The "business plan" is essential to the start of any company and can take many forms.
Black & White
Here we introduce the idea of "stage" and "topic" and the related idea of "colour-coding" which has become important over the last thirty years in corporate business planning.
Essentially, a business paper is either "black" or "white".
A white paper is a paper containing ideas. This could include ideas, explanation, explication, exploration, argument or proposal. White papers start with a concept document, followed by a feasibility study, and may include a formal business plan, a strategic plan, or a prospectus.
A black paper is legislation. It is the law. It follows a board decision, a vote, or an act of the AGM (annual general meeting) or SGM (special general meeting) or, say, an act of parliament, and must be strictly adhered to. It will stay alive until another black paper comes along to knock it off its perch. Any proposal to change a black paper will be white.
Two-colour coding systems
The two-colour coding system is used in government and non-government organisations, such as the UN, OECD, etc. Papers are colour-coded, depending upon "stage".
A green paper is contructed in the planning stage. It is a paper explaining a need for new ideas. It is seeking advice, ideas, techniques, methodology, history and plans for the future. This could include ideas, explanation, explication, exploration, argument or possible strategy. Green papers start with a concept document, but leave to the future the required activities and feasibility study and the resulting strategic plan, after all input from the stakeholders receiving the green paper have been considered. There may be more than one green paper to discuss the issues, before the formulation of a white paper.
A white paper is a paper for the legislative stage. The white paper is prepared for presentation to the decision-makers for approval. A white paper contains a real plan, a proposal, a bill, and a discussion of the need for and the likely results of adopting this strategy or bill. White papers start with the relevant concept document that gave rise to this proposal, followed by a feasibility study, and may include a formal business plan, a strategic plan, or a prospectus.
While the green paper might be prepared for or result from the committee session, the white paper is definitely prepared for the board, the legislative assembly or the plenary session. A white paper could be used to back up a loan from the bank or the commercial lender or venture capitalist.
Multi-colour coding systems
Another system using colour-coding is to take the discussion paper (the "green" paper in the two-colour coding system) and colour-code it depending upon "topic". For example, a discussion paper that concentrates on "our relationship to our environment" will be referred to as a green paper. A discussion paper that concentrates on "risk" will be referred to as a red paper. And so on.
A useful multi-colour coding system is given below. This particular system makes a distinction between discussion and proposal. By the time the white paper comes along, the discussion has already occurred in a series of papers with different coloured covers:
- black paper (B) - (emanating from the board) board papers, board minutes, board directives, policy, procedures, work instructions,
- white paper (W) - (directed to the board) board agenda, AGM agenda, SGM (or EGM) agenda, board proposal, budget for approval, strategic plan, feasibility study, company prospectus
- green paper (G) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on the environment following input from the recipients (stakeholders on the environment)
- red paper (R) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on safety/security/risk following input from the recipients (stakeholders on safety/security/risk)
- orange paper (O) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on corporations law following input from the recipients (stakeholders on corporations law)
- pink paper (K) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on human resources following input from the recipients (stakeholders on human resources)
- purple paper (L) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on science/manufacturing/project, following input from the recipients (stakeholders on science/manufacturing/project)
- yellow paper (Y) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on IT following input from the recipients (stakeholders on IT)
- blue paper (U) - a formal paper that will result in a white paper on marketing/advertising following input from the recipients (stakeholders on marketing)
Ownership
The writer of a colour-coded paper is not necessarily from a particular department, because you get the person best suited to the topic to write the paper. But a paper is owned by the manager of a department and this manager must take responsibility for the paper. This will include its construction, dissemination, and follow up. It will also include the writing of the white paper that goes to the board as a result of the discussion. For example, a particular red paper on safety may best be written by a HR specialist on OH&S but the paper will be owned by the risk management department and the white paper that eventually goes to the board for consideration and approval will be written by the risk manager and approved by the company secretary before going to the board. Ownership may look like this:
- black paper (B) - board
- white paper (W) - company secretary
- green paper (G) - environmental manager
- red paper (R) - risk manager
- orange paper (O) - company lawyer
- pink paper (K) - HR manager
- purple paper (L) - operations manager/project manager
- yellow paper (Y) - IT manager
- blue paper (U) - marketing manager