OVERVIEW

Strategic planning is critical to the success of each Black Owned Business. A strategic plan charts the course or route to a destination or outcome and thereby provides direction. This is why a strategic plan is often called a road map. A strategic plan also includes a risk management strategy which enables agile changes to be made to exploit unforeseen opportunities or mitigate emerging risks.

This analogy helps us to see that a business without a strategic plan is simply performing routine operations and reacting to non-routine events but lacks an articulated destination and route to that destination.

STRATEGIC BUSINESS PLAN OR ROAD MAP DETAILS

A Strategic Business Plan documents the intended destination of a business stated in operational and financial terms for the short, medium, and long-term, which usually spans between 1 to 5 years. The Strategic Business Plan is also documented in high-level, mostly qualitative terms in the Vision, Mission, and Value Statements. The Vision is the intended outcome or destination of the business journey. Amazon’s vision statement includes: “…to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online”.  

There could be many ways or routes to achieve the business Vision, and most successful businesses decide on a route that involves customer satisfaction through product and service quality. The route to the Vision or what the business will do to achieve the Vision is called the business Mission. The Amazon mission statement is : “To be the Earth’s most customer-centric company.”

The Value Statement builds upon the Mission in stating what values the business holds most important in achieving its Vision. The Value statements usually include more aspects of customer service as well as concern for employees. It is also popular to include concern for the environment, especially where the business operations impact the environment. Again, using Amazon as an example, their value statement include: “Customer Obsession”, “Hire the Best” and “Earn Trust”.

The quantitative aspects of the Strategic Plan are contained in the projected operating and financial statements. The projected operating statements will project the quantities of what will be produced or sold to achieve the Vision of the business whilst the projected financial statements will project the income and expenses and profits and loss that will result from the desired operations.

MILESTONES 

A milestone is used to measure the distance that has been traveled along a journey towards a given destination. In strategic business planning milestones are created as goals, objectives and targets which are distinct stages to be reached at specific times on the journey in order to reach the desired destination or outcome. The distinctions between goals, objectives, and targets is that goals are usually broken down into objectives, and objectives are broken down into tasks.  

Milestones can be both financial and  non-financial in terms of goals, objectives and targets. In a hotel operation, for example, the goal or objective of an overall 60%  positive in guest ratings could be seen as a qualitative goal or objective. 

The milestones for the quantitative Strategic Plan would be documented in budgets. These could be daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annual operational and financial budgets that project the expected, periodic financial results required to meet the overall financial goals and objectives.

RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY 

A risk management strategy is an integral part of any strategic plan as it sets out carefully thought-out responses and actions to take in the event that unforeseen events occur, in order to achieve the goals, objectives and targets of the strategic plan. 

These unforeseen events could be either positive opportunities or negative in nature. A risk management strategy will plan for likely occurrences of both positive and negative events that could impact the business and have a plan to maximize the impact of the positive events whilst minimizing those of the negative events. 

An example of what would be included in a risk management plan would be the identification of risks such as the risk that major suppliers could go out of business, or a vital employee might become ill.  With negative risks, sometimes it is possible to try to prevent the event from occurring but in these cases, there is little a business can do and therefore the emphasis will be on mitigating or reducing the impact of the effects. 

In the case of the employee, the business could identify service providers who could perform the functions of the vital employee in the event of such adverse events as sickness. In the case of the supplier, a list of alternative suppliers should be maintained and reliance on one supplier should be avoided.

PERFORMANCE MEASURES 

Performance measures are key indicators that reflect the overall efficiency with which goals, objectives and budgets are being achieved.

For example, in a hotel operation, a qualitative performance measure might be the ratio of repeat bookings to total bookings.  This measure would reflect the level of customer satisfaction and indicate how well the mission of the business, of say providing outstanding customer service, is being achieved.

An example of a quantitative performance measure could be the percentage of utilized beds per month as this would directly impact the financial results.

BOBs Bureau has identified certain strategic businesses that require focus and strategic planning in order to serve the Black Community and for the Black Community to benefit from the enormous potential that these businesses have in providing employment and gaining footing into manufacturing and large-scale importation of products and related spin-offs. 

BOBs Bureau has created strategic plans for these business areas which are available to be quickly customized for individual businesses to implement as a part of an encompassing strategic plan that strategically serves the Black Community.

BOBs Bureau also assists Black Owned Businesses to create their own strategic plans using the artificial intelligence technology ChatGPT. We provide a first draft of your custom, strategic business plan and also provide a coupon to offset the total cost. We also assist in the finalizing of the plan, if required.