Definitive Business Plan, Second Edition, The

Who writes the business plan?

The chief executive of the business or business unit should take overall responsibility for the plan, but the best business plans are developed by the whole team. Some companies adopt a top–down approach, where top managers set strategy and leave minions to develop the plan. Other corporations use a bottom–up methodology, where operating managers set plans and pass them up to the top for some token strategic planning.

Note

Undoubtedly, the best policy is a combination – top–down, bottom–up – where top management sets the strategy, operating managers develop their plans within the strategy, and then the whole process ...