Organisations and Executives often use the terms Strategic Plan and Business Plan interchangeably – and some aspects of the processes used by professional firms like ASVP are used for either type of plan – but there are important differences.
A good planning process generally is iterative and closed-loop. This means that it can be started anywhere so long as the whole loop is conducted at least once.
What is not optional, however, is attempting to write a business plan before first establishing and agreeing upon a clear, coherent and well-articulated Strategic Plan.
Strategic Planning
The Strategic Plan describes the organisational Vision, Mission Statement, Goals, and Objectives over a period of time (called the planning horizon) and explains how the management team will achieve those Objectives within the time frame. The purpose of the plan is to support decisions about the application of resources such as money, people, facilities, or materials, to delivering the Objectives. The strategic plan can be a simple document – some would say the simpler, the better – but it must cover the key elements as follows:
Some organisations express a hope for a simplified planning process that can be covered off in half a day or so. Proper, rigorous Strategic Planning is almost never a half-day or one-day event. Sometimes it may take many days – even months – to develop an appropriate framework, to consolidate the necessary information, databases and toolsets, and to establish agreement among the stakeholders who must be involved, to be able to create a coherent, executable Strategic Plan.
Taking short cuts to a produce Strategic Plan will often compromise of the integrity of key input data. The sanity and hygiene of the data used to form conclusions will have a direct bearing on the quality and durability of those conclusions. It is important that all the data, including assumptions, are developed as carefully as possible.
And when compiled, the Strategic Plan must be maintained as a flexible, dynamic document that embraces change and provides an effective handbook to running the organisation on a daily basis.
Business Planning
The Business Plan can only be developed once the Strategic Plan is written. The Business Plan is a tactical, purpose-driven document that explains how the organisation executes the strategic plan and helps to communicate to key internal and external stakeholders how the organisation works. The key content is as follows
The format may be modified to reflect the purpose of the plan, the intended audience, and the effluxion of time.
More Information:Need help to develop your strategic plan or business plan? Or do you need to focus on one key part of the business plan, for example developing and building the management team, leadership development, or your marketing plan?
ASVP can help you to increase revenues and to keep more retained earnings on the bottom line. Contact ASVP for an obligation-free discussion.
