Have you achieved your objectives? Is your organization on the right growth path? Are your objectives still aligned with the dynamic business environment? What should be the time frame for reviewing? At what time intervals should you review your plans? How is reviewing helpful to achieve your goals? Is reviewing helpful for both the organization and its employees? How is reviewing helpful in allocating resources?  

All these questions can be answered only if you review your plans and objectives. To review is to measure the growth that you have achieved through your plans. It would help you understand if all your plans are still concentric towards the achievement of organizational objectives and the overall vision.   

Generally, reviews are conducted on a yearly basis. If your brand follows the calendar year, the objectives are reviewed in January or February. On the other hand, if your brand follows a financial year, the activities are reviewed at the start of the new fiscal year. Through this entire blog, you shall learn about the importance of review for the smooth and continuous functioning of an organization.  

What is the Process of Review?  

Reviewing is a part of the management’s controlling function. Controlling is the last function of management, and it brings back the functions’ cycle to the initial. The review follows a process that needs to be followed to attain efficiency and effectiveness.   

The process of review is:  

• Setting review objectives: The first step is to set the objectives through which you are going to mark the starting point of your review process.  

• Gathering relevant data and insights: In the second step, you need to gather the relevant data on market trends and customer feedback  

• Analyzing current objectives and strategies: The next step is to analyze if your objectives and strategies are correctly aligned with the overall vision of the organization.  

• Identifying areas of improvement: The above 3 steps help you find deviations, now you need to identify the areas where you need to improve your operations.  

• Making data-driven changes: At this step, you make the necessary changes in your functioning to rectify the deviations.  

• Implementing changes: Now you need to implement the new plans and objectives.  

• Monitoring and Tracking Progress Post-Review: After the implementation, you need to track the progress of your new strategies and objectives.  

• Planning for next review: At last, you can plan for the next review schedule.  

How is reviewing helpful for the employees?  

Reviewing is helpful for the employees of your organization in several ways:  

• Alignment of personal objectives with organizational objectives: Reviewing helps the employees understand the terms of your organization and they can put in the best of their efforts to achieve the goals and their personal interests together.  

• Unity of direction: Reviewing provides the employees with clarity and they can put their efforts in the same direction enhancing productivity.  

• Adaptability: Reviewing helps the employees understand the dynamic business environment. It helps them understand the changes and alterations in their day-to-day activities and adapt to them. This would decrease the resistance and employee turnover in your institution.  

• Better Decision Making: When employees are aware of the company’s objectives, they’re more likely to make decisions that align with the company’s goals. It would make decision-making better and more efficient for higher-level management.  

How is reviewing helpful in resource allocation?  

When you review the activities and results of a plan and objective, you shall be able to mark the loopholes in it. Once you figure out the areas of importance and set your priorities, you shall be able to allocate your resources more effectively.   

The better your resource allocation decision, the better the results you achieve through them. You can improve the areas and activities where you are lagging through a better allocation.  

Reviewing is helpful for resource allocation as:  

• Gives clarifications of priorities  

• Improves coordination among different teams and departments  

• Enables better employment of resources  

• Forms a base for new strategic planning  

• Helps in making more effective decisions  

• Improves adaptability  

• Subordinate individual interest with general interest  

Why are Regular Reviews Important for Strategic Planning?  

Planning is the first and foremost function of the management and is often done by the top-level managers. Planning is a process, and the first step of this process is setting objectives. When you set the objectives, you need to review whether you have achieved the targeted goals or if there are any deviations in the result.  

How Are Reviews Helpful to Succeed?  

If you find any deviations in the results, you need to perform controlling techniques like personal observations, break-even analysis, or critical control points. Sometimes, reframing the plans and making changes in the existing plans are helpful to get above the deviations. When all the deviations are dealt with, you can implement the new plans and techniques formed to achieve the desired goals.  

Why Should You Align Reviews with Business Goals?  

When you review the activities of your business considering the various external environment types, PESTEL (Political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal) your base of comparison is the objectives that you have set. If you have successfully achieved the business goals, you can plan for further strategies. But if not, you need to take some time and find the areas where you are lagging. Ultimately, you analyzed the results when you reviewed them. The reviews must be aligned with the business goals to find out the correct position of your brand and take the required measures for growth.  

How to Gather Relevant Data and Insights?  

Gathering relevant data and insights requires core market research and a deep knowledge of market trends. Before you review, you need a complete analysis and data to find out deviations.  

You need to know about the KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and the customer feedback for your brand to calculate your growth and expansion of the market share. This would help us focus only on the areas where we need improvement rather than reframing the entire plans and objectives.  

Why should you collect data on KPIs and market trends?  

Collecting the data on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is important as it would help you to measure your actual performance as per the objectives and benchmarks that were initially set. It would also help you find the areas of improvement so that you could focus on them.  

Why do you need to assess strategies?  

The assessment of strategies is necessary for a better review. If you want your review to be as per the organization’s objectives and provide a real-time result, then you need to assess if your strategies are perfectly framed or not.  

What are the different types of KPIs that you need to consider?  

There are various platforms that use different KPIs like Twitter (X), LinkedIn, and Instagram.  

Twitter (X)  

Twitter is a platform that facilitates real-time communication, public conversations, and various hashtags. It usually acts as an effective marketing and branding tool.   

KPIs for Twitter include:  

• Impressions: This shows how many times your tweet appears in the users’ feed.  

• Link Clicks: The number of times any link in your tweet is clicked.  

• Followers’ growth: Measurement of increase or decrease in your followers.  

• Retweets: How many times your tweet is retweeted by the viewers.  

• Replies: This includes the comments or responses that you receive on your tweets.  

• Tweet Engagements: This is the total of interactions that you receive on your tweets such as comments, retweets, likes, and replies.  

LinkedIn  

LinkedIn is a platform that helps you build your network and connections in the corporate world. It is also helpful in finding jobs if you are looking for them. If you are seeking competent personnel for your organization, then also it can be helpful for you.  

KPIs for LinkedIn include:  

• Impressions: This shows how many times your posts appear in the users’ feed.  

• Engagements: This is the total of interactions that you receive on your tweets such as comments, likes, and replies.  

• Follower Growth: The increase or decrease in the number of your connections.  

• Leads Generated: The number of leads generated for your products or services through LinkedIn.  

• Profile Views: The number of users who have viewed your profile on LinkedIn  

Instagram  

Instagram is one of the most engaging platforms where you can share different posts, reels, and stories to attract and engage customers.  

 KPIs for Instagram include:  

• Reach: The number of accounts that have seen or interacted with your content.  

• Follower Growth Rate: The rate at which your followers are increasing or decreasing.  

• Saves: The number of accounts that are saving your content.  

• Comments Sentiment: This includes the type of comments that you receive on your content. They can be positive, negative, or neutral.  

Conclusion  

Reviewing is one of the most important functions of management. If you keep forming new plans and moving forward without reviewing the past results and deviations, you shall not be able to find if there were some necessary changes or alterations that were to be made a long time ago. Slowly, you will lose the momentum of growth, and your market share will decrease at a higher pace.