Business Plan Development -- An Exercise in Functional Food Products

Abstract

Few areas of business attract as much attention as new ventures, and few new aspects of new-venture creation as much attention as the business plan. Countless books and articles in the popular press discuss the topic. A growing number of annual business-plan contest are springing in developed and developing countries (Shalman, 1997). Currently, more research institutes in various countries also increasingly pay attention to the subject partly due to increasing pressures from its stakeholders to demonstrate its measurable performance to the public who has funded their activities through tax. Business achievements such as amount of revenues generated from customers or users, number of spin off companies, and the like are becoming important indicators of some research institutes. To achieve such objectives, activities need to be planned with business approach which is different to a research plan. For example, how a research institute make a decision whether or not a particular functional food product resulted from its research activities need to be scaled up. At this stage, consideration will have to go beyond technical competence; but more on business justification. A business plan can help to describe such business feasibility. This paper elaborate key elements of a business plan and its application in functional food-based products and provides simple guidance to prepare such business plan.