I attended this Annual Kellogg conference on 5/26/10, and found some of the sessions to be quite informative.  One of my favorite professors, Timothy Calkins, conducted a learning session on how to create a breakthrough marketing plan.  Although this was mostly review for me (since I graduated from Kellogg last year), I thought I would post some of the salient points from his lecture.

First, every organization should have a Growth Plan.  This doesn't need to be a 100 page document that nobody reads.  But rather, a short, simple and to-the-point plan which can actually be executed upon.  Too many Growth Plans are bloated documents which never get a second look after being presented to senior or mid-level management.

Professor Calkins mentioned three insights regarding Growth Plans (or Marketing Plans)
1. The Plans are recommendations
2. The best Plans communicate clearly and persuasively
3. Simplicity is always best

A great quote:
"Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can't, you are not leading well."
--Jeff Immelt, chairman and CEO, General Electric

OK, here we go...

The Plan should focus on 3 things:

1. Goals and Objectives
    - What are we trying to achieve
    - Goals should be SMART
        Specific
        Measurable
        Aggressive
        Realistic
        Time-Specific
    - Having too many goals (more than 3) is a problem
        Research has shown that when people are given too many choices, they won't remember any of the choices.  Drug companies use this in their favor: they list so many side effects, that the user doesn't remember any of         them.
    - Should be tied to financial metrics of the business (usually profit, not revenue)
    - Manage expectations (the CSO, or whomever is driving the Plan forward needs to continuously manage expectations)

2. Strategic Initiatives
    - Action Oriented
    - Only 3 -5 Strategies (3 is best)

3. Tactics
    - Highlights how the strategic initiatives should be done
    - Once again, too many is too much
    - If there are 3 Strategies, and 3 Tactics per Strategies, then there are only 12 points of execution