The Importance Of Business Planning

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“In 2013, 74.4 percent of all households reported Internet use, with 73.4 percent reporting a high-speed connection.”
- (File & Ryan, 2014)
As the presence of the Internet becomes dominant in our lives and essentially impacting all venues of our lifestyle as the epigraph citation from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 American Community Survey shows, it assuredly affects business organizations to an equal if not at a higher degree. The proliferation of the internet components influences businesses from its strategy to post consumption services. Thus, the overall business planning is influenced by the effects of the Internet in the key areas of planning: the motivation; the planning processes for planning; and thereby the resultant outcomes. In …show more content…

According to the book Digital Business – Concepts and Strategy, “The Internet augments resources for planning and may influence the process for planning in two ways: (1) by facilitating communications, and (2) by serving as an information resource” (Coupey, 2005, p. 200). In the scope of “Facilitating communications”, the internet is a major influence since the advent of online chats, instant messaging, virtual meetings, and collaboration portals bridges the geographic distance and provides the opportunity for real time collaborative planning and a measure of cost savings. For example, the Cisco WebEx® provides a collaborative online meeting experience using Software as a Service (SaaS) solution delivered through the Cisco internet cloud. This technology provides, video & voice conferencing, real time content sharing, on-screen presentations and more (Cisco systems - WebEx, 2015) which provides optimal facilitation of communications during the planning process. In addition, in the scope of information resource relevant to planning, the internet provides the secondary research ability for a business to gather various types of information, such as, customer demographics, competitor offerings, etc. This information is invaluable for developing or augmenting the business plan. For example, one of the key elements of a business plan process is conducting a …show more content…

200). As the “Motivation” and the “Process” of planning is influenced by the internet, the resulting outcomes and tactical elements are sure to be influenced as well. The internet will enhance the value chain or “the set of activities that an organization undertakes to move its products from development to the market” (Coupey, 2005, p. 186) by providing capabilities that were not available before the internet. Activities, such as Just in Time manufacturing will not be possible without the online coordination between the materials/parts suppliers and the manufacturer. New product initiative or current product obsolescence can also be identified by online research and thereby change the outcome of the planning by integrating activities for new products or redistributing resources away from the obsolete products. For example, the internet paved the way for “Netflix” to develop a business plan leveraging the internet to distribute movies where in contrast, the biggest movie rental franchise “Blockbuster” failed to integrate the internet in the timely revision of its business plan resulting in the demise of “Blockbuster” (DealBook,

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