What and Why:

Business Plan is predominantly a decision making tool. It is a comprehensive and holistic way to plan an overall product or IP Solution business. It is a formal statement of all the key elements of the envisaged business. It describes the background of the business around product/ IP solution, business goals set for the product / IP solution, plan for achieving the set goals and reasons for believing that set goals can be achieved. It contains all the key information that the Management requires to take a Go/No Go decision.

Business plan typically contains what the IP solution, and what market opportunity it addresses with providing an overview of the market environment (targeted customers, competition, and ecosystem). It defines the intended value proposition and market positioning for the IP solution. The IP solution business objectives (like market share or number of deals signed, geographic footprint extension, 3 and 5 year expected revenues & margin etc) are set in the document. It also presents how it will successfully be achieved (planning, go-to-market description, risk analysis…) and also identifies the key resources required. Hence it is critical to ensure that all the aspects of the IP solution business are thought through. It also serves as a baseline to measure all future results.

Who, How and Best Practices:

The process of business plan for IP solutions in Capgemini has two stages:

1. Preparation of Business Plan and
2. Submission & approval of business plan.

In stage-1, Product management Strategist or Head shall be responsible for preparation of business plan as a document with support from other members of the IP team. This process shall be initiated after having concrete IP solution idea and completed with initial market opportunity analysis. Product strategist shall use the business plan template provided.

Refer to the Business Plan e-learning module at Capgemini University for detailed understanding of the Business plan preparation.

Stage-2 is the process of submission of business plan and its approval by the management. It has three levels, one at Business unit level, two at Strategic business unit level and three at Group level. IP solution Product head/strategist must seek approval of business plan for investments into any IP solution. It is a mandatory step.

BU leader decides to seek approval or inform SBU leader based on the type, investment and implications of the IP solution. At group level the review and approval process is performed by IP Board. Seeking approval from IP Board is mandatory for investments in excess of 300KEuro or efforts of 500 person-days, else for investments less than the above threshold it is necessary to inform such investment decisions to the IP Board.

At Business Unit level Product head/strategist (IP solution owner) shall contact their local BU IP Champions to check if a formal approval process exists or not within their Business Unit (refer to list of IP Champions is available in the Who’s Who of the Talent IP Hub). IP Champion facilitates the review process. During this review, BU approval team reviews the business plan and advises on next steps. The recommended members of BU review team include BU Leader, IP Solution owner/head/strategist, IP Solution project Leader’s direct manager, BU IP Champion, CSO and any Sector Leader impacted by the IP Solution, IP Specialist of the BU Legal Team (each BU has an IP Specialist in their Legal Team) and SBU representative.

At Strategic Business Unit (SBU) level, there are 3 possibilities which can arise after discussion with the BU Leader.

• BU leader feels SBU approval is not required (if there are no other BU in the SBU that could potentially be impacted, and or if investment is quite moderate). Then in this case, the SBU is informed, project is launched or submitted to Group IP Board.
• BU leader first approves the project, and then organizes a meeting with SBU to have the project reviewed and approved. SBU approval may be obtained through an ad-hoc meeting.
• BU Leader invites SBU representative at the BU review. In this case, SBU & BU approval are jointly pronounced in the same BU meeting.

At Group level, any IP Solution project involving an investment in excess of Euros 300 thousand or 500 person-days must be submitted for IP Board approval. IP Board must be informed of IP Solution Projects launched with a lesser investment. Product head/strategist shall contact the IP Central Team through BU IP Champion. IP Central Team shall help to organize a presentation for the IP Board. In this process IP Central team helps in Planning, Guidance and pre-IP Board reviews. The IP Board presentation template shall be used for the presentation. The IP Board presentation should be crisp & straight to the point, focusing on key elements. It should have a maximum 7 to 10 slides, describing the Context (summary of market opportunity, Capgemini legitimacy, background of the IP solution – is it derived from a client project, worked with partner etc.), IP Solution description & value Proposition, Go-to-market, Financials (revenues, cost & profitability) along with investments and pre-requisites.

IP Board review can happen through a plenary session on quarterly basis or through an adhoc restricted session with a limited number of IP Board members if there is urgency, or if the project is very specific to only one or two BUs

Notes:

• Information collected as part of market research and market opportunity analysis shall be utilized for this activity.
• Depending on the type of IP Solutions, the efforts for preparing the various sections and the importance each section will may vary. For example, if the IP Solution addresses a very innovative domain, competition analysis might be of lesser importance than for an IP Solution addressing a market where established players are already present. But even in this situation, a brief competition analysis should be performed, as it could show that what is perceived within Capgemini as a “white space” is in fact already addressed by some players that we were not aware of.
• A high level guideline for a reasonable Business Plan would be for 3 and 5 Years of time horizon.
• Financial section is the most critical section of the business plan; however for these numbers to be meaningful it is critical to highlight the key reasons and assumptions.
• It is recommended to be realistic while preparing the business plan. If the overall financials look too good, it’s probably that you have under-estimated the growth of your costs as your business is growing. Try to compare the estimated numbers with the numbers of similar businesses or competition.
• Be pragmatic. Don’t spend too much time on the lines that only have a small influence on the result. Financials purpose is to assess “order of magnitudes”, not to simulate exact figures down to the last Euro!
• Product management team can also obtain guidance and support from Central IP team in the process of market analysis and sizing for the solutions in Ready2Series portfolio.

References:

• IP Board presentation template
• IP Board presentation guideline
• Business plan e-learning module
• Check list (TBD)