Business planning and strategy
A plan earns its keep in the eleven months after the presentation.
When the numbers and the strategy disagree
A business plan makes two claims at once: this is where we are going, and this is what that does to the cash. When they disagree, one of them is wrong, and it is worth knowing which before an investor works it out for you.
The useful output of this work is usually the disagreement. The growth rate the strategy assumes turns out to need a working capital line nobody budgeted. The margin the plan projects turns out to require a headcount the org chart does not contain.
The two or three variables that actually move the outcome. In most plans a dozen assumptions get argued over and three of them matter. Finding the three is most of the job.
What gets built
Integrated three-statement plan
P&L, balance sheet and cash flow that tie to each other, with the checks that prove it.
Scenario architecture
One file. Cases switch; the workbook does not multiply. Comparable side by side.
Sensitivity design
The variables that move the answer, stressed across the range that matters, with the cost base held fixed where it is fixed.
Monthly tracking pack
Actuals against plan in the same structure, so the question "which case are we in?" has an answer each month.
Start six weeks before the numbers are due
The best time for this conversation is well before the board pack deadline, not the week of it.