Business Plan Development

A constant within the program has been research. Research can be the line between success and failure. Wisdom is indispensable. The following is the original Leadership Portfolio assignment from Business Plan Development.

Introduction

The two experts that I have chosen are David E. Gumpert and Kevin O’Leary. Each person has extensive experience in small and large business. Each person specializes in different industries. One is internet marketing and the other is educational software.
David E. Gumpert is the author of Burn Your Business Plan! What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs. Mr. Gumpert is “a former staff reporter with The Wall Street Journal, former small business and marketing editor of the Harvard Business Review, former senior editor of Inc. Magazine and a graduate of the University of Chicago and Columbia University.” (www.davidgumpert.com) Gumpert has authored multiple books on business.
Kevin O’Leary is most famous for his role on the ABC television show Shark Tank, a reality television show that puts business owners and entrepreneurs up against a panel of experienced and highly successful venture capitalists and businesspeople. O’Leary created and made successful SoftKey Software Products, an educational software company that was eventually sold to Mattel for 3.7 Billion Dollars.

Key Plan Components

Each individual had a unique perspective on a business plan. David Gumpert takes an approach that is written in his book, Burn Your Business Plan! What Investors Really Want from Entrepreneurs. Gumpert states, “entrepreneurs should focus their company-building efforts on such tasks as creating a Web site that communicates their business model, obtaining publicity, keeping the finances under control, and making sales before thinking seriously about writing a business plan.” (Gumpert, 2010) His statement lays out the importance of knowing the internal structure and organization of your company. Gumpert believes that if you don’t know where your company is with in its operations then the time spent on a business plan is useless and wasteful. Knowing where the company is at will inherently feed to your overall “plan” but the plan is not the primary focus, running your business is.
Kevin O’Leary counteracts David Gumpert’s opinion. “It's clear in how they described their business plan that they are the right people to execute their plan.” (O’Leary, 2010) He states the importance of having the right people for the right job. O’Leary continues to say, “If you look at the strengths or the attributes of those that are successful there are three things; one is that they are able to articulate their vision in a very short period of time.” (O’Leary, 2010) Cohesion between the plan and the person is imperative to communicating the concept quickly and accurately, especially when seeking funding.
Both experts seem to encourage a sense of optimism within realism. Being positive and having the correct attitude has more influence on investors then the actual written document.

Pitfalls

To major pitfalls were discovered when reviewing Gumpert and O’Leary. Gumpert discusses of stubbornness in planning. This pitfall goes along with his argument that business people should not spend so much time on the plan, but rather on the business itself. O’Leary links several problems into one: overvalue a product and not having the right people for the product.
Pitfall Avoidance
Avoid overvaluing of the products or services of MEMG will be difficult in the music industry. This is because the industry is attempts to place a value on non-tangible creativity. The biggest problem will be the artists directly. It was stated in Artist and Product management that an artist will tend to overvalue its talent and marketability.
Morrow Entertainment and Media Group plans to avoid the prior pitfalls by following exactly what each expert said. While the plan is important, it is more important to use the business plan as a reference document, in order to view where you are coming from and where you are going. MEMG plans to make a schedule and a time limit for reviewing the internal business plan to facilitate its correct usage.
The importance of having the correct people in the correct job has influenced MEMG to plan on adding staff earlier in the process. MEMG must utilize the strengths of others in order to make MEMG as successful as possible. Rather than incorporating staff at approximately year three, the Company will further research management pitfalls. One of those staff positions will be an additional artist manager. Utilizing a second manager will allow Morrow Entertainment and Media Group to handle artists more efficiently and price there services in a fair and appropriate manner.

Reference:

Gumpert, D. (2010). Burn your business plan!. Sourced from http://www.entrepreneurship.org/burn-your-business-plan.html on May 30, 2010.
Norton, A. (January 8, 2010). 411mania interviews: shark tank's daymond john & kevin o'leary. Sourced from http://www.411mania.com/movies/columns/126205/411maniaInterviews: Shark Tank%5C%5Cs-Daymond-John-&-Kevin-O%5C%5CLeary.htm on May 30, 2010.
ABC. Kevin o’leary shark tank biography. Sourced from http://abc.go.com/shows/shark tank/bio/kevin-oleary/276282 on May 30, 2010.