Blog # 7 Planning and implementation for venture

It is quite clear that planning for new ventures in inherently more challenging than for established organizations. Drawing up a business plans is the norm, more and more entrepreneurs are realizing that business plans are bearing less and less resemblance to reality.

While business plans have their place in developing and financing a new venture, the article “Milestones of Successful Venture Planning” by Zenas Block and Ian C. MacMillan in Harvard Business Review identifies key milestones that any business will have to pass.

https://hbr.org/1985/09/milestones-for-successful-venture-planning

The authors argue that identifying milestones over the project’s life enables planners to both learn from experience about the enterprise’s viability and make adjustments in strategy and goals as necessary.

They also emphasize the three advantages of this approach as below -

1. Helps avoid costly mistiming errors.
2. Gives logical and practical milestones for learning and for reevaluating the entire venture.
3. Offers a methodology for “replanning” based on a growing body of ever-harder information.

And refreshingly, the authors do not have the vague milestones or goals this is usual in such articles.

Here are the 10 Key Milestones for a new business venture –

1.  Completion of Concept and Product Testing
2.  Completion of Prototype
3. First Financing
4.  Completion of initial plant tests
5.  Market Testing
6. Production Start up
7.  Bellwether Sale
8.  First Competitive Action
9. First Redesign or Re Direction
10. First Significant Price Change

A detailed idea of each of these points is available in the article, but I especially like how they have provided emphasize on events like “re-design” and “price change”. According to them these are events that shape the future course of the organization, since it shows the difference between what the company has offered and what the market needs.

In essence, a milestone based venture plan is a process of discovery and helps us be more adaptive than a strictly time based plan. But they key is in proper tracking and identifying the correct event that matches up to the milestone.