Miriam crept into the conference room so as not to disturb the rest of the meeting. Everyone was working hard on their business plan for 2010. “I’m having a bit of trouble,” she said. “I know all the steps for the plan, but I am just stuck.”

“What have you done so far?” I asked.

“Step one was the purpose. We know the focus for the project, what problems it is supposed to solve. Then, I created the vision. And that was easy. I think I got it all captured in a couple of sentences. It’s the rest of the plan that I am having difficulty with.”

“Interesting,” I replied, “that you can capture the detail of your vision in two sentences.”

“Well, you are right,” Miriam confessed. “There isn’t a lot of detail, but I thought it would be better if it was short.”

“Miriam, here is the way the vision part of the plan works. The more detailed it is, the clearer the images are, the easier it is to write the rest of the plan. Instead of two sentences, write two pages. I want to know who your customers are and what services you provide. You probably have more than one customer segment, tell me how they are different and how your services to each are different? Tell me what position you hold in the marketplace, what your market share is? Who are your competitors? Tell me what your competitive advantage is, what are your core competencies? Who are your key personnel, how do you find them, how do you grow them? Tell me about your facilities, your plant? How do you control quality? How do you guarantee performance?”