How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 543

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Process (how are we selling it?)
Customer (to whom are we selling it?)
Distribution (how does it reach them?)
Finance (what are the prices, costs and investments?)
Administration (and how do we manage all this?)

The second step then becomes 'what shall the team do' about the issues
in each of these categories. The planning process was then designed
through trial and error and resulted finally in a 17 step process
beginning with SOFT/SWOT with each issue recorded separately on a
single page called a planning issue.
The first prototype was tested and published in 1966 based on the work
done at 'Erie Technological Corp' in Erie Pa. In 1970 the prototype was
brought to the UK, under the sponsorship of W H Smith & Sons plc, and
completed by 1973. The operational programme was used to merge the
CWS milling and baking operations with those of J W French Ltd.
The process has been used successfully ever since. By 2004, now, this
system has been fully developed, and proven to cope with today's
problems of setting and agreeing realistic annual objectives without
depending on outside consultants or expensive staff resources.
The seven key research findings
The key findings were never published because it was felt they were too
controversial. This is what was found:
1) A business was divided into two parts. The base business plus the
development business. This was re-discovered by Dr Peter Senge at MIT
in 1998 and published in his book the Fifth Discipline (not '5th
Dimension' as previously stated here - thanks J Hoffman for this
correction, 28 Jan 2011). The amount of development business which
become operational is equal to or greater than that business on the
books within a period of 5 to 7 years. This was a major surprise and
urged the need for discovering a better method for planning and
managing change.

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