What is an Operational Plan?

Planning business operations involves converting strategic goals into tactics and processes for carrying out an activity. Specifically, the operations plan contains the physical activities that one must undertake (or arrange for others to undertake) in carrying out your business value proposition. It establishes a timeline for the implementation of the business strategy over a stated period of time, generally 1 5 years. The plan may include expected costs of operation for each element of the plan. These figures may be used to set a budget, to substantiate the need for debt or investor capital, or to otherwise construct financial projections.

The operations plan will vary depending upon the nature of the business. Our explanation below is broken into general service and product-based businesses. In a hybrid business (offering some combination of products and services) then the operational plan will be a mixture of these elements.