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Business Planning
and measure results in terms of progress down the development
path and through the lengthy regulatory process.
Challenges are particularly great for the company engaged in
research and development. For one thing, it is often impossible
to know how long it will take to reach a given research goal or
how much money it will cost. Unknown events or testing failures
can dramatically stretch out the process, and most drug compa-
ny research projects never produce a product that can be mar-
keted and sold profitably, a situation not known when the
research was begun. These companies must find a way to allo-
cate resources, manage expectations against results, and be pre-
pared for some good news and some bad news along the way.

Financial Plan—the Budget
This is the financial report card, the section of the plan that
shows the financial results of all the work outlined in the plan. It
shows the revenues that will be achieved if the sales goals are
met and the expenses that will be incurred to support the sales
and other goals, if everything goes according to plan. This key
document will be covered in depth in Chapter 10.

Manager’s Checklist for Chapter 9

❏ The term “business plan” is really a generic label. It’s
important to determine the purpose of the plan, its intended
readership, and what is expected of its readers, in order to
know the kind and depth of material that it should contain.
❏ We all plan some of our activities, but the more complex
the business activities to be managed, the more important
to have a plan to guide them. If a plan is needed to man-
age a business activity, it should be in writing, to ensure it
provides clarity, a roadmap to the desired end result, con-
sistent communication of what is to be done, and the
means to empower those who will carry it out.
❏ Goals must be crafted with care to be effective in driving
performance. SMART goals encompass the key character-