The Lean movement had a great positive impact in making managers and entrepreneurs to leave a dusted paper planning approach. However, the new doctrine, often, goes too extreme in its iterative analysis, making the analysis a process that I would call Centrifugal Planning….so that in the author’s search and comparative studies between the two approaches a third way has been conceived: the CLIP model planning.
Before proceeding further, a quick background on the business planning management activity, and its master output: the Business Plan. The planning process in the corporate world took off along with the increasing attention of researchers towards the theme of entrepreneurship, seeking a methodological approach aimed at investigating how an entrepreneurial initiative starts and successfully (or unsuccessfully) grows. Researchers found that such topic was broadening the vision of one business project from a set of functional elements (finance, marketing, organization, control, etc.) to a combined set of crossing and interdependent activities (a classic factor in all start-ups).
This approach conveyed into the business planning process, which not only studies how to set up a business in each management area (such as organization, production, sales and finance), but how to coordinate all activities in an organic series of actions and objectives around an explicit and well-defined entrepreneurial strategy.
The original planning process, we name Traditional, worked very well for many years, especially in cases where managers and entrepreneurs had qualified information to investigate and adequate skills in carrying out the analysis. To make a sound planning, on top of these elements, it was sufficient to include in the analysis a conservative approach through sentitivity and scenario analysis.
However in recent years, technology, market and trade instabilities, made the planning process more critical. A stable scenario was a prerequisite to plan the growth of a company, or at least a predictable evolution. However, the recent international market dynamics start to be difficult to predict upon disruptive technologies and fast evolutions in consumer habits which are changing the shape, the boundaries and the cometitive landscape in multiple industries. This factor pushed to a new approach to the planning process under the Lean movement. So that the theorists, and as well the entrepreneurs, found themselves to chose between a more structured approach to the analysis and setup of a business (traditional planning) and a more informal, light, experimental one (lean planning).
 Traditional Business Plan
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 lean Business Plan
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| Keywords | Scenario, goals, organization, verification, interpretation, evolution |
Start, experimentation, feedbacks, iteration, speed, progression |
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Traditional and Lean planning methos have undoubtedlytheir weaknesses, but altogether their strenghts…so why not to combine the advantages of the two approaches in a new planning framework? From here, a new planning model, named Complete Investment Planning Model, or CLIP.
The path for the analysis and development of a venture, in the new model, follows 4 stages:
phase of the business analysis, through the definition of business model and goals, segmentation of market / channels, planning the operating activities and drafting the financial forecasts.
sales, production and management activities begin, along with full interaction with customers and suppliers. In this phase, continuous refinements are made to the offer, the marketing strategy, the optimization of resources and activities.
only after a period of time in which a well-defined strategy and entrepreneurial direction has been pursued, results are evaluated. Not in terms of collecting data (which is on ongoing basis), but pausing and assessing the performance in terms of deviation from the projections to seek the validity of the running business model.
if the results are not satisfactory (also in perspective), it is possible to execute marginal interventions and perhaps to wait a limited period of time (letting the potential to fully express) or to reorient the entire activity, returning to the Planning phase*. Instead, if results show a positive trend, the company can start thinking "big“, passing to scale the business.
* reviewing customer targets, organization, and processes, marketing strategy, while not reformulating the entire business model
To carry out a faster traditional planning process, in sequent but iterative four steps (Originality, Feasibility, Marketability, Sustainability) and passing to action, implementing the strategy, seeking the market validation of the project.
The speed of the analysis, focused to build a model to be full tested by the market, and the iterative process of analysis among all four steps, makes CLIP close to LEAN planning. The study of all elements of the business model, and the sufficient time left to entrepreneurs to carry the market test, makes CLIP similar to the TRADITIONAL theory. The same Minimum Viable Product is replaced by the Product release 01, to avoid jumping into the market with a too simplified product unable to create the right impression or provide minimal performing features to the customers.
While the market test has been successful, the entrepreneur can focus additional energies to improve further the product, developing a more sophisticated version, and coming back to the Planning phase (Scalability) investigating the best routes to scale the business.
The author describes the full CLIP Model in its two books, Lean Business Plan and EXCELLENT BUSINESS PLAN. The PRO edition includes 100% of the Lean edition, and it completes the full business planning theory with additional content, such as new chapters, insights of management topics, a second business case, and drives to the assessment of the company strategic performance. For its professional content, PRO is the best edition for assessing investments or studying the theory of planning, whose content is addressed to Business Schools and Entrepreneurs. The Lean edition, on its side, is the perfect book for Startups and Entrepreneurs willing to draft the business plan for their ventures.
 LEAN BUSINESS PLAN |
 EXCELLENT BUSINESS PLAN |
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| Pages | 220 | 470 |
| Best for | Entrepreneurs, Startups | Entrepreneurs, Professors, Students |
| Chapters | 8 | 11 |
| Study Cases | 1 | 2 |
| Appendix |  |
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| Pages | 220 |
| Best for | Entrepreneurs, Startups |
| Chapters | 8 |
| Study Cases | 1 |
| Appendix | No |
| Pages | 470 |
| Best for | Entrepreneurs, Professors, Students |
| Chapters | 11 |
| Study Cases | 2 |
| Appendix | Yes |