Nature of the business planning process

The business planning process must be continuous and repetitive. According to the pace of change across the business will be the regularity with which the business plan is analyzed and updated. In dynamic industries, the business planning activities must be fast, like decision making and will require regular updates of the business plan. Some may even get to create business plan documents consist of modules to update the sheets are inserted and removed as the market evolves and tactics change. The scenario-building techniques, which will be presented on topics asides may be used to identify what might happen in the future and what are warning signs that may suggest that the potential scenario is evolving. Environment should be monitored continuously and, if they are received signals that the market is changing, should analyze the tactics, strategies and operations.

Overview of the business planning process

The business planning process also must be flexible and continuous feedback at each stage. (In the table at the end, I will describe the steps of business planning process which should start with the strategic assessment, that is, the position has a business or planning to do). This process can be adapted to meet the specific needs of organizational planning, business or project.

      I. Stage - Strategic Analysis and Plan

The process begins with strategic analysis designed to examine the current state of business and also identify the axis around which the future may evolve. The idea (Vision), Task (Mission) and business objectives can be the source or result of the business planning process. We will discuss this in detail in another section.

The strategic analysis examines customers, suppliers and competitors out of business as well as the industry dynamics that governs the way in which these groups interact. The analysis also includes the wider environment in which the company operates, and may also include the political, economic, social and technological factors affecting the business. Finally, the analysis examines the company itself, which may include the firm's financial capacity, operational infrastructure, patents, and the knowledge and skills of its staff.

    II. Stage - Marketing Plan

Having considered the current state of the company and its environment, the planning process will consider the future. The scenario building techniques may be used to predict a variety of scenarios of future markets in which the business should operate and for which alternatives can be developed for marketing strategy and tactics, all within the marketing plan. The distinction between strategy and tactic is not always clear. Strategic planning addresses the question of what the company should do. The tactics are sometimes expressed with a question: "How should the company do?".

   III. Stage - Operational Plan

At this stage, the company must be clear what your idea (Vision) and task (mission) as well as some of the objectives. It will come to collect a number of strategic alternatives designed to achieve these goals, and strategies will be supported by a set of tactics. The tactics may be subdivided into operational plans, which explain in detail how to execute the tactics. When the business planning process has reached the stage of operational planning, should develop the financial model.

  IV. Step - Select the financial or business model

A financial or business model provides a rigorous framework for analyzing the strategies, tactics and operational plans of the company to see if they allow the company to achieve their financial goals. The strategic alternatives will be evaluated qualitatively throughout the business planning process, but a business model will evaluate quantitatively. Quantitative measures typically include the net present value (NPV) project, the internal rate of return (IRR) and the recovery period of investment (which is discussed in detail in another post). The business simulation exercise provides perspective on the financial strength of the strategic and tactical plan that is based, and through an iterative process of strategy and tactics evolve until it finds the optimal strategic solution.

   V. Stage - Examine the funding

The financial model or business can then be used to identify funding needs and the time during which such funding will be needed. Funding needs and estimates that support will be scrutinized in depth by those who provide financing or those with responsibilities for plan approval.

  VI. Stage - Perform a risk analysis

Investors also want to have a full understanding of the risks involved in the proposal. Risk analysis can be done both qualitatively and quantitatively. The qualitative risk analysis involves asking the question "what if ..." and then identify actions that can be done to mitigate any potential risks. With regard to quantitative risk, the business model can be used to identify variables (eg price) which are more sensitive the significant results of the model (such as sales). Once these variables have been identified, you can perform a sensitivity analysis by changing each variable individually and together. Simulation techniques can be used for variables such as Monte Carlo simulation technique. Risk analysis is usually performed once the agreed funding strategy, so you can examine any risk arising from bank contracts, requirements such as interest coverage levels, maximum levels of leverage or other covenants ().

 VII. Stage - Present and obtain the approval of business plan

Now is the time of writing the plan and ensure that it is serious, credible and convincing. Once drafted to be presented to those who agree to fund the project, or who approve its implementation.

Note: (This theme continues in the third part: "Table - The business planning process").

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Business Plan and Marketing Process

1. STRATEGIC PLANNING AND MARKETING PROCESS
    2. STRATEGIC PLANNING is the definition of a clear mission of the company, this mission becomes detailed supporting objectives that guide the entire company. Marketing planning occurs at the business unit, product and market. (Specific market opportunities.)
    3. THE MISSION OF THE COMPANY An organization exists to accomplish something. Know when you need to take new directions in situations which arise or the expansion of products on the market.
    4. STEPS IN STRATEGIC PLANNING
    5. DESIGN PORTFOLIO BUSINESS IS BUSINESS SET AND PRODUCTS THAT ARE A COMPANY. PORTFOLIO ANALYSIS: AN INSTRUMENT BY WHICH MANAGEMENT identifies and assesses BUSINESS IS THE COMPANY.
    6. SBU Strategic Business Unit A unit of the company that has a separate mission and objectives and that can be raised independently of the other business of the company, a division SBU can be a company, a product line within a division or sometimes a single product or one brand.
    7. GROWTH-SHARE MATRIX A planning method that evaluates the portfolio strategic business units of a company in terms of growth rate in the market and on market participation. The u.e.n are classified in various ways .....
    8. MATRIX-PRODUCT EXPANSION OF AN INSTRUMENT MARKET PORTFOLIO PLANNING FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF OPPORTUNITIES FOR GROWTH COMPANIES BY MARKET PENETRATION, product development or diversification.
    9. A market penetration strategy for company growth, increasing sales of current products to current market segments without changing the product in any way.
    10. A market development strategy for the growth of the company that identifies and develops new market segments for current products of the company
    11. Product development offers new or modified products to current market segments. The concept of product comes on to convert a physical product in order to ensure that the product idea can become a reliable
    12. A diversification strategy is to acquire businesses outside current products or businesses dela company.
    13.
    14. STRATEGIC PLANNING AND SMALL BUSINESS
    15. WHAT IT IS? Approach to large corporations with divisions and products serve to attract investors. To anticipate any situation (to prevent and improve). Defines the mission and objectives of the company.
    16. PROCESS OF MERCHANTABILITY helps achieve the overall strategic objectives. It is divided into: CONSUMERS META: identification of the market is divided into smaller segments, selecting the most favorable service and satisfaction. ANALYSIS, PLANNING, IMPLEMENTING, AND CONTROL. "Marketing mix" 4P "Product - Price - Place - Promotion (distribution)
    17. MERCADOTENIA MARKET Market Segmentation Market orientation positioning (and service satisfaction) XPUZXP market
    18. CONSUMER MARKETING GOAL: "The Client": you need to understand. View your needs and desires. Knowing. Find the best position to serve certain market segments. (Get well).
    19. CONSUMER MARKET SEGMENTATION ORIENTATION TARGET MARKET MARKET POSITIONING types of customers, products and needs. Choose the one that offers best opportunity to achieve the segmentation: geographic, behavioral, sex appeal assessment of the chosen segment. To generate customer value. Choose more segments if the first successful sale. Total market coverage. Backbone of the marketing strategy of a product. Place the product on the consumer's mind in relation to consumers. Higher value segments that offer benefits. Customer Communications positioning.
    20. MIXTURE OF MERCADOTENCIA "4P" THIS MUST BE COORDINATED AND 4P DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVES PRODUCT PRICE PLACE PROMOTION DISTRIBUTION goods and services offered by the company. Money paid by customers for the product. Discounts, rebates, total payment appropriations. Activities to make available to the customer. Support to distributors. Activities to persuade the customer. Advertising. Incentives (promotions, sales, refunds)
    21. MARKETING EFFORT MANAGEMENT ANALYSIS PLANNING IMPLEMENTING CONTROL
    22. ANALYSIS Comprehensive analysis of the situation of the company. Market analysis and marketing environment. Find opportunities and avoid threats.
    23. PLANNING decision what you want to do with each business unit (segmentation). Marketing strategy decision. Detailed plan for each business, product or brand (by number of segmentations that the company has chosen). Executive Summary-Location Marketing - threats and opportunities - goals - Marketing strategies - action programs - budget.
    24. IMPLEMENTATION process that converts into action plans to achieve strategic objectives mercadológicos. Have programmed activities in the short medium and long term. "TEAMWORK" UNON ACTION PROGRAMS BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE PEOPLE VS CHAIR COMMUNICATION WORKERS Decision Making CALCULATION OF BUDGET PLANNING HUMAN RESOURCES MOTIVATION BUSINESS PERSONAL BELIEFS CULTURAL IDENTITY VALUES MEANING
    25. CONTROL Monitoring progress of all activities and phases of marketing. Detailed targets and budgets

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The Spanish stock market closes flat despite the distrust of markets

The Spanish stock market closed today totally flat session infarction, despite its semi-festive character, which came to suffer heavy losses by mistrust of the future of some euro countries.

At the end, helped by gains on Wall Street, the selective IBEX 35 indicator fell imperceptibly, just two tenths, and placed in the 7660.5 points, a level that continues to set the lowest position of the last three years, from March 2009.

Still, today concluded the worst week of the year, with a cumulative decline of 4.4 percent, which is extended to 10 percent when taking into account the cumulative decline since January.

The risk premium, one of the main indicators of the confidence that Spain in fulfilling its obligations to its creditors, rose just before the close to the 403 points, something not seen since late 2011, before the Mariano Rajoy government began its reform agenda.

Behind this strong market instability are doubts about the growth potential of the peripheral countries of Europe, and specifically about whether Spain will meet deficit reduction targets in a recession, like the present.

In Europe, the evolution of the bags was similar, as Paris was left a slight 0.19%, 0.20% Milan, Frankfurt and 0.13%, while London scored a gain of 0.35 percent.

In recent days, several analysts and brokerage firms have shown their doubts about the ability of Spain to meet its deficit targets in a recession, like the present.

In a report issued today, Societe Generale analysts believe that the draft budget just adopted by the government have worsened "confidence in Spain's ability to manage the balance between austerity and growth." Today, told Efe, the Minister of Economy and Competitiveness, Luis de Guindos, recognized the "attacks" that are suffering Spain and other neighboring countries, and it is creating a large "volatility and nervousness" in the markets.

She said that behind this situation is the perception that Europe has entered a slowdown, which could not be prevented by injections of liquidity from the European Central Bank, which casts doubt on the ability to grow in Spain and other countries like Italy and Portugal.

Among the hardest hit values ​​were placed electrical, construction companies and banks, companies, analysts said, more will suffer from budget cuts.

Within the IBEX 35 noted the decline of Endesa, 1.59%, followed by Caixabank with 1.57%, and ACS and Abengoa, with 1.51%.

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House prices still climbing in Montreal

The first quarter of 2012 saw home prices climb in Montreal significantly.

In recent months, the average price of a detached single storey rose by 3.5% to $ 286 000. The standard price of a house for his part, rose 4.9% to $ 387 429. Finally, the average cost of a condo is now $ 239 000, up 2.2%.

"The competition for fixed interest rate, at which major financial institutions have engaged in recent months, has greatly contributed to the booming real estate market, said Dominic St-Pierre, Director of Royal LePage Real Estate Services for Quebec . Although the inventory has increased, demand for all types of property continues and this is what explains the steady rise in prices. "

In terms of sales, only detached single storey were down by 13%. Sales of standard two-storey houses and condo for their part, increased by 4.6% and 4.7% respectively.

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Investment in the Hotel Omni Mont-Royal in Montreal

The Omni Mont-Royal in Montreal will benefit from a facelift over the coming months. The Omni Hotel & Resorts chain will spend $ 20 million for its renovation.

The property, located at the corner of Peel and Sherbrooke in the heart of the business district of Montreal, opened in 1976 on the occasion of the Montreal Olympics. After 35 years of existence, the Omni wishes to enhance comfort and design provided customers.

The renovation of 299 rooms and suites, as well as the lobby and restaurant areas are already underway, with completion expected in June. New meeting rooms and reception will be built by fall.

"We are delighted with this transformation, which will offer even more memorable experiences to our customers," says Dominique Lapointe, executive director of the Omni Mont-Royal. "Our goal is to create a warm and inviting throughout the hotel so that it becomes a second home full of the authenticity of our home."

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Unemployment falls to 7.2% in Canada

The Canadian economy has created over 82,000 new jobs in March, six times more than expected, which has pushed the unemployment rate from 7.4% to 7.2% from February, Statistics announced Friday Canada.

This strong increase is mainly due to full-time work, which had 70,000 more jobs in March. It contrasts with analysts' forecasts, which projected the creation of 13,200 jobs and an unemployment rate steady at 7.4%.

This improvement comes after four months of little change in employment.

At 7.2%, the unemployment rate returns to its lowest level since Canada came out of the recession in the summer of 2009, Bernanke pointed Emanuella Enenajor of CIBC World Markets.

It is "the fourth largest monthly job creation in 30 years", noted for his part economist Douglas Porter of the Bank of Montreal.

Over the past year, 197,000 jobs were created in Canada, full-time positions for the most part, and the total number of hours worked increased 1.6%, Statistics Canada said in a statement.

In March, there have been gains in all age categories, while the participation rate rose 0.1 points to 66.6%.

This is the private sector registered the largest increase of jobs in March (42 600), but the public sector (20 900) and self-employment (18 800) were not far behind.

The job growth was spread across several sectors, including health care and social assistance, information, culture and recreation, and public administrations.

Meanwhile, educational services were down, like trade, hotels and restaurants, as well as agriculture.

One good news for the slight increase in the manufacturing sector, which is concentrated mainly in Ontario and Quebec, which had been hard hit during the recession. Employment was up there in March (11,800 jobs created) for the fourth consecutive month. However, the number of employees in this sector is down 22,000 last year.

Ontario (46 000) and Quebec (36 000) had the strongest job creation in March. In Ontario, the country's economic engine, unemployment fell 0.2 percentage points to 7.4%, while in Quebec, the decline was 0.5 percentage points to 7.9%.

Here the rate in the provinces of the country (the figure for the previous month in brackets):

- Newfoundland and Labrador 13.0 (12.9)

- Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island 11.3 (10.8)

- Nova Scotia 8.3 (8.2)

- New Brunswick 10.2 (10.1)

- Quebec 7.9 (8.4)

- Ontario 7.4 (7.6)

- Manitoba 5.3 (5.6)

- Saskatchewan 4.8 (5.0)

- Alberta 5.3 (5.0)

- British Columbia 7.0 (6.9)

Here the rate in major cities:

- St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador 7.8 (7.6)

- Halifax 5.9 (5.8)

- Moncton 6.4 (6.6)

- Saint John, NB 8.2 (7.8)

- Saguenay 6.1 (6.3)

- Quebec 5.1 (5.1)

- Sherbrooke 7.1 (7.0)

- Three Rivers 7.6 (8.1)

- Montreal 9.2 (9.2)

- Gatineau 5.5 (6.1)

- Ottawa 6.2 (6.0)

- Kingston 7.4 (7.1)

- Peterborough 9.6 (7.5)

- Oshawa 7.8 (7.4)

- Toronto 8.6 (8.6)

- Hamilton 6.0 (5.9)

- St. Catharines-Niagara 7.5 (7.6)

- Kitchener 6.7 (6.7)

- Brantford 8.8 (8.2)

- Guelph 5.4 (5.5)

- London 8.5 (8.8)

- Windsor 10.7 (10.7)

- Barrie 9.2 (8.7)

- Sudbury 7.2 (6.6)

- Thunder Bay 5.3 (5.6)

- Winnipeg 5.8 (5.8)

- Regina 3.9 (4.4)

- Saskatoon 5.9 (6.0)

- Calgary 5.1 (5.2)

- Edmonton 5.7 (5.3)

- Kelowna 8.8 (8.2)

- Abbotsford 10.6 (10.5)

- Vancouver 6.6 (6.7)

- Victoria 5.3 (5.3)

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The weekly jobless retreat in the U.S. to a low of 4 years

The improvement continues on the employment front in the U.S. ... The weekly new unemployment dropped further last week to stand at its lowest level since August 2008, the period before the crisis.

They came out to 357,000 against 363,000 (revised) the previous week, said Thursday the Labor Department. A figure better than expected, the Bloomberg consensus building on 360,000 new claims. The average four weeks to reach 361,750 for the period ending March 31. A figure down from 4,250 the previous week.

Unemployment compensation during the week ended March 24 reached 2.6%, unchanged from the previous week. The number of unemployed receiving benefits during the same period totaled 3,338,000, down 16,000 from the previous week.

These data are quite encouraging as the U.S. Department of Labor must publish tomorrow, the figures for the month of March.

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