Republic Day honours the date on which the Constitution of India came into effect on 26 January 1950. The constitution is a set of guidelines, laws, and instructions for governing the country. It secures the rights of the citizen and gives direction to the government or people in power. I sometimes am amazed at how beautifully it operates and how it continues to be a living and relevant document. It may have some limitations, but that does not reduce its importance in protecting individual freedom and providing governing principles. Although the constitution itself does not pave the way for progress, its beauty is that it is always leading our country on the path of growth and prosperity.

Business plan: The ‘constitution’ of your enterprise

Our constitution is a wonderful benchmark for any business. I have come across many companies that are operating on a small to large scale but surprisingly many of them do not have a business plan in place. A business without a business plan is like an airplane in flight with no destination. In simple language, a business plan is a formal statement of business goals, reasons they are attainable with plans for reaching them. It may also contain background information about the organisation or team attempting to reach those goals. 

As a firm, you provide specific products or services and there must be a reason why you chose that business. While forming a legal entity of company Registrar of Companies (ROC) itself makes it mandatory to have a Memorandum of Article (MOA) and Article of Association (AOA), but unfortunately most of the time even founders or directors simply copy these details.

Create a comprehensive business plan

Once you decide to form a legal business, it is the duty of the founders to draft a complete plan. This would be akin to what our constitution writers did while framing the constitution. As a business owner, you govern a small country in a manner when you form a company. You start recruiting employees to get the operation started. Being the founder, your primary role is to direct the company to a profitable state by providing honest service or product to your customers and taking care of your employees and vendors on the way. It is a massive undertaking and you need to be armed with a concrete business plan to chart a course. 

You must define a system in the company based on processes and people along with rules and regulations. A monitoring wing or reporting tool is a must to check the output and make required changes in your system to optimise output.  A company may be formed by its promotors, but the running of a company should not be dependent on the promoters. 

Business plan must define goals of the enterprise
Once the business plan is in place, it defines the goals of the enterprise. In line with those goals, manpower and machines are requisitioned to run that operation and a system is established that is the guiding light for the whole company. Just like the parliament has the power to change the laws through the leaders which are selected by us, a board has the power to make changes to an existing plan, goals or structure an altogether new plan as per the requirement of the market or for the betterment of the company. 

On Republic Day, I encourage my fellow business owners to take this profound learning from our constitution and think of yourself as the writers of the constitution for your own company. Write a balanced but powerful business plan to scale new heights. 

Happy Republic Day!

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