Part of laying the foundation for any business involved creating a business plan, a document that puts the mantra of a company into clear terms. For many, that plan must be heavily thought out and intensely descriptive, so as to provide a standard from which all business practices can be drawn. However, that line of thinking may be counter-productive, according to one expert.
In a column for the Huffington Post’s small business section, Tim Berry, the founder and chairman of Palo Alto Software, discusses the concept of a business plan. In stark contrast to what some would deem a paradigm of the commercial sector, Berry writes that, instead of a comprehensive plan that will likely be thrown out in a couple weeks, companies should come up with an empirical, streamlined business concept that can adapt to new challenges and is easily digestible by both employees and clients.
“This kind of hype about big scary masters-thesis-weight business plans does a disservice to all the real business people out there who could use business planning to manage their business better – set priorities, develop accountability, move forward strategically – who unfortunately put off planning because of the mythology of the big formal document that feels as inviting as a high-school term paper,” Berry writes.
HR managers should take this advice to heart, by focusing less on getting the businesses letter of the law down on paper, especially when those outside the company are unlikely to weed through pages of text to learn about every nook and cranny of the company.
The best solution for a business is to work with an HR consulting company to establish the most efficient practices for your company and to come up with efficient strategies that are simple for employees and clients to grasp.