The Planet Foreign Language Center system was established in March 2009 to provide children, students, and working adults with optimal foreign language programs using the most advanced methods, in facilities that meet standards and respond to learners’ growing needs, ensuring the best results in developing foreign language skills and making it easier to pass international certification exams such as Cambridge, TOEIC, TOEFL, and more.
1. Platerra – Building a business: many goals, but making them real is difficult
With his passion for education, Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong – Founder of Platerra – has continuously developed the Platerra English center system. Currently, Platerra English Center serves more than 3,500 students each year, with 3 branches operating in Ho Chi Minh City.
With many years of experience in management and leadership roles at large companies, Mr. Cuong realized that this was still not enough for him to build a business that could achieve business goals as expected. Some challenges Platerra faced at that time included:
- Barriers to team connection: In the process of implementing OKR and KPI, the concern was how to connect members of the organization so they could work together and coordinate effectively in execution.
- Difficulties with manual implementation: At first, Mr. Cuong struggled to find tools and applied things manually, but it was ineffective and time-consuming. Later came the shortcomings of using OKR and KPI implementation software with too many features; not knowing what to focus on made everything become complicated.
“It is like we are wearing a shirt that is too large, and we do not use all the features, which makes everything more complicated,” Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong shared.
- Too many goals to track, causing goals to be missed: After implementation for the team, Platerra did not have a tool to monitor and evaluate goals, not to mention that many issues arose during execution and affected progress.
In reality, businesses spend a lot of time creating plans with many worthy goals to pursue. However, having too many goals makes it impossible for a business to focus on what matters; over time, goals are forgotten. One reality that Mr. Cuong also acknowledged is that evaluating indicators was very “subjective”; the lack of a measurement tool was the cause of missing objective evaluations. As a result, the business also lacked timely measures for improvement.
- Meetings are something that cannot be ignored, but there was no fixed framework, causing meetings to take a lot of time, putting the team under meeting pressure, and still not solving the problem.
2. Simplamo – The right tool at the right time that helped Platerra successfully overcome difficulties
Through an opportunity introduced by the Simplamo team, Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong began applying Simplamo in the business in July 2022. Up to now, he has observed several changes:
- Transparency and clarity in the operating process: Through the Accountability Chart on Simplamo, the Platerra team proactively understands the work that needs to be done and recognizes who they need to coordinate with to complete tasks. In addition, the team understands the business owner’s vision and mission; goals are no longer only the leadership team’s wishes, but now have the team accompanying and striving together.
- OKR and KPI are set clearly and focused on what matters, suitable for each department and each individual. “LESS IS MORE” — sometimes less is more and brings better effectiveness.
“Simplamo helps businesses clarify roles and responsibilities for each individual, bring the vision to the team, break it down into quarterly goals and weekly work, and combine it with a weekly meeting framework for problem solving. Thanks to that, tracking goal execution is much more effective than before.”
- A connected meeting framework that closely follows effective execution: Usually, goals are set and then forgotten and left adrift — a common situation for many businesses, not only Platerra. Simplamo not only helps Platerra focus on important goals, but also combines them with a weekly meeting framework so the team can sit down to review execution, promptly adjust goals to fit the current context, and stay on track.
- An effective problem-solving method: A scientific problem-solving method helps the Platerra team resolve issues that obstruct execution and helps everyone make decisions to finalize solutions.
“Usually, we tend to get carried away in the process of discussing a problem, but in the end we cannot finalize a solution; then we skim over it and discuss other issues. Because of that, unresolved issues accumulate more and more.” – Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong shared.
3. Successful OKR and KPI implementation goes hand in hand with strengthening a healthy team
Behind the use of goal management methods are the issues of team connection, resolving arising problems, and especially helping everyone unite toward one common destination. However, for a business to achieve its goals, this is not only the business owner’s problem; it requires the unity, passion, and dedication of the whole team and the whole collective.
During a meeting at the “Making Goals Real” event, Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong shared several achievements that he and the entire business gained after applying Simplamo:
- The OKR and KPI indicators are very scientific and clear, helping the team easily follow and measure progress.
- The team is highly aware and confident in the work they do.
- Meetings are effective within only 90 minutes; even when Mr. Cuong does not attend the meeting, he can still understand the information because it is recorded by the system.
- Roles and responsibilities are transparent; departments and individuals coordinate to execute goals effectively.
- The company can promptly observe the team’s operating situation.
“Simplamo helps me reshape the organization and educate the team’s awareness. Employees begin to act voluntarily when they clearly understand their work and responsibilities, and when they feel that they are part of the organization.” – Mr. Truong Nguyen Manh Cuong shared.
We hope that, with Simplamo’s companionship in the coming time, Platerra will be more successful in implementing OKR and KPI, helping the business realize its business goals and build a healthy, united team.
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Simplamo – Modern scientific goal management software with a unique combination of KPI and OKR. It turns the complexity of management into something simple and familiar to every employee, relieves pressure on leaders, focuses on what matters, and optimizes work performance for businesses.
Start experiencing Simplamo and feel the change after only 4 weeks!
Register for a Simplamo demo at: https://app.simplamo.com/sign-up
