QHA</strong> REVIEW | 49