thebusinessplanconcepts,theories,modelsandstrategies.docVIP

ENT 470/570 – 2009 – PRESUMMER - 04 The Business Plan for Executing Innovations: Concepts, Theories, Models and Strategies Ozzie Mascarenhas SJ, PhD. May 13, 2009 From an academic point of view, a business plan is a roadmap, a statement of strategy, an operational model, a business forecast or some other conceptual label. From an entrepreneur’s viewpoint, a business plan is a selling document, a sales pitch you give to prospective venture capitalists and banks. A business plan does not sell a product or a service or a work environment, it sells an entire innovation project, the entire business venture or your new company. If you are really excited about and believe in your project or your new company, it should reflect in the business plan. Excitement, however, is not based on puffery or exaggeration. It is based on supporting evidence in the form of solid research and experience. The innovation, new product or service idea that you sell or form a company about should be real, credible, convincing, promising, attractive, demonstrable, and worth investing to your stakeholders. Hence, have a clear purpose, content, audience and expected outcome for your business plan. These will generate a sense of commitment, focus and realism to your document. Why should you write a Business Plan? A completed business plan is a guide that illustrates where you are, where you re going and how to get there (Charles J. Bodenstab). A business plan may tell you by the time you are done that this is not a profitable business. If you go into the business world without a path to walk down, without some sort of guidelines, you are in trouble (Geoff Walsh). The business plan could be the most useful and important document you, as an entrepreneur, ever put together. The plan keeps you thinking on target, keeps your creativity on track, and concentrates your power on reaching your goal (Megginson, Byrd, Scott and Megginson 1994: 138). A properly developed and written bu