The necessary business development and planning

Business development is one of the most difficult but also one of the most rewarding activities for managers and team members. Business development is carried out at an operational level and at that level the activity is about the continuous review and improvement of routines and current operations. At a strategic level, on the other hand, it is about the more general direction of the business in a longer time perspective. This requires detailed knowledge of stakeholders, their agenda, needs and wishes. It also requires the ability to interpret signals from the outside world and to see into the future: which driving forces will affect our operations, which consequences will they bring, how can we seize the opportunities that arise, and how do we counter the threats?

This is a book about strategic business development, which is characterised by the following:

The purpose of strategic business development is to ensure that the business is delivering value and benefits for the parent organisation, that enough resources are available for operations, that they are used in the best way, and to ensure the long-term survival of the business. The work of strategic business development thus takes a longer perspective than the daily process of improvement. It is led by a vision and long-term goals. It is a continuous process aiming at both adapting and modifying activities to meet stakeholders’ current and future requirements, and at taking advantage of the opportunities that are offered today and that will be offered in the future. Strategic planning is needed to allocate limited resources to prioritised areas. Resources are always limited, but the degree of restriction varies.

A good summary of the relationship between visions, strategies, goals and action plans can be found in SIQ’s (Swedish Institute for Quality) model of customer-oriented business:

The business plan is the visible product of the process of organisational development. Often we have a deadline for the delivery of the plan. As the current operational work occupies our time and thoughts, it is not uncommon that the work with the business development starts before the time comes to write the business plan. The strategic and longterm perspective can then easily be lost. In this book I describe the process to develop the business and the important work that should precede the actual formulation of the business plan:

A precondition for the successful development of the business is good leadership and teamwork. This, and the importance of change management, is discussed in a section of the book. The business plan is described in a separate section, as well as the art of monitoring and analysing the outside world – competitive intelligence. Set goals, measuring and evaluating are important parts of business development and form a prominent section of the book. Implementation of major decisions is briefly mentioned. The more theoretical reasoning is complemented by contributions by practitioners. Five Swedish operational managers from different organisations generously shared their views and experiences. These interviews took place in spring 2010. There is a section of tools with descriptions of various methods, models and templates. Finally, I have listed some changes and trends in the business environment and challenges meeting the LIS sector today and are to be expected in the future.

The book is aimed at managers and others interested in business development: primarily functions that deal with managing, organising, analysing, disseminating and making information and knowledge available; that is, libraries, information centres and functions for competitive intelligence or corporate communication. For simplicity, these are hereafter referred to as library and information services (LIS) providing information, communication, intelligence and library functions. Although the examples are drawn from business development in the LIS segment, I hope and believe that people working with development of other types of business can benefit from the book.

Information is a fuzzy concept. In this book it entails information coming from the outside world, as well as information created within the organisation which is needed by the employees to perform their duties. Communication departments’ responsibilities and strategies for the information and communication with employees and external stakeholders are not the focus of this book.

LIS functions are often not part of the parent organisation’s core business but work with services that are supporting the core business. Moreover, they manage an asset – information – which is often said to be valuable, but in practice it is difficult to determine its value. These two factors create special challenges for the LIS functions to demonstrate utility and value, both for their principals and for their users. Principals and users must be offered services and tools that are perceived as more convenient, of better quality, safer and more cost-effective than comparable services and tools offered by other players.

Visibility and transparency are also important factors, not least given that more and more information is made available in digital form. Users and other stakeholders may not see the LIS functions’ value in making this kind of information available. A scientist who obtains information from her own laptop in her own office may not be aware of the fact that the university library has negotiated with information vendors to subscribe to the information and built a digital infrastructure to enable the access to it. If visits to public libraries have declined it could be due to the fact that many libraries have websites with various services, such as borrowing of audio books, renewing of loans, reserving books, etc. Libraries are used but in a different way, and the decline of visits to the physical library does not mean a reduced need of the libraries as some people interpret it. This is important to highlight.

Strategic business development also includes plans and activities for communication with stakeholders. This has the beneficial side-effect that more opportunities open up to engage key stakeholders in the business. As visibility increases, everybody (including the employees) gets a better knowledge of the business, which also benefits the argument for resources.

In order to carry out the work with strategic business development, a fingertip feel for the winds of change is required but also a scheme of work. This book provides such a scheme and structure. The book bears the stamp of my own long experience as a corporate library manager and technology intelligence process owner and, in recent years, as an information and intelligence consultant. When I, in 1983, was employed at Alfa-Laval Food Engineering to develop an LIS function, I had no idea of the challenges waiting for me. My professional training had not prepared me for this task and without the help and advice from more experienced colleagues, whom I got to know through the Swedish Association for Information Specialists, the task would have been almost impossible. Yet after a period with limited growth at Alfa-Laval, an internal savings campaign started which resulted in the questioning of the LIS function. I tried to argue for its survival but did not succeed and it was decided that the library should be closed down. Fortunately for me I was employed soon afterwards by Tetra Pak with the same commission. (In 1991 Tetra Pak acquired the food business from Alfa-Laval and I got my former colleagues back!) This was a painful, but useful, lesson which taught me never to be content with the present situation, but to continuously work for improvement and development.

I have deliberately tried to be brief in spite of the vast topic. My ambition is to give the reader a way of thinking as well as a structure for the fun and challenging work involved in business development.