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Happy's Essential Skills: 10-Step Business Plan Process

It takes more than just a good idea to exploit that brainstorm of yours. Hewlett Packard’s “10-Step Business Plan Process” is the format to present an idea or product in a fashion that will answer most questions that management may have about a product or idea. It is how ideas and products come to reality. While it is designed primarily for developing strategic business plans, it has also been used for planning in administrative support functions. The process efficiently captures external knowledge and internal expertise in an iterative, self-validating methodology. It might be as short as 10 paragraphs or as long as 10 chapters. What is important is answering the question that each step asks. 

Introduction 

Three elements highlight the primary characteristics of the 10 Step Business Plan. Its logic is driven from segmentation: 

1. Customers and channels, competition 
2. Necessary products/services, development
3. Purchase plans and financial analysis 

These are conducted sequentially at the segment level. Valid understandings are derived from a segment disaggregation of markets. The foundation of the 10-Step Plan is user needs; in fact, the only valid segmentation is based on user needs. Imaginative understandings of user needs lead to competitive advantage. As users ultimately determine product and service success, user needs provide the best basis for business decisions. The application of the 10-Step Plan is multifunctional. By incorporating analyses from R&D, manufacturing, QA, sales, marketing, finance, and personnel, all functions contribute to the formulation of an action plan as opposed to a shelf plan.

Editor's Note: To read the full version of this article which appeared in the October 2016 issue of The PCB Magazine, click here.