The Practical Guidelines for Building a Business Plan in Five Pages

The Practical Guidelines for Building a Business Plan inFive Pages This chapter explains the five major elements that make up thebusiness plan, defines the critical terms used in busines

The Practical Guidelines for Building a Business Plan in

Five Pages

This chapter explains the five major elements that make up thebusiness plan, defines the critical terms used in business plan-ning, demonstrates how the components of a business plan fit as anintegrated model, defines logical steps in writing a business plan,and describes the complete business planning cycle You will learnthe activities required to implement a correct planning cycle andthe methods to develop a 5-Page Business Plan model

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This chapter sets the stage for the development of the actualbusiness plan document Five major elements of the business planare defined in specific terms While the five are discussed as sepa-rate elements, the information for each is developed during a sin-gle planning session Do not hold separate sessions to build strate-gic plans then operational plans The efforts would be redundantand overlapping Over a long period of time I tested the methodsdescribed here with clients and found the single session to be themost cost-effective and efficient way to manage the process Asinformation is completed at the one session, it is grouped into thefive subordinate plans.

D EFINING Y OUR B USINESS P LAN

A business plan is a consolidation document that defines theparameters of how a business operates It communicates strategicdirection as well as specific goals, methods of achieving the goals,and the management development activities needed to reach thevision It is a master document that serves as an umbrella for allevents taking place within the company

A business plan is the one place you turn to for completeness

in your story Since it contains the key elements of both hard andsoft processes, it must be inclusive Hard processes are those nor-mally thought of as goals and objectives Soft processes are theintangible but critical elements such as values, philosophy, andprinciples In years past, planners avoided so-called soft or esotericprocesses such as values because they could not directly connectthem to the bottom line Now smart executives work with values,philosophies, and principles early in their planning activities Theyknow the importance of integrating both the soft and hard process-

es These executives see the relationship between goal failure andgaps in the operational values of their companies

An important function of a business plan is to set the direction

of the company Setting direction means more than setting goals.The business plan serves to tell a complete story of where you are

going, how you are going to make the journey, and what businessbehavior you will practice on the way The plan becomes a roadmap, blueprint, and template for employees to follow in accom-plishing the goals:

■ The road map provides a path with markers of incremental

progress along the way Because the plan is well defined,employees can measure their success

■ The blueprint feature of the business plan provides

employ-ees an overall design for the company’s actions It showshow the parts and pieces fit together, defines the relation-ships, and explains the master schema of the future

■ The template provides models for business units and teams

to build their own local action plans If the company has

a plan, then a work team must have a plan

Business plans should meet certain criteria They need to beuser-friendly; therefore I present a simplified, workable documentfor a complex topic The document needs to encourage rather thandiscourage its use It needs to reflect the same goals and objectivesthat people pursue each day in their work A plan fails when itsgoals are different from the work requirement Another use of abusiness plan is to provide guidance when you don’t know what to

do This becomes the direction and benchmark for your actions

H OW THE 5-P AGE B USINESS P LAN W ORKS

One of the main reasons resistance to business planning happens isbecause of the paperwork it produces When we think of planning

we automatically envision reams of papers, three-ring binders, andthick bound reports These perceptions cause people to avoid plan-ning It doesn’t have to be that way

The methods I propose short-circuit some of the resistance toplanning by simplifying the documents Over the past fifteen years

I have helped several companies condense the bulk of their plansdown to five pages These core plans contain the essence of whatyou need to do The often-told legend of President Lincoln writingthe Gettysburg Address on the back of an envelope holds a hiddentruth His address was short, to the point, and told a story that cap-tivated the audience A second example of the brevity concept isfound in Winston Churchill’s apology to a friend about the length

of his letter: “I could have made it shorter if I had more time.” Wecan build business plans using the same concepts of brevity, suc-cinctness, and focused text You can tell your story using a businessplan with only five components of a single page each

The Strategic Plan—Forming the Heart of Your Story

The strategic plan is the first of the five types of plans (as shown inFigure 2-1) It is the starting point for the other four types of plansand the heart of your story Get this wrong and the rest of your planand your story is suspect Get it right and the power of your peoplewill be unleashed because they want to know where the company

is headed Employees want to believe that something exists in thefuture The strategic plan is a single-page document that defineswhere and how you want to position your company It examines alist of factors that might influence your future A diagram of howyou format the strategic plan into a single page is shown inAppendix B: The 1-Page Strategic Plan Topics you must address inyour strategic plan are:

The Operational Plan—Bringing Your Plan to Life

The operational plan is the dynamic component that brings thestrategic plan to life (see Figure 2-2) It is the first of ten years of thecomplete business plan and is developed simultaneously with theother four components It defines how the company accomplishesits strategic intent on a daily or annual basis It breaks down the

Figure 2-1 The strategic plan sets the direction of your company.

strategic goals into objectives and tasks to make them more standable and manageable The operational plan also providesinformation to executives on how well the staff carries out its func-tional activities Along with the execution of functional activitiescomes the requirement for staff coordination Work cannot beeffective unless it is closely coordinated across staffs or functions.The operational plan also helps management teams implementactions Because it identifies the persons held accountable, theoperational plan becomes a good benchmark for reporting process-

under-es of key programs and projects This becomunder-es the benchmark forperformance measures of both the individual and the company Aformat for this plan is found in Appendix C: The 1-PageOperational Plan

Figure 2-2 The operational plan sets the strategic plan into motion on a practical level.

The Organizational Plan—Defining Your

Corporate Structure

The organizational plan (seen in Figure 2-3) is the third of the fivetypes of plans you must develop It defines the structure you musthave to put the complete business plan in place Organizationalplanning begins with the concept that structure follows strategy.The strategies come from the strategic plan The organizationalplan is more than a wiring diagram or chart showing assignments;

it must help you do certain things First, it ensures your people areall properly assigned to specific work or functions Like the opera-tional plan, the organizational plan aids coordination among criti-cal staff sections Another important function is cost control Theorganizational plan illustrates adjustments that need to be made tostreamline activities within the workforces Structure should always

be tailored to the requirements Finally, the organizational planmust illustrate three ingredients:

Figure 2-3 The organizational plan matches the structure to the goals of the plan.

■ A chart showing reporting relationships

■ A clear definition of responsibilities

■ A clear definition of authorities

A template for the organizational plan is found in Appendix D:The 1-Page Organizational Plan

The Resources Plan—Analyzing the Support You Need to Put Your Plan Into Action

The fourth of the five types of planning is the resources plan thatcan be seen in Figure 2-4 It defines the resources you must have tosupport the business plan found in Appendix E: The 1-PageResources Plan This plan begins with an analysis of the annual tar-gets and the goals from the strategic plan Normally you can devel-

op the resources plan in conjunction with the operations plan sincethe two are so closely connected

Figure 2-4 The resources plan matches requirements to the overall plan.

The resources plan provides a great deal of information to thereader because it examines specific support requirements It con-tains, at minimum, information on ten categories:

1 Staffing Levels What are your short-term and long-term

staffing requirements? What kinds of skills will be needed

at each level, now and in the future?

2 Information Requirements What is the volume and quality

of your information?

3 Technology Do you have the most effective technology to

do the job? Is technology just around the corner that willput your competition in the advantage? What is the cost

of staying up-to-date with technology?

4 Tools and Equipment What supporting systems do you and

your staff need to get all the tasks completed?

5 Intellectual Capital How smart are your people? How smart

will they have to be in the future? What do they have to

be smart about? How are you using the intellectual capitaldatabase that now exists?

6 Time What critical milestones exist in your plan? Where

are the important decision points in the plan? What canyou do to use your time more wisely?

7 Relationships What networks need to be developed? Can

strategic alliances and strategic partnerships help yourplan?

8 Image What is your image in the public perception? What

should it be? How will you develop this perception orchange a negative one?

9 Facilities Can you estimate the facilities requirements? Is

the need for physical space increasing or decreasing?What effect has e-business had on your industry?

10 Financial Have you considered the budget constraints for

short-term requirements? What are the long-term capitalinvestment requirements? Do the financial numbers makegood business sense?

The Contingency Plan—Taking Evasive Action in

There are three types of contingency planning you must sider The first is when your goals are not accomplished or areblocked somewhere in the execution You must have alternativesdeveloped to eliminate the blockage It is a fallback position.Normally you develop several courses of action to get you to thegoal Multiple routes or alternatives permit you choices when thegoal path becomes blocked You don’t change your goals, just theactions to get you to the goals.

con-Another type of contingency planning is a big picture issue.This is a disaster plan for a business-created crisis that could shutdown your company—for example, a labor strike in a plant that wasnot expected or anticipated that catches management unprepared

A contingency plan should address such occurrences

Natural disasters are a primary contingency that companiesplan for Like manmade situations, these occurrences can be pre-dicted and planned for What would happen to a business depend-ent on landline telephone communications if a flood wiped out theline? Remember the huge area of Quebec, Canada, that was para-lyzed for months in the winter storm of 1998? How can you planfor those events? What is your recovery plan?

The third type of contingency plan is developed from an nal view that examines incidents that could happen to your busi-ness and that would cause significant concern For example, whatwould happen if members of a key management team were allkilled in a plane crash? Sad events such as this have happenedbefore A contingency would have to be in place to replace thosecritical people This example is so real that at most companies it isstandard operating procedure that teams not fly together as a pre-cautionary measure

inter-Another serious situation could be in the area of workplace lence How do you prevent a serious incident from happeninginside your workplace environment? Acts of violence against super-visors and coworkers by disgruntled employees have grown at a dis-turbing rate in the American workplace.1 Increasingly, embitteredemployees and ex-employees are seeking revenge through violence

vio-and murder for alleged mistreatment on the job According to aBureau of Justice, Statistics Crime Data Brief, homicide has becomethe second leading cause of death in the workplace Additionally,statistics show that one in four workers will be harassed, threat-ened, or attacked on the job The topic of violence has many vari-ables, but given the high stakes involved, it is prudent for manage-ment to prepare to deal with workplace violence by implementingprevention procedures In short, this is contingency planning Anexample of the format used for contingency planning is found inAppendix F: The 1-Page Contingency Plan.

T IPS ON C APTURING I NFORMATION AND

M INIMIZING P APERWORK

A company-level business plan is usually written in a three- to day period with all members of the executive team participating.The end product is a business plan of five single pages as outlined

five-in Appendices B–F Over the past years I have helped a number ofteams accomplish this seemingly difficult task within these timeparameters To do that successfully requires certain preconditionsand specific actions at the planning session

One problem at a planning conference is the capturing ofinformation and the paperwork that follows The only efficient way

to record information and complete the final document is to haveon-site computers and printers for the session This allows you topace the discussion by producing final written documents at theend of the session Too much time is lost in translation if newsprint

or handwritten notes are relied upon to capture the information.Computer support eliminates the lag time normally associated withthe planning process At the end of the session each participant isgiven a diskette with the plan and a printed copy of the plan if theydesire Another alternative is to e-mail the final copy to all partici-pants

Another important tip or technique I always use is to view thework-in-progress through an LCD projector This provides a fast

way to develop, edit, and finalize the volume of information thatwill be generated in the session The management team can seetheir work on the screen and make immediate corrections Justabout any software such as Microsoft Word or Powerpoint can beused for this stage of the plan’s development All input and changesfrom multiple participants can be shown on the screen and manip-ulated as the decisions are made to finalize the content.

Using full-time computer support for planning is well withinthe means of any company today It is not difficult to have theequipment and support personnel at the conference Usually thepresident’s administrative assistant or someone who can be trustedwith the sensitive information that may be discussed provides thecomputer support

Two additional tips can make your computing support

dynam-ic and successful Although I have provided formats for the finalplan, don’t worry about format at the planning session itself Havethe plan recorded in a simple word processing format that is fastand easy to work with The second tip is to print the plan as you go

At several points in the conference print a copy for each pant This gives them something in their hands, helps them reviewthe items, and provides assurance that progress is being madetoward the completed plan

partici-T HE F OUR U NIQUE P HASES IN A B USINESS

P LANNING C YCLE

Sadly, the business planning cycle in most companies is not in stepwith the calendar, the execution of the work, or the need forplanned thinking Too often the plan for next year is developed inthe middle of that year It is a joke to your employees to issue a planthat is already half-expired Stop that practice! It makes you lookfoolish and inept at planning

So how do you get the cycle in the correct place? Two methodscan be used The first is to start earlier That’s not magic Just do itearlier More important, though, is to cut down the amount of wast-

ed energy in developing the key points Remember that you aregoing to capture the essence of your complete business plan in fivepages To do that seemingly impossible task means you need a tool

to organize your activities

The business planning cycle is the tool a successful tion uses to establish a business plan with all components in placefor execution It is more than a document It is a completely inte-grated process consisting of four distinct phases (see Figure 2-6).They are preparing, planning, implementing, and sustaining Eachphase has a unique and powerful place in the planning cycle

organiza-Figure 2-6 The business planning cycle has four phases.

Several things happen at the preplanning briefing One is tostandardize the terms for the purpose of establishing a commonlanguage Often terms are confused and people are working withdifferent operational meanings Standardization of language is amust Use the preplanning session to address concerns and fears.Because planning has such a bad reputation, you can use this ses-sion to help smooth the way for further work Clear definitions ofwhat is to be accomplished should be communicated at the brief-ing Make sure participants understand that your planning model isabout to take a dramatic turn for the better Business-as-usual can-not be allowed.

Figure 2-7 Getting ready to plan has two important steps.

Another item addressed in the preplanning briefing is thehomework assignment that must be completed in the preparationperiod Generally two to four weeks are allowed between the pre-planning briefing and the actual business planning session It iswise to use this time for preparation Too many planning teams failbecause they come unprepared or ill-equipped with data to makedecisions The business planning conference is not the time to begathering data At that point it is too late Participants should not

be allowed to show up empty-handed or to just “wing it,”

especial-ly since the whole company must live with the results

To help you get ready for the actual planning conference, I vide you with a set of questions as a preconference assignment thatmay be found in Appendix G

pro-Phase 2: Planning

The next step in the business planning cycle is to conduct the

actu-al session (see Figure 2-8) All members of the executive or top teammust attend this three- to five-day session chaired by the president.Key players should not be absent If necessary, postpone the sessionuntil they can attend At the conference the team jointly developsfive one-page plans (which I call Level 1 plans) These company-level plans are the basis for each key staff or function to roll theprocess downward