Business Plans vs Strategic Plans

Question: Doesn't your Business Plan include a Strategic Plan. Haven't you identified KPI's as indicators of how well you are proceeding along that plan.

Also I'm sure (and you know what happens when you assume) that your Business Plan had a budget.

That being said, whether you do a formalized or informal SWOT analysis, you should be doing some type at the end of each period. Why would you wait a year if assumptions you made in year 0 are wrong?

I agree with the comments above. You can't get where you want to be if you don't know where you are going.

Be very honest in the SWOT analysis. This exercise is not helpful if you are not very clear about your threats and weaknesses.

As already mentioned, the business plan may already include the critical strategic elements and it's just a question of whether to follow internal corporate processes.

One test is to look at the business plan and ask yourself, "Does this explain WHY we expect to be successful?" Does it identify your target customers, their needs and buying habits, and why your go-to-market plan is going to win their business?

If not (e.g. if this is based simply on "We've got a great product"), you might still enjoy success but will likely fall short of the unit's true potential. A year wasted... a year for competitors to catch up or pull ahead.

I would think there was some form of strategic plan developed when the business unit was created. In my opinion, in doesn't have to be formal or detailed, but you should have some road map even if it is on the back of a napkin.

"Plans are nothing; planning is everything" Dwight Eisenhower

Probably you prepared that robust Business Plan to obtain approval and addressing a particular group of #stakeholders. Now that business is running you might face issues that might or might not have been considered before...

It would be very useful to review where you are and where you are heading to (and comparing versus the original Business Plan). It is very important to consider any ongoing issues/changes since the Business Plan was prepared that might affect positively/negatively the #efficiency of your operation and decide any actions now. The Strategic Plan is your actual roadmap to success and is particularly important during the ramp up phase of any operation.

Best scenario is that the Strategic Plan will match closely what you expected in your Business Plan, but don't be surprised if it doesn't.

If you wait until for the next year's strategic planning process, that new business unit might not exist then.

In my experience, a business plan is simply the quanitification of various business assumptions. In it's simplist form, it's math. At it's most complex, it's identifying a goal post. I work with 5 operating companies who, each year, come up with an annual finanical plan. Some meet their targets, some don't. All never achieve their targets in the fashion that they had envisioned when they put the plan together. The ones that hit their targets monitor the behaviour of critical numbers (key drivers of success) and problem solve their way through opportunities and threats. That's where your strategic plan plays into the financial planning process.

There a numerous ways to approach strategic planning. The most straightforward and effective, that I have found it the 'Rockefeller Habits' by Vern Harnish. The book provides a process to work through developing a strategic plan. A new version will be released in the fall of 2013. The key concepts are understanding the trends, market and your core values. And, using your core values as a way to differentiate yourself in the market so that you don't have to play the price war game which will make it harder to meet your profitability targets. I agree with the previous posts, strategy shouldn't be put off because in doing so, you might just take yourself out of the game; not the competition.