[Sam Barona]

Business plans are very useful, not just to begin with, but to move forward with.

We regularly have meetings to review our business plans to reflect changes in the market place and these provide us with valuable insights and a means to communicate the board's vision with the managers and employees.

BPs are a necessary tool in my view, and once you start to understand their value by using them, then you cant live without them.

They help you plan ahead and stop your company from becoming reactive to the market, whilst allowing you to keep a step ahead of your competition.

Business planning is not just for start ups, but is part of every CEO's remit. In fact, many large organisations have each department create a business plan, with the direct benefit of allowing the department heads to hone in their plan with the organisation's overall strategy. Many other businesses adopt tools like Balanced Scorecards, which help them implement different strategies in a cohesive way. Dont dismiss Business Plans, just learn their value.

We have even developed plans with a 5 - 10 year horizon, which allow us to analyse scenarios that see possible disruptive technologies entering our market place, as well as potential changes in demand driven by economic downturns, etc. This way we already have strategies in place that tackle such problems, whilst our competitors just react to the problems as they arise.

By that time, we have already partnered with the new technology companies, or introduced our own competing products, or adapted our pricing, or squeezed our suppliers, etc; giving us a distinct competitive advantage.

Failing to plan is the equivalent of planing to fail, as the old addage says.

Sam

PS. BPs are breathing, living things. They require your imput to keep them fresh, but will deliver in ways you cant imagine.

[akula]

I think that to get companies started quickly with minimal fuss, founders will benefit from rejecting the traditional idea of business planning (which is imported from large companies who need plans to be accountable to their senior managers) and think of business planning in the same way that movie producers think about business planning.

when pitching a new movie, project plans are only useful after a lot of other prerequisites have been satisfied.

overall, movie producers who rework the script a dozen times before arriving at a rough outline of the movie, which it self is gonna get reworked as the movie is getting shot - provide a realist picture of how business planning works with startups.

you'll never see a movie producer start the production process with detailed project plans and a definite storyline.

all of those variables in the production process get changed and altered from the time the script leaves the writer, till the time you buy the ticket in the cinema.

this fluid approach, which recognises contingencies and draws a distinction between a project plan and everything else is a good description of how to best practice business planning

[Sam Barona]

Interesting. Although business planning is rather different to project planning. It is more concerned with strategy than the implementation of the strategies.

Project planning comes into its own once the strategy is in place, as a means to manage the implementation of the strategies defined in the business plan.

businesses are complex beasts and the BP just gives a necessary overview of the whole set of projects that form the company. It is a necesary view too, as it is too easy to lose sight of the big picture when you are involved in the minutae of making things happen on a daily basis.

To use Akula's analogy, the BP then is the original script/story line of the film; yes it needs to be revised as long as the film is still under production, but you will struggle to make a film without one (unless your making experimental films that is)

Sam

[jpaynecr]

Great way to put it.