Family businesses and family offices often passively resist our prodding to create a strategic plan. A strategic plan is important for any business or organization, at any stage of its life, but it often becomes critical as a business transitions from one generation of leadership and/or ownership to the next.
A strategic plan is a plan for the next three to 10 years. Letâs contrast that with a business plan, which is a one-year plan describing the investments, initiatives and growth that you anticipate for the coming year and often is encoded in your general ledger as a budget. The strategic plan encompasses the initiatives for this coming year but goes much farther, laying out how you will grow the business, prepare for succession and achieve the familyâs and businessâs vision for the next three, five or 10 years.