Questions and Answers

Our company has multiple business units. Should we start with a very high level planning session first?

You will want to first determine if you could have a single planning process and simply include your various business units as market segments. Distinctive customer groups or even different competitors for each of the business units does not preclude including them in a single planning session as distinct market segments. However, if other more fundamental aspects of the units such as the strategic competencies which are deployed, the capital structure, or other elements of the situation analysis are very different, then planning for each business unit separately is probably appropriate. In this case, we advocate a bottom up approach. Basic corporate mandates should be established, and then each business unit can proceed through their own planning process. Once complete, the corporate planning would involve looking at each of the plans to assess any conflicts in resource allocation or opportunities for synergy.

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