Mainly this book will be concerned with strategies. One of the most confusing of the issues that arise between corporate and entrepreneurial cultures is the concept of a plan or a strategy. In the corporate world, the plan is the fundamental basis of all business and commercial activity. In many instances, such plans are referred to as strategies and the two words are used interchangeably. Similarly in the entrepreneurial world, an entrepreneur will have a plan or strategy, but, an entrepreneurial plan or strategy is often conceptually quite different from that of a corporate plan.
Corporate plans are about applying generally acceptable rules.
They are based upon knowns, knowables and statistical predictables. These are used to structure an approach to reach a goal. Such strategies are sometimes so loose and flexible that very often an entrepreneur will consider that he or she has no plan at all when setting out on a business venture - only a strategy. Such differences in the way corporations and entrepreneurs view plans and strategies can cause much misunderstanding. For this reason this book will take the view that corporations make plans and entrepreneurs have strategies.