So, What’s The Plan?
by Gene Muchanski, Editor
The Dive Industry Professional

Last month’s editorial was entitled Building a Better Industry.  To follow up on that topic, this month’s editorial was going to be Build a Better Business.  After a little discussion with a few colleagues in the industry, we decided to turn the editorial into a full article under our Dive Industry Network Series and write a new editorial.  Allow me to explain.

The purpose of our Trade Association is to Build a Better Industry.  An economically healthy industry that is growing and has a high degree of sustainability.  An industry that provides the best programs, products, and services for the global diving community.  An industry that is a good steward of the environment and its natural resources.  An industry that has the business savvy to operate ethically, in an organized, educated, and professional manner.  An industry that has an organized and fluid channel of distribution that professionally manages the flow of goods and services seamlessly from producer to consumer.  An industry that understands the transition of our core competencies from conception to consumption.  To build a better industry you must have good businesses that operate in it.  To have good businesses, an industry must have a Trade Association that is actively engaged in its research, education, planning, and management.  An Association that brings together the best and the brightest individuals within our industry to strategize, plan, and implement a pathway to success.   I believe we are that Trade Association.

Building a better industry and building a better business is a long-term, life-long commitment to excellence.  An editorial should be a current snapshot of what is trending in our industry as of today.  What’s new, what’s now, what’s next?  You want a better industry and a better business, So What’s Your Plan?

Planning is in the Diver’s DNA: The Learning phase of our life is a critical one.  I’m talking about the period in our life where we undergo initial learning for our career and future lifestyle.  In my ten years of initial learning, I studied diving (scuba, hard hat, mixed gases, diving instructor, diving supervisor), military operations (Submarines, Diving, Salvage, Mobile Operations, Supply), and University (Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Retailing).  In every instance, planning was stressed as a prerequisite to action. It is incomprehensible to me that divers in our industry who “plan their dive & dive their plan” don’t have a plan for the successful operation of their business or their industry.  In my opinion, anybody that has a business in the diving industry should Plan Their Work and Work Their Plan.

After 45 years of working in the planning and consulting business, I am starting to think that we have been looking at the art and science of planning in the wrong perspective.  Were we led to believe that planning was a passive activity and purely academic in nature?  Were so many people turned off to planning because they thought of themselves as people of action, and thought that planning was a waste of time?  Maybe.  I do have to give non-planners the benefit of the doubt because I’ve seen too many business consultants in the halls of academia that never had any real-world experience in business, and they treated business planning as an academic, pre-business exercise that entrepreneurs needed to undertake before they went into business for themselves.  As a life-long Dive Industry Business Planner, Business Consultant, and former Marketing Professor, I am convinced that business planning is essentially a major part of the entire business development model, but it is not an isolated exercise that only takes place prior to the opening of a business, doomed to end up unread, on somebody’s book shelf.  It’s time to redefine what business planning is and why it is necessary for the success of both start-up and ongoing businesses in the Global Diving Industry.

A New Planning Paradigm: There are many types of plans that people use in business.  In the diving business community, we tend to differentiate them as business, marketing, operational, strategic, and event planning.   I think it will serve the Global Diving Business Network best if we focus this year on planning as an integrated part of our campaigns and events.  Good planning is more than what you might have previously thought it was.  I don’t want to let the cat out of the bag right now and spoil our future article series on planning, but the act of planning is not at the beginning of a process.  It’s actually in the middle.  Planning is something you do after you decide what it is you want to do.  We call that planning with a purpose.

Getting Things Done: We are going to make planning work for us in the 21^st century diving industry.  Let’s just call what we will do, “Making Things Better.”  We’ll start the process off with an assessment.  Let’s capture where we are in the present moment.  We do that by conducting research or conducting an audit.  Next, we analyze the data that is collected to determine our present position.  The next step is to create an image or description of where we would like to be.  What will we look like when the project is finished.  The challenge then becomes how to work on the difference that exists in where we are and where we want to be.  We have to create milestones or objectives that must be achieved in order to make the transition complete.  What actionable items do we have to undertake to achieve our objectives?  We will have to have measurable key results that have to be accomplished in order to achieve our objectives.  It sounds like a lot of work, but we have a plan for it.  So, can we count on you to help us with these 5 steps for making the industry better?  1) Assessment 2) Planning 3) Action 4) Measurement 5) Achievement.

Become a Member of our Global Diving Business Network: Annual Membership in the Dive Industry Association is $125 and includes placement in a number of Trade Directories and websites.  Our organization uses websites and directories in advertising and marketing campaigns to refer business to our members.  By joining our network, you are becoming part of a network that works on your behalf to bring buyers and sellers together for the benefit and growth of the Global Diving Community.  Download a Membership Application today.

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