As a functional leader, your plan is your opportunity to demonstrate and document to your  leadership that you are aligned to the organization and can create business value.  Often times the connection between your plan and business results is unclear.  The leadership team can’t draw a line between the activity and the business. One way to check your alignment and whether the connection is clear is with logic chains.

Logic chains are the foundation for every customer-centric measurable growth plan. The chains represent the logic – or reasoning- for how your function is going to contribute to, and impact, business outcomes. They are the connective tissue between your function’s activities and investments, and the business.

Yes, I Want My Growth Idea

Logic Chains Visually Illustrate Alignment

With logic chains we can discern how well a function aligns with the business from these chains. Our customers have also found that greater alignment results in an increased rate of initial budget acceptance and fewer demands to cut costs if revenue takes a downturn. Logic chains also reveal the measures, metrics and associated data and analytics, and therefore your function’s accountability. Good chains are comprised of measures and metrics that are related to one another.

Your logic chains serve as the framework for your Marketing dashboard.

Do Your Logic Chains Connect The Dots Between Your Work and Business Results?

Well constructed logic chains connect the dots between the work and results. Every function’s plan should meet the following three criteria which should be reflected in your chains.

1. How your  efforts are designed to move the right business needles. For example, does it show how every objective, strategy, program and the associated tactics and activities ladder up to a quantifiable business outcome? Does your plan align with organizational strategy so that all stakeholders understand priorities and direction?
   

   Can you craft logic chains from your Marketing plan?

2. How you will allocate the resources you are investing on behalf of the organization. Have you identified both the hard and soft costs required to do the right things – right, and so that your team can be successful in adding value?
3. How you will measure your contribution to, and impact on, the organization. For example, does each outcome, objective, and program capture a customer-centric performance target that when looked at holistically creates the data chain and metrics needed to measure marketing contribution, and monitor and optimize performance and processes? Will you be able to use the plan as the foundation for your performance management and reporting?

If you want to increase your chances of your Marketing plan being fully funded, make sure your plan meets these three criteria. We’ve designed our Marketing Plan Fast Track Review service to help ensure that your plan reflects clearly defined logic chains that exhibit: