Are Business Plan and Business Strategy the same thing?

[Matt Castro]

@arcsine, @ann:

Great points, both. Kinda why I started this thread to assess current thinking on the "plan" vs. "strategy" topic.

I started this thinking of strategy as the steps to the overall business objective (most likely growth). So, less the cash-flow statement, hiring plan, A/R vs. A/P analyses, etc. And more along the lines of:
Assessment --> Key Issues/Opportunities --> Critical Success Factors --> Priority Actions.

Lots of other components of a business plan come from this like: hiring, marketing strategy, customer acquisition, etc. But for me, none of those other components of the plan can be done effectively, without the sense of direction/priority for the business, based on whatever assessment is done. Mostly the teams I have worked with take "assessment" as environment+market+customer+competition type analyses, integrated and synthesized to draw out the most critical issues or opportunities, from which the rest of the strategy is developed.

So, that's what I would be thinking talking about strategy. . .

Matt

[ArcSine]

Matt, am I reading correctly that your definitions distinguish Strategy and Plan both temporally (Strategy shapes Plan, and so necessarily precedes it), and in terms of detail (Strategy is broader, more macro-oriented; Plan encompasses more micro-oriented details)?

If so (and correct me if not) I'd have a hard time pointing to one or the other as being clearly more difficult. Because they're somewhat different animals, it's not like asking, "Which is harder, benching 300 or benching 325?" It's more like asking, "Which is harder, benching 300 or acing a physics exam?" Both difficult, but for different reasons.

Gun-to-head, I'd probably name Strategy as being the more difficult of the pair. (But there's likely some subconscious bias at work here; since my 9-to-5 is spent largely in the Plan space, I'm sure it seems less challenging merely by dint of familiarity.)

Familiarity aside, it just seems that Strategy contains more questions which, by their broad, macro nature, are harder to pin down. Which way will the political winds blow on environmental issues after we commit X dollars to this product, which admittedly raises environmental issues? What competition will arise after we roll out our marketing initiatives? Tough calls, and it seems that Strategy involves a bit more tea-leaf reading---and longer time horizons---than does Plan.

[Matt Castro]

Thanks to all that replied. This was a great discussion. I just realized I never came back to say "thanks!". I posted something new today. Maybe that'll keep the group going!