Mobile
Business – Business Plan
Current business situations
Definition of the business and market:
Mobile Business
operates a mobile telecommunications network in Ruritania and provides mobile
voice and data services to both business and consumer customers. The mobile
telecommunications market in Ruritania consists of three companies:
Mobile Business, Wireless Business and Cellular Business.
Historic performance:
Mobile Business was launched on
January 1st
1999 and grew rapidly in terms of both
customer growth and revenues. In March 2003, Mobile Business became the second
largest operator in Ruritania in terms of customer numbers. Revenue has
grown by 23%
per annum on a compound
basis since launch and the business became profitable at the operating level
after two years of operation. In the last fiscal year, the business generated revenues
of €600m and operating profits of €180m.
Current market position:
The mobile
market in Ruritania
is close to saturation
with penetration of
mobile devices at 82%. Mobile Business has a market share of
38% and a reputation for delivering high quality service and strong customer
care. Mobile Business has a dominant
position in the
corporate and small to medium enterprise segments and the highest
revenues per customer in the market.
Core competencies:
Mobile Business’s
core competencies are network design, construction, maintenance and operation
as well as customer care and billing.
THE PROCESS OF
WRITING THE BUSINESS PLAN When and how to write Everyone has his or her own
preferred routine for writing. Some prefer to wait until all the analysis has
been completed before writing the business plan; others prefer to write each
section as soon as they have collected the material necessary to complete it.
The authors of this book prefers to write a business plan in parallel with the
business planning activities. The discipline of translating the results of
analysis into clear and concise
prose can identify
flaws in the
business logic. Flaws in the business logic can invalidate subsequent
analysis and conclusions. Attempting to identify any flaws early on, through
the process of writing, can make the process of business planning more efficient
and avoid inappropriate or invalid analysis.
Before embarking on
the business planning process, it is often useful to attempt to write a first
draft of the executive summary without any prior preparation or analysis. This
will provide a reference point for all future business planning activity and ensure
that activity remains focused on meeting the business planning objectives. The
executive summary also provides a useful reference point before commencing
writing any new sections and helps provide continuity and consistency of
content and style. When business planning in the face of uncertainty or
when preparing a
business plan under considerable
time pressure, the executive summary can also provide a hypothesis for the
proposed strategy or tactics. The business planning activities that
follow will aim
to prove the hypothesis. Whatever
the circumstances, the executive summary will evolve and
develop as the business planning process
provides new insights into the market and how the business
should be established and run.
Managing information:
It is useful to
create a file with sections either physically using a ring binder, or
electronically using a folder structure. Each folder should be labelled
with the
appropriate heading from
the business plan template;
subfolders can also be created for the subheadings. As the business planning
process gets under way, the results of any work can be placed in the relevant
folders. When the process is complete, the files in each folder can be arranged
in a suitable order. With a predefined structure and if materials are
logically ordered, it
is much more likely that the plan will be well
thought through and coherent, and writing it will certainly be much simpler.
Who should write:
For new ventures
that involve only one or two key people, the choice of author is usually
obvious. In larger companies, there should be one person with overall
responsibility for the business plan who will
ensure that the document is internally consistent in both content and
style. However, individual sections should, wherever possible, be written by
those responsible for implementation or the analysis supporting the section’s
conclusions.
Project management:
Small projects
involving one or two key individuals do not usually require extensive project
management and co-ordination. But complex plans, which run to hundreds of pages
and may involve many authors, require careful project management. A project
manager should allocate specific tasks to each author and agree deadlines for when
certain sections will be delivered. In some cases, there will be inter-
dependencies between sections.
These should be identified
and incorporated into
the project plan, which should then be used to monitor the progress of
the preparation of the document. In preparing the project plan, the project
manager should allow plenty of time for amalgamating the various sections from
the different authors and standardising the style, removing repetition and
ensuring consistency. It is easy to
underestimate the time required to perform this crucial task.
Document version control:
Project management
and document version control go hand in hand. A file-naming convention should
be agreed and adhered to. Each version of the document should be clearly
labelled and a control schedule should be included at the front to record
amendments, changes and updates. Old versions of the document should be
maintained as back-ups. The following structure provides a useful starting
point for a file-naming convention:
Project title – Section title – Author
initials – Date – Version An example of a typical file name is: US Expansion –
Executive summary – GF – 20 Sep – V2.2
·
Getting started:
1.
The basic business
information
The basic business
information can usually be prepared and written quickly and will be a valuable
reference for future contributors to the document. It should include the
following:
1)
Title
2)
Contents
3)
Contact information
4)
Document control
5)
Professional advisers
6)
Definitions
2.
Legal structure and
corporate data
Prepare a title for
the document and a contents page. Establishing the contents page at the outset
will provide a structure for the document and is a useful tool for checking
completeness.
The contact details
of the individual responsible for the business plan should be easily
accessible. A page should be devoted to document and version control so that
any reader can be confident that they are reading the latest version and can
also see where the most recent changes have been made. Where professional
advisers such as bankers, accountants, lawyers
or management consultants
have been involved,
their contact details
should also be provided. In business plans with a large amount of
technical information, a glossary will often be necessary as an appendix.
However, it is often useful and less frustrating for the reader if some key
definitions can be provided early in the document. Definitions should be
provided in the basic business information section and terms should be used
consistently throughout the
document.
When a term is used for the first time
in the main text it should be defined again. The section
of legal structure
and corporate data should include
the following pieces of information:
1)
The full name of the
business
2)
The corporate status of the
business
3)
Its capital structure
4)
The address of the
registered office
5)
The registration number
6)
The head office address
The executive summary:
The executive
summary is the most important section of the business plan since it may be the
only section that is read; and because it is usually the first section to be
read it must engage readers and excite
them about the
potential of the
business idea. It should
not be an
introduction to the business
plan; it should
be a 2–3-page encapsulation of the defining
characteristics of the business proposition and the request being made to the
reader in terms of approvals or funding. The executive summary should be
the most carefully written of all the sections. Any
errors in it will undermine the reader’s confidence in the accuracy and
credibility of the whole plan.
The executive summary should contain
the following information:
1)
Current state of the
business
2)
Products and services and
the customers
3)
Sources of sustainable
competitive advantage
Shareholder
objectives and business
strategy:
Summary financial forecasts
Decision or funding being sought, the
use of funds raised and expected returns
The historic elements:
The history
of the business is
another useful section to write
before starting the
business planning process. Capturing the evolutionary path of the
business to its current state provides a valuable context for the business
planning activities and is useful to those who are not familiar with the
business. The history should include the following:
1)
Date founded
2)
Founders
3)
Changes in name
4)
Scope
5)
Environmental (political,
economic, social-cultural and technological) changes
6)
Dates and explanations of
any major acquisitions or divestitures
7)
Major obstacles faced
8)
Periods of growth and
slow-down
Once the outline of
the business plan has been prepared and a first draft of the executive summary
written, the process of generating the content to complete the remainder of the
business plan can begin.
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