Question

Who should participate in the strategic planning process? Who should participate in the business planning process?

Answer 1

A business planning process is something that defines a new idea and arranges all other things to get it starts. On the other hand, a strategic planning process means the predetermined action plan for future growth. The duration of a business plan will be less than one year to its commencement, but the strategic plan has a length of up to 3 to 5 years. Most of the persons should participate in both of these plans will be the same. They are the important persons involved in the business like a manager, owner, shareholders, director, senior staff, and employees, etc. Moreover as a different concept both these planning processes will give more importance to some of these persons.

In a business plan, persons like entrepreneurs, market analysts, promoters, funding institutions like banks, etc have more importance. Usually, a business plan is used by small companies and startups. It means this is a plan used by the entrepreneur to understand the viability of opportunity included in the prospecting idea. Promoters and funding agencies are the people who are interested in their future and help the entrepreneur to make the action. Promoter and the market analyst will help to analyze the threats and opportunities involved and also they will help to identify the future investors.

A strategic plan is normally used by the big diversified organizations for their upcoming success. It is used by persons like a senior manager, shareholders, directors, senior employees, and staff, etc. This will help to create a competitive advantage by differentiating their activities through a well strategic plan. This strategic plan gives more Importance to limited resources and focuses on increasing productivity. It is a plan to reduce the gap between where they now to where they want. This should be planned by the experienced persons in the company with the shareholders.