Business environment is both daunting and complex. You should use common sense forachieving your organizational goals. No business can operate well without a plan. The plan should represent your strategic and tactical thinking. It needs to create a framework that allows you to take control of the business operation. Here are a few characteristic of good business plan:
- Long-term relevance: It’s true that no plan can last forever, but it’s not a good think if your plan changes radically to often. Your plan should be applicable for at least five years, so you need to consider possible changes in the industry. If you are action-oriented, you won’t achieve much if you don’t have real plan.
- It’s action-oriented: The business plan should be a guide for doing something, so you can remain productive. So, when you are being somewhat unproductive due to various factors, the plan should be able to get you back on tract. Without a good plan, you may risk losing perspective and in this situation, you need to step back. A good plan won’t allow you to stay mired in the mud. It should contain simplest and easiest solutions that you can plan. Planning should take time, so the result can be really effective.
- It’s flexible: Having a plan doesn’t mean that you will follow a rigid path and can’t be flexible. A plan is simply a foundation of your business, so you won’t stray too far when things are changing in the industry. If you want to be flexible, it is better to have long-term goals, so you won’t get trapped by various short-term technicalities.
- Accept uncertainty: Nothing stays the same and there are uncertain things in our lives. Your strategic business planning should in fact, anticipate changes in the future. In the business world, uncertainty is a real issue and you are putting your heads in the sand, if your plan only expects the expected. You need to collect and analyze information, to better understand possible things that may happen in the future. You should develop key assumptions, so, you can be prepared for uncertainty.
- Support organization dynamics: Everyone in the team may not fully agree on the best way to achieve a goal. They can have unique visions, so it is important that the plan becomes a unifying tool. The plan should be designed to maintain commitment among team members. Despite differences in views and personal strategies, team members should be able to communicate and maintain the direction of the company. All employees should still have identical core values and they need to be emphasized in the plan. There could be a tendency among some team members to focus on the problems. The plan should become a facilitator that can broaden the thinking process of team members. Make sure that directions are maintained and new ideas are always generated.