---
title: "An S&OP Communication Plan: The Final Step in Support of Company Strategy"
description: "A Foresight article by Niels Van Hove, An S&OP Communication Plan: The Final Step in Support of Company Strategy, provides a new perspective on advancing S&OP."
---

[River Logic Blog | Prescriptive Analytics Blog](https://download.riverlogic.com/blog)

# [An S&OP Communication Plan: The Final Step in Support of Company Strategy](https://download.riverlogic.com/blog/an-sandop-communication-plan-the-final-step)

 Written by [Shannon Kearns](https://download.riverlogic.com/blog/author/shannon-kearns) | Jul 21, 2016

It’s no secret that there exists a disconnect between developing business strategies and actually *implementing* those strategies. Niels sites a study by Kaplan and Norton (2005) which showed that implementation failure rates range from 60-90%. As he further points out, the whole *purpose* of S&OP is to generate a plan that assists an organization in executing strategy. (After all, S&OP is meant to improve communication across functional silos.)

The problem is that the nature of supply chains, technology and business as a whole are rapidly changing. There is a “**need for vertical communication to create alignment throughout the organization in support of a strategy**,” says Niels. Otherwise, companies have no *business* context for the decisions they’re making.

Top-down communication is out — the traditional corporate communication must give way to a process that is more dynamic and sophisticated. **To address this need for improved communication and strategy execution, Niels suggests incorporating three elements into the overall S&OP process.**

## Expand Your S&OP Process to Include these Three Elements

### An Integrated Strategy Plan

By periodically reviewing strategic projects within the budget year and beyond, S&OP can help provide visibility into a company’s strategic plan. It’s also important to incorporate strategic goals, targets and measurements into the cycle. By better understanding the strategic plan and the *business objectives / goals*, S&OP leaders (and the workforce in general) are better able to execute on those goals and objectives.

### A Rolling Forecast

By incorporating a rolling forecast into the S&OP process, leaders have the opportunity to review gaps in the budget. The S&OP communication plan helps executives communicate gaps to employees *and* helps employees understand how to close those gaps in the budget. S&OP should take part in developing the annual plans and budgets, capital investment decisions, cash flow management and so forth.

### Resource Reallocation

Lastly, because resource relocation is so closely linked to the execution of strategy, it’s crucial for S&OP to focus on *all* enterprise resources, not just production resources. Niels argues that by incorporating both a rolling forecast and strategy planning into S&OP, S&OP managers are better able to handle resource allocation on a holistic, enterprise-wide level.

If these three elements are incorporated into the standard S&OP process, S&OP will play an increasingly important role in strategy *execution* in addition to playing a primarily role in developing plans. **Lastly, to make S&OP *as effective as possible* in executing business strategy, Niels outlines a corporate S&OP Communication Plan.**

### The S&OP Communication Plan

Personally, I found this to be the most compelling piece of Niels’ Foresight article. Because advanced S&OP provides an opportunity for company-wide discussion on topics like budget, supplier / vendor relationships, strategic initiatives, etc., developing an S&OP communication plan works to bring multiple verticals within a company together on a regular basis.

After briefly discussing some popular communication channels (email, Intranet, messaging systems, newsletter, blogs, face-to-face meetings, etc.) and the importance of outlining *which* channels should be used to communicate *what type* of information, Niels presents a sample S&OP communication plan (below).

Back to his previous point on the outdated nature of top-down communication, Niels suggests developing a communication plan that supports two-way conversations and opportunities for employee feedback. He stresses the importance of executives *attentively* listening to feedback, engaging employees and entering such conversations with open minds.

# Closing Remarks

In summary, Niels argues that **by incorporating a rolling forecast, strategic planning and enterprise-wise resource reallocation, S&OP will be able to provide useful input that can be communicated via a company-wide communication plan.** Through the development of an S&OP communication plan that spans verticals and incorporates appropriate feedback mechanisms, S&OP can begin to bridge the gap between strategy planning and strategy execution, thereby drastically increasing its company-wide value.

[View full post](https://download.riverlogic.com/blog/an-sandop-communication-plan-the-final-step)

```json
{
  "@context" : "http://schema.org",
  "@type" : "BlogPosting",
  "author" : {
    "@type" : "Person",
    "name" : "Shannon Kearns"
  },
  "dateModified" : "2019-02-21T05:00:36.422Z",
  "datePublished" : "2016-07-21T11:30:00Z",
  "headline" : "An S&OP Communication Plan: The Final Step in Support of Company Strategy",
  "image" : {
    "@type" : "ImageObject",
    "height" : 175,
    "url" : "http://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/484375/Blog_Images/LoTInSupplyChain.jpg",
    "width" : 265
  },
  "mainEntityOfPage" : "https://download.riverlogic.com/blog/an-sandop-communication-plan-the-final-step",
  "publisher" : {
    "@type" : "Organization",
    "logo" : {
      "@type" : "ImageObject",
      "height" : 60,
      "url" : "/hs/hsstatic/content_shared_assets/static-1.4092/img/default-amp-logo.png",
      "width" : 60
    },
    "name" : "Latest Insights"
  }
}
```