Business planning, and why it is crucial

Most successful businesses utilise business plans as a means of setting objectives for the organisation and subsequently as a yardstick against which to measure performance and forecasting ability. It is from these starting points that the organisation’s budgets are derived – essentially sales income, cost of sales, overheads and profit – and woe betide the sales and marketing managers who get their forecasts wrong! Central and local governments go through similar processes at least once a year, sometimes with intermediate reviews and adjustments.