Business Planning
Business Planning is the process of defining a company’s objectives and how it plans to achieve its goals. It includes a review of the external environment and the company’s internal situation, and lays out a road map for the firm from marketing, financial, and operational standpoints. It typically lays out strategies at corporate or SBU level, and defines downstream functional strategies; and ends in a set of financial projections (P&L, Balance Sheet, Cash flows) over the next five- to ten-year timeframe.
Both startups and established companies use business plans because it is aimed at company’s external and internal audiences. It can be used to attract new investment, get loans from financial institutions, and can keep a company’s executive team on the same page about action items and meeting agreed goals.
A business plan should be reviewed and updated periodically to reflect goals that have been met or have changed. A plan can also be created for an established business to assess the impact of moving in a new direction. It may also include elements of Growth Strategy covered in more detail here.
EXTERNAL REVIEW
- Market Environment
- Competition Review
INTERNAL REVIEW
- Customer & Product analysis
- Costs
- Organizational Factors
IDENTIFY OPPORTUNITIES
- SWOT
- Forecasting revenues and costs
- Scenario building
- Opportunities to prioritize, Weaknesses to address
STRATEGIC VISIONING & OBJECTIVES
- Mission
- Vision
- Goals
- Corporate Objectives
- Functional Objectives
STRATEGIC INITIATIVES
- Capability assessments
- Organizing Resources
- Priority projects
- Scenario-based projections of P&L, Balance sheet and cash-flows
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
- Execution plan
- Execution team
- Project plan
EVALUATION & RISK CONTROL
- Assessment versus Objectives
- Corporate Audit
- Feedback and rework if necessary
- Mission, Vision, Goals
- SWOT
- Strategies
- Financial projections
- Strategies Initiatives program
- Implementation Plan
- Executive team alignment
- Functional initiatives clearly defined
(The following is a non-exhaustive list of engagements provided as a sample of total experience)
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Corporate Plan creation for a producer of ceramic products. This involved an analysis of the industry structure and operating norms, an examination of the client firm’s capabilities and the design of appropriate competitive strategies.
Business Strategy and Corporate Transformation exercise for a member of one of India’s largest and oldest corporate groups in the automobile ancillaries sector. After reviewing markets and customer needs through a Voice of Customer exercise, a detailed market-product strategy was drawn up and implemented along with structural and systemic changes to marketing, manufacturing, human resource management and purchase functions.
Strategic Transformation exercise for a member of one of India’s largest conglomerates. The assignment involved the development of a corporate strategy for the business basket (electrical sector), and re-engineering processes into the optimal configuration that would best support the strategy. The assignment involved the implementation of the new strategy and processes through manufacturing and structural initiatives.
Corporate Plan for a major media group. As per the brief, the consulting team was required to analyze the environment in which the client organization was functioning, map the strengths and weaknesses of the client’s brands, and suggest brand-specific marketing strategies as per the capabilities of the organization and the overall direction indicated in the Corporate Plan.
Business Planning for a large government-owned public transport company in the Sultanate of Oman. The assignment involved developing a marketing and business strategy for the company, assessing the long term business model, and identifying operational weaknesses. The team developed routes, assessed fleet size and composition, and outlined a new organization structure. As a follow-on assignment, the team also developed a Memorandum of Information for distribution to potential investors as part of the Government’s privatization program.
Business Model and Business Plan for Indian affiliate of INGO – Using interviews and workshops with the affiliate’s leadership, the affiliate strategy was defined (derived and aligned with global vision) and then the business model was developed, focusing on objectives, stakeholders, value proposition and a market analysis. A Business Plan was created to detail out the business model in the areas of Finance & Income Planning, Communication Planning and Governance Structure & Operations. Last, a Change Plan was built describing how the affiliate planned and managed the implementation of the required changes to achieve the desired business model by 2020.
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