Definitive Business Plan, Second Edition, The

The central objective

At this point, it is advisable to take a break from writing so that you can question yourself and perhaps those around you. You need to identify the central objective for the business. This is the overriding force that drives you forwards.

Naïve commentators frequently suggest that maximizing profit (a monetary surplus) is the firm's central objective. At the very least this should be restated as 'maxi -mizing profitability' (the percentage return on capital employed), which is slightly different. City commentators often seem obsessed with earnings per share (EPS, essentially net profit per ordinary share – profit divided by the number of shares), but this can be a bit myopic. Among other things it favours short-term (and ...