Formulate your Divisional Plan

A business or divisional plan is a formal statement of a set of business goals, the reasons they are believed attainable, and the plan for reaching those goals. It may also have information about the market potential/markets in which these goals should be achieved.

Reasons you Need a Divisional Plan

Some of the main reasons are:

To set direction and priorities: You need a plan because it sets the direction and establishes priorities for your area/unit. It defines your area’s/unit’s view of success and prioritises the activities that will make this view your reality. The plan will help your people know what they should be working on, and what they should be working on first. Without a clearly-defined and articulated business plan, you may very well find that your priority initiatives, the ones that will drive the highest success, are being given secondary treatment.

To get everyone on the same page: If you find that you have team members wanting to achieve different aims, or going in different directions, you need a business plan. Once you define the direction, you can get all the team members moving together to achieve the unit’s/area’s goals.

To simplify decision-making: Your business plan will have already prioritized the activities necessary for success. Priorities make it easier to say no to distracting initiatives.

To drive alignment: Many organisations have hard-working people putting their best efforts into areas that have little to no effect on strategic success. They are essentially majoring in the minors because their activities aren’t aligned with the priorities. Your strategy serves as the vehicle for answering the question, “How can we better align all our resources to maximise our strategic success?”