“Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
– William Morris, 19th century textile designer, poet, artist, writer and social activist
Spring has sprung, as the old saying goes. For many that means their annual “spring cleaning” is underway. As is the case for our homes, successful businesses review their strategic direction, tactics, processes, and policies – operational housekeeping that is akin to an annual spring cleaning.
Kristi Rodgers serves ClearConnect Solutions and the company’s clients as Director, Agile Delivery. “I guide the Software Development Team working on the ClearConnect Solutions products to apply an agile mindset and principles in their daily responsibilities,” she said. “I continuously analyze team processes, help the team identify opportunities for improvement, and support the team in their collaboration with each other and our stakeholders.”
No small undertaking, Kristi guides her team through exercises that make way for more flexibility when it comes to product development:
- Rigorous project management
- Sound business analysis principles
- Working with stakeholders to understand unique business needs
- Documenting and prioritizing enhancement requests
- Product, service, or process roadmaps
- Support of long-term visions of products and services
Goal-Setting is Essential to Successful Business Planning
Annual business planning stresses being organized to achieve success. For fleets and their insurers, Kristi feels that they should arrive at a few realistic, achievable, and well-defined goals. More importantly, she urges them to put those goals in writing. “Often, teams and organizations will have goals but it’s just a dream in someone’s mind.”
Keys to Setting Goals:
- Write them down
- Make them big and visible throughout the organization
- Remain grounded in those goals throughout the year
- Revisit goals often and adjust as needed
“The mechanics of being organized doesn’t do anyone any good if you don’t have clearly stated, written and visible goals,” she said. A company roadmap helps organizations remain grounded in shared goals. “Team members in the organization are encouraged and motivated to be involved to have that shared vision and understanding of the ’why’ behind what is being done,” Kristi said.
Technology Facilitates Productive Business Planning
Technology can help individuals, teams, and companies stay on track, increase productivity, and focus on what is most important. “The tasks within a team are ever changing and growing, and we need technology to help us stay on top of things by taking advantage of reminders, shared visibility amongst team members to increase accountability, etc. I am personally revisiting my to-do list hourly and constantly re-prioritizing to align with the business needs at that moment. Some people aren’t ‘list people,’ but without a mechanism to stay grounded, it can be very limiting.
There are valuable tools at our fingertips, and ClearConnect Solutions continues to introduce a lot of exciting stuff that can help streamline operations and improve performance, quality, and reliability for fleets and their insurers.”
Learn more about our data-driven risk management solutions on our podcast or schedule a demo with the ClearConnect Solutions team.
Flexible Mindsets are Key in Strategic Planning
Just as spring cleaning occasionally means throwing out something that doesn’t work anymore, at ClearConnect Solutions Kristi and the team emphasize flexible planning. “I think that one of the first key steps is to have a plan, period,” she said.
“Something we do within the Software Development Team is a practice called ‘Retrospectives.’ We gain input from everyone on the team by answering some basic questions — What went well? What didn’t go well? What should we change? We do this exercise every two weeks so ideas are fresh; however, even a quarterly or annual ‘Retrospective’ would be beneficial. You must start somewhere. By building a culture of reflection, insights can be gained and inform the new goals and plan for the upcoming year.”
ClearConnect Solutions’ annual planning, preparations and technology products provide a clear roadmap to help fleets and insurers gain greater insights into their risks and gain efficiencies in their processes.
“By monitoring what ClearConnect Solutions is doing, fleets and insurers can be prepared to take advantage of these products and services as soon as they hit the market,” Kristi said. “I see this within the Software Development Team specifically; we’re constantly reflecting and adapting. Needs are rapidly changing, so we must respond quickly. We can only be positioned to quickly adapt by being organized and highly disciplined.”
Fleet Insurers Renewal Date Checklist
Kristi advises fleet policy holders to incorporate specific reviews around insurance renewal dates in their annual planning:
- Review Motor Vehicle Reports (MVRs)
- Identify non-driver areas for improvement
- Identify driver performance issues that affect rates
- Review current rates
- Review other relevant data
Growth Strategies
When asked about growth strategies as a component of annual planning, Kristi pointed out the first step is to review current growth plans. “From there, there are several topics to consider for growth:
- New products
- New technology tools
- Different methods for employee recruitment
- New policies
- New service offerings
- New verticals
Growth planning involves mindset. Krisit explains, “One theme that comes to mind for me when I see this question is to have a proactive attitude — rather than scrambling to find better ways of doing things once the business we’re supporting has scaled, we ‘act big’ and put efficiencies in place as if we’re doing triple the amount of work we are now. We’re better positioned to scale and avoid putting processes in place that will limit us later.
Often, this requires that we push against the fear of making upfront investments in that process. As an example, companies may be able to get away with not having clear plans or strong organization at the size they are now. They don’t have to adopt the latest technologies because they’re comfortable. However, complacency limits our potential. Pushing up against any fear in adopting new ways of operating is important to stay relevant and continue to grow.”
“Complacency limits our potential. Pushing up against any fear in adopting new ways of operating is important to stay relevant and continue to grow.”
To get started with your own roadmap for success, we suggest leveraging the latest technologies in data analytics to accelerate your business goals, create operational efficiencies, gain intelligent insights and ultimately, be ready for change.
