The Art of Backward Planning: Mapping Out the Path to Success

The Art of Backward Planning: Mapping Out the Path to Success

Begin with the end in mind!

The first I heard of this strategy is when I read “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” back in the 90’s. One of the habits is to “Begin with the end in mind”. After reading that book as a management team we started to spend a lot of time figuring out exactly where we wanted to end up. Just saying “more” is a murky destination.

We were a little company doing no more than 5M a year in revenue and we finally agreed on a target of 100 million in revenue. Laughable at first, really by all of us, but we started to at least brainstorm on what 100M would look like as an organization and worked backwards.

Long story short 15 years later with a lot of help, hard work and luck we hit 100m and coincidentally that seemed about the right time to sell the company (Datastream) and we all went on our merry ways. Amazing what a good goal and some backward planning will do.

So what are some of the things we decided we needed to do to get to 100m?

The first thing was to recognize and agree that what we were doing was NOT getting us there. We decided we needed a few experts to help us with hiring sales reps that could sell more and larger deals, marketing experts to help us refine our message, a finance expert that that knew how to structure the company and financials to get big and be attractive to a buyer one day and a few other experts. It is amazing the value we received from experts that would charge us for a day or two of knowledge transfer in their field. One guy charged us 10k for one day’s consulting and feedback – his advice turned out to be worth millions!

We also had help to figure out how to become a public company and to do acquisitions and even figured out how to do business with more overseas companies eventually becoming 50% or our company revenue!

Like a bad golf swing, it doesn’t help going to the driving range and hitting more balls. Get the coaching you need to grow (or to fix your slice).

When something doesn't go as planned, tweak your approach and take the attitude that these surprises are not surprised at all – we expect a few along the way and some surprises will be helpful!

By breaking down the giant leap into manageable steps, you're less likely to feel overwhelmed. We found a yearly focus was good and would track all year toward the yearly goal. Going from 5M to 100M seems daunting but its only 17.5% aa year growth for 15 years! If you can figure out a comfortable growth rate, then it’s just how long you can keep doing it!

We also found this approach Enhances Motivation as seeing a clear path makes the journey more engaging. You can track progress, celebrate milestones, and stay motivated as everyone knows the goal and where things stand.

The Art of Backward Planning is not about predicting the future but shaping it. You begin with the end in mind, you're not just navigating through life; you're designing your journey. So, pick your destination, map out your steps, and start planning “back into the future”.

Spot on John. The right building blocks of vision make all the difference. One of my all time favorite foundational books.

Marty Osborn

Helping Entrepreneurs and Business leaders succeed in both business and life. Speaker, Author, Mentor, and Business Owner.

1mo

They call this "Intentionality" My favorite word.

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