Business Case, Business Plan and Business Strategy

Many a times, the difference between a Business Case, Business Model and Business Strategy is quite confusing. I was reading some material on this on the book by The Economist, and the difference is beautifully explicated there.

A Business Case is the actual opportunity that you are looking forward to harnessing, to create a Business Model out of it. In the sense, the case is the potential reasoning that you provide whenever you propose to approach a venture capitalist for funding.

A Business Plan, on the other hand, is the detailed layout of the journey that you plan to embark on to realize the above business case. In other words, a business plan, often presented in form of a document details the various steps that you plan to take before you really begin to put your acts together. The steps could be something like who you plan to hire, how much money would you need and where would you set-up your operations.

Now, a Business Strategy is quite different. Business Strategy, by itself, answers the question of what you really are at the end once you realize the plan you laid out in the beginning. For you to have a solid Business Strategy, the book that I read says that you need to able to answer few important questions including:

1) Who are your customers

2) What do they need

3) How do you plan to engage with them

4) How do you place your uniquely in the market

and so on. It was interesting read that it is quite important to always have a Business Plan accompanied with a Business Case when you approach someone for funding; a contemplative thought.

Btw, here is another article that nicely explains how Strategy, Model and Customers are related.

 

 

 

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