Business Strategy Planning
Business Planning seems to some people to be the most mysterious and complex process. Some find it one of the most frustrating, overblown, feared and misunderstood business processes. People have created a mystique around this.
A business Plan can be made simpler, more inviting, easier to share and effective. With 15 Years of Business Planning for Fortune 100 Companies, David Schwartz, Principal of Jacquard Associates, Inc. was trained on a very thorough and complete process. Typically, the process took 2 - 3 months. Jacquard's skill is taking complex big corporation ideas and repackaging them for smaller companies.
Jacquard has perfected a program that directly leads to straightforward activities and will cause alignment between departments and people. This is a remarkably understandable process, for beginners or early stage adapters; this can be done in either 4 - 6 half day sessions or a 1 ½ day retreat with 1 day of follow-up. The Chief Executive would pick a small group for this program, we don’t try to accomplish too much or make it difficult.
Companies are at various stages of Business Planning, from never starting to fairly sophisticated. Jacquards activity within the company is based on the company’s experiences strengths and weaknesses.
We typically focus on the following;
- Revenue Sources
- Product Line Analysis
- Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT analysis)
- Financials
And the process results in;
- Projects and Projections
- Communications Tools for the remainder of the Company
- A genuine sense of accomplishment and buy-in by the Senior Management Group
