A 'Master Plan' or a 'Road Map' is considered to be a very promising tool that can provide businessmen with the three things - direction, motivation and success. The Master plan can provide a sense of security to the business. The initialization provides the direction in which the business will grow and It gives a well defined line of action to work upon. Since the direction is present, the target to be achieved is in front and thus motivation follows the direction and eventually the success.
With the technological and cyber touch there are enterprises coming into picture that provide a variety of services to define the road map for your business which is efficient and systematic and very neat with the maximum possible detailing. These ensure the more revenue and lesser expenses, thus resulting in a win-win situation for the businessman.

However, the concept of having a Master Plan can sometime prove to be dis interesting. Imagine you are in a situation where you have consulted the big consulting firms and are ready with the 'Master Plan'. Then, you just have a set procedural approach to follow and reach a point. This results in loss of the creativity and the unpredictability of the business. Now the planning results in the speculation of the data that is assumed to be perfect and then there are speculation for inputs and an extrapolated revenue or goals. Actually it requires a much balanced approach.

There is however a better approach, a much smarter one. Keep your business streamlined yet dynamic, one that is focusing on continuous learning and continuous delivery. A system that can last longer in a dynamic business environment is one that is dynamic in approach and provides flexibility at the framework level.
The following three ways ensure a much leaner, agile approach:-

Lean culture

The culture of the organization defines the foundation of the environment and the type of company you start. For example, you can start with all the partners contributing an adequate amount. Note that other than this amount no loans or any financial help is taken.

Now the limited resources will force to very efficient utilization of resources, refining the ideas, strategies and products. This will automatically prioritize the most important things on the to-do list. And this is the key to actually empower the business, when you learn how to get more and more with initial investments. This in turn will open the new horizons of opportunities and would result in scaling up the whole business and will rhythmically accelerate the momentum of revenue.

Doing what you know

In a master plan we take up all the aspects and scenarios, however this is actually killing the vital resources, your time and your energy. Ruling out the Master plan can result in just focusing on the stuff you know. It will ensure that what you know becomes your area of expertise soon, because that is the only thing that you know and you can work in. The lean approach in your idea for the business leads to:-
o Better relation with your business realm.
o Helps you build a better knowledge base and a strong financial foundation.
o Don't hire very fast. Analyze the growth and the staffing requirements from time to time in order to incorporate more staff.

Instead of sticking to master plan a better way of doing things is to develop your own product in your own familiar domain and creating a market or consumer base for it, followed by focusing on scaling up with proper analysis.

The only thing that keeps a business stable in this fast changing world is adaptability and flexibility. Now in order to attain these virtues you have to be very fast learner and a good analyst. Actually you should be the fastest learner. Today one competitor brings a product and within friction of a second another player is ready with the same feature and surely its cheaper. Now you need to understand that market is very volatile and this can only be harnessed if you are easy with the changes and fastest in learning what and when to change and unlearn.

Thus a free approach can actually help you harness the variable parameters in the market more efficiently and also save from a much exhaustive Master plan approach that can consume your resources in the initial phase.

Lucas Kumar is currently associated with. New Housing Scheme Indian real estate industry