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Essential Business Execution Plans For Start-
Ups – Individual Hoshin Plan - Part 2
In this series of two articles and in continuation to Part 1, I have described the key
aspects for starting or expanding the business.
Section 3
In this section, I have introduced two levels of plan.
1. Readiness Plan – If you have decided the launch date of your business, then there
will be a set of things that is to be accomplished before that date. For example,
identifying a brand name, registering your company, enabling necessary technology,
renting an office, etc. A readiness list can contain the silliest of things that one feels is
needed before the implementation date. Readiness Plan is drawn by brainstorming and
is kept updated from time-to-time. It acts as a scheduler of tasks that lead up to the
launch. Most start-ups and business expansion teams have this list.
2. Tactical Plan – A tactical plan of Hoshin contains Business Tactics.
After launching the business, one would need to know how to accomplish the vision,
mission and strategies. Each of the strategies mentioned may be very broad & high
level.
And here is where even big corporations fail. They might have an excellent strategy
document with well researched information of competition, customer and market, but
when it comes to executing the strategy, even the Business Head can’t correlate actions
to strategy. Mostly it happens by trial & error and more so by impulse rather than by
planning.
In order to draw a robust tactical plan, assess how much are you away from the target
for each of the strategies. This is usually done by looking at past performance for
existing or expanding businesses.

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But for start-ups, it can be done by an idea generation session or by finding out what
competition is doing. For example, if the strategy is to target Small & Medium
Enterprises and sell products to them, then the tactics can be any of the following:
 Speaking in forums meant for SMEs
 Interviewing SMEs to understand what their concerns are, say if its pricing, then
we have plan to provide stack-up payment plan
 Provide exclusive helpdesk for SMEs
 Decisioning on who can be intermediatary and what proportion of business will
they bring
So these are just few tactical items that one could target and most of these are done
from time-to-time after business activity is initiated.
Hence tactical plan is a live document and kept updated regularly. Very few
organizations and start-ups have such a plan.
Section 4 – Metrics Scorecard
Once you have vision, mission, strategies & tactics in place through Hoshin Plan it’s all
left to execution. In order to gage execution, there should be a measurement
mechanism in place that captures the performance and gaps against vision.
Here are key elements of a metrics scorecard of a Hoshin Plan are :
1. Only measures and not tick-points are to be included in the scorecard
2. All measures included in ‘Annual Objectives’ of Section 1 should be included
3. Additionally defined measures that measure efforts are to be included.
4. Monthly targets are to be assigned based on annual targets, seasonal trends and
other business priorities
5. Tracking and reporting mechanism should be able to trigger alarms when things
are not in shape.
And finally, try to keep it simple in MS-Excel rather than complicating it with automation.

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If you are business owner, take personal interest to fill this up, as in the process of
doing so, you will be able to find several live issues which otherwise don’t surface to
your level.
Section 5 (Recommended for Start-ups)
I have found that in the case of start-ups, the founders may have the excellent product
knowledge but lack several related skills such as marketing, presentation, team
management skills, etc., which are essential in business. Hiring an expert is certainly a
solution, only when you know how to use him.
So, I recommend that each of the founders draw-up a personal development plan and
help each other to track progress.
Finally, it is important to have a business plan that passes the filters of investors and
bankers. But that doesn’t warrant this important activity to be outsourced! Writing a
business execution plan should be one of the skills of every entrepreneur and business
leader should master.
About the Author:
Neil started Canopus Business Management Group in 2009.
He helps a range of large enterprises in services and manufacturing, with particular emphasis on execution of
business & functional strategies, customer experience & process transformation. He has worked with banking,
outsourcing, IT, discrete manufacturing & telecom business processes. He draws on extensive experience (15
years) in Hoshin Kanri, Blue Ocean Strategy, Lean, Six Sigma, Outsourcing, Change Management and Touch point
Management to deliver composite solutions that put client’s business in an Advantageous &
Profitable position.
Client engagements aim at eliminating the barriers for seamless execution of strategies, carpet
bombing customer touch points, diagnostic interventions on customer churn & retention and
implementation of transformational projects.
He can be reached at neil@collaborat.com or +91 9176616766.