​A Better Way to Think About Planning

BEPA is a more practical way to think about business planning. Rather than treating the plan as fixed, it treats it as iterative. Each version captures the best understanding available at that point in time, knowing that future learning may strengthen, reshape, or even overturn current conclusions.
That is not a weakness. It is the essence of sound strategy under uncertainty. Businesses do not operate in controlled environments. Markets shift, competitors respond, customers surprise us, technologies evolve, and constraints emerge that were not obvious at the outset. A useful plan must therefore be able to evolve with the evidence.

For the complete 6-page/1,600 word article:

This discussion will sequentially address four ground breaking concepts put forth by Roger L. Martin, strategist, author, top management thinker and former Dean of the Rotman business school at University of Toronto, as well as four endorsements of contemporary strategic thinking. These analyses draw upon a variety of sources, including two of his books, four of his videos, a few of his articles, and content from the Roger L. Martin website (https://rogerlmartin.com), particularly his PTW/PI posts.

 I have been a fan of Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter since 1987 when I was first taught his famous 5 forces model and read his seminal 1980 book Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors which has been reprinted numerous times. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Porter, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porter%27s_five_forces_analysis, www.amazon.ca/Competitive-Strategy-Techniques-Industries-Competitors/dp/0684841487 and youexec.com/book-summaries/competitive-strategy-by-michael-porter)

Linked here is a 70' presentation by Michael Porter from 2015 in which he eloquently covers all the key issues related to business strategy: He describes strategy as competing to be unique, to chose to do things differently as a differentiator or cost leader.  As part of the strategy, the value proposition involves which customers you serve (recognizing that you can't serve them all well and profitably), their need (or perhaps Job-To-Be-Done) and your pricing strategy (or perhaps business model). He goes on to argue that the business strategy should not be a secret but instead be a widely known and shared foundation to help drive decision making on what new avenues to pursue as well as how to make the inherent trade-offs that arise.

Michael Porter's thinking fits well with my entrepreneurial/intrapreneurial emphasis on "Magic" which encompasses doing something differently and business plans which I see as a written manifestation of the business strategy. (no-magic-no-business-opportunity.html  and to-draft-a-business-plan-or-not.html)

The display, details and delivery.

Here's the handout and full PowerPoint with notes and links (video to follow)

www.dropbox.com/sh/g57q7wdckqsn9xv/AAAZWg1LIQGl0Kk5-ugCbbz3a?dl=0

​Rubrics for grading reports and presentations: