Organizational Planning: Q&A with Nick Angellotti

Organizational Planning is one of the most critical processes that a business owner must do every year to ensure growth within their organization. The seemingly daunting task can overwhelm employers, causing some to neglect the process altogether – a huge mistake. Organizational planning allows companies to develop clear goals and achieve growth. It helps companies adapt better to changing markets, clarifies roles and expectations of team members, and gets employees excited about achieving organizational objectives.

To discuss this incredibly important topic, Luisa recently sat down with Nick Angellotti, President and Managing Director at Williams Meaden & Moore Inc. , and Managing Partner at Williams and Partners Chartered Professional Accountants LLP. Nick is a top leader in Investigative and Forensic Accounting, and regularly advises top insurers across Canada. ⁠Nick shared his insight and most helpful tips to make the most out of your organizational planning process.

1.     Who should be involved in the organizational planning process?

It depends on the nature of the organization. For a larger organization, it would be your “-EO” group, starting with your Chief Executive Officer (CEO). If it is a smaller company, it would be your executive management team. The task should not fall solely on the business owners.

2.      How would you break down the organizational process and really get started?

Every organization has a heartbeat. Information is disseminated and communicated differently from organization to organization. Again, it starts with that “-EO” group. If you are the CEO, you need to look at what a CEO is responsible for. A CEO is responsible for making sure the entity has a competitive strategy, making sure that the management team is executing on that competitive strategy, allocating capital to achieve that strategy, and building the firm culture. Culture is how things get communicated – it’s “what happens at the water cooler.”

3.      How should we get started with the organization planning process? It is simply an opportunity to review last year and expand or repeat what was previously done, or do we start fresh? And how do we evaluate if it was the best plan we put in place or whether adjustments should be considered?

If you want your company to stagnate, just do everything you did last year. The “-EO” group should be determining where they want their organization to be in the marketplace, and how they will grow their business. It’s not just increasing your sales. Look at your customer base - how can you provide them more value? How can you increase the number of times you transact? All of these things have to come together to answer the question “what do we want to be?” Then you will get your vision or strategy from there.

4.      I have completed my organizational plan – what's next?  How do you communicate or execute the strategy?

Failure to implement is the plague of every organization. The first thing that needs to happen is the assignment of goals, roles and responsibility – but the follow up is the key. The meetings should establish the objective, the strategy, who is responsible, and a weekly or monthly follow up. Holding people accountable to ensure the success of the organizational plan. If everyone is excited about the plan, it’s less about “accountability,” because people want to be there and have the responsibility that they do – that’s where culture comes in.

Something else to keep in mind is that the goals you are setting cannot be numerous – two or three at a maximum. Anything more, your staff will get overwhelmed, and it will be harder to keep track of progress.

To continue the conversation with Nick Angellotti, feel free to get in contact with him through the Williams Meaden & Moore Inc. website.