How to write a great business plan

Every seasoned investor knows that detailed financial projections for a new company are an act of imagination. Nevertheless, most business plans pour far too much ink on the numbers - and far too little on the information that really matters. Why? William Sahlman suggests that a great business plan is one that focuses on a series of questions. These questions relate to the four factors critical to the success of every new venture: the people, the opportunity, the context, and the possibilities for both risk and reward. The questions about people revolve around three issues: What do they know? Whom do they know? and How well are they known? As for opportunity, the plan should focus on two questions: Is the market for the venture's product or service large or rapidly growing (or preferably both)? and Is the industry structurally attractive? Then, in addition to demonstrating an understanding of the context in which their venture will operate, entrepreneurs should make clear how they will respond when that context inevitably changes. Finally, the plan should look unflinchingly at the risks the new venture faces, giving would-be backers a realistic idea of what magnitude of reward they can expect and when they can expect it. A great business plan is not easy to compose, Sahlman acknowledges, largely because most entrepreneurs are wild-eyed optimists. But one that asks the right questions is a powerful tool. A better deal, not to mention a better shot at success, awaits entrepreneurs who use it.     

花旗图腾

历史沿革 不识花旗是花旗 1812年7月16日,曾经担任华盛顿政府第一任财政总监的塞缪尔·奥斯古德(Samuel Osgood)上校与纽约的一些商人合伙创办了纽约城市银行(City Bank of New York)--今日花旗集团的前身.纽约城市银行成立的那个时代是美国历史上的自由银行时期.由于没有统一的调节与管理机构,当时的银行一般都在各州注册,称为州立银行.美国各州自殖民时代起就存在着不同程度的政治、经济与法律差异因而北美各州通过各自独特的立法,禁止和限制商业银行跨州甚至是州内开设分支机构.     

新一轮上海国际金融中心建设的战略定位与推进策略

在当前上海国际金融中心真正迈出国际化建设步伐的关键时期,科学合理的战略定位和推进策略极为重要。本文强调要充分发挥金融中心作为“系统的系统”、“组织的组织”功能,注重以“金融信息港”为基础系统推动上海国际金融中心建设的新模式,以“上海国际金融中心促进会”为核心组织启动上海国际金融中心建设的新策略,在借势、造势、用势中找准突破口和着力点,以更高的起点和要求推进新一轮的上海国际金融中心建设。     

A viable and cost-effective weather index insurance for rice in Indonesia

The potentially adverse effects of droughts on agricultural output are obvious. Currently, Indonesian rice farmers have little financial protection from climate risk via catastrophic weather risk transfer tools. Done well, a weather index insurance (WII) program can not only provide resources that enable recovery, but can also facilitate the adoption of prevention and adaptation measures and incentivize risk reduction. However, implementations of WII programs have faced difficulties because of basis risk—among several other obstacles. Here, we quantify the applicability, viability, and likely cost of introducing a WII for droughts for rice production in Indonesia. To reduce basis risk, we construct district-specific indices that are based on the estimation of Panel Geographically Weighted Regressions models. With these spatial models, and detailed district level data on past agricultural productivity and weather conditions, we identify an algorithm that can generate an effective and actuarially sound WII in some districts but not in others. We then measure its effectiveness in reducing income volatility for farmers by reducing this basis risk, at the district level. We end by calculating an actuarially robust and welfare-enhancing price for this scheme and prioritize the districts in which it can be implemented.     

How to integrate a business plan into your introductory accounting course

This article provides a business plan assignment, along with a business plan grading sheet, oral presentation grading sheet, and peer evaluation form for use in a user-oriented introductory accounting course. The article includes a discussion of issues related to making the group project assignment run smoothly, such as assigning students to groups, simplifying assumptions, ways to add specificity, grading of written reports, and set-up and grading of oral presentations.     

A strategic plan for educational technology in accounting

On 5 June 1993, a group of educators met to discuss the future of educational technology in accounting education. The roundtable was conducted by the new Center for Educational Technology in Accounting (CETA) at the University of North Texas and was funded by the National Center for Automated Information Research, which supports research in the use of computers in accounting and law. Roundtable participants included individuals knowledgeable in accounting education, educational technology, or both.The procedure was very informal. The discussion was allowed to continue with little guidance from the moderator. The proceedings were recorded, and from that recording a plan document was compiled. This paper attempts to define the important elements of that meeting and to describe the initial efforts of CETA to respond to those findings. The document contains discussions of (1) the problems, importance, and potential applications of educational technology (ET) in accounting, (2) dissemination of ET, and (3) possible means of furthering ET.     

Gilt Groupe's CEO on building a team of A players

Ryan believes that a CEO should spend more time on recruiting and managing people than on any other activity, and that the head of HR is one of the most important people in the company. He insists on his freedom to bypass managers and speak with any employee at any time. And he espouses certain talent-management principles, such as that your best people are usually underpaid (reward them with performance pay) and that people leave jobs mainly because they don't like their managers. Recruiting at Gilt Groupe focuses on references more than on résumés and interviews because, Ryan says, resumes only establish basic qualifications for a job, and interviewers can't help being influenced by well-spoken or attractive people. But reference checks need to go beyond the names supplied by a candidate: Employers should dig up people in their networks who are willing to speak candidly.     

A method for building community resilience to climate change in emerging coastal cities

Rapidly urbanising coastal locations represent prototypes of future cities. While these “sea change” locations will face a range of issues associated with rapid growth such as infrastructure provision and enhancement of social capital, anticipated environmental impacts are likely to add significant challenges. Climate change is likely to have dramatic impacts on sea change communities through diminished potable water supplies, rising sea levels, storm surges, and increased intensity of flood events - with indirect impacts on health, financial sectors, and biodiversity. Given the inherent diversity within sea change communities with regard to age, culture, and socio-economic status there are likely to be differences in ways of adapting, the ability to adapt, and the desired direction of any changes. Cognizant of the potential enormity of climate change impacts, the need for rapid responses, and the diversity within communities, this paper proposes a participatory and transformative method to work with communities in responding to climate change and variability within rapidly urbanising coastal locations. The method focuses on determining probable futures for various communities of place and interest within sea change areas and aims to build the capacity for dynamic on-going learning to achieve those futures, both within and between the communities. Through this process community members may be empowered with dynamic and future-orientated learning skills that build upon community knowledge, innovation, and resilience.     

From data analysis to storytelling in scenario building. A semiotic approach to purpose-dependent writing of stories

Scenario building is one of the activities that companies frequently carry out in order to understand and communicate aspects or strategies about the future. Methodologies related to scenario building include, in one way or another, two phases, one oriented to the research of data and analysis, and the storytelling focused on communication. This paper identifies the transition from one phase to the other as a cause of loss of consistency and information that can jeopardize the whole process. It also develops a framework to build narratives or stories from the data obtained in the first phase, turning to diverse semiotic concepts in order to bridge this transition. This methodology is illustrated with an example obtained from Telefonica technology scenarios.     

浅议建设"数字郑州"的问题与对策

建设“数字郑州”有极大必要，而且郑州进行数字化建设具备较好的条件。“数字郑州”必须发挥政府的主导作用，强化法律支撑环境，建立多元化投资渠道，实行地理信息产业优先发展的政策，增强科技创新能力并加大人才培养和引进力度。同时，要明确建设的总体思路。     

Future in their hands! Strategies for making a people's plan

One of the tasks in strengthening and deepening democracy in the future has to be to accord a central role to people in environmental governance. An important instance of this showing us the way for the future has been the preparation of a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) in India. In an extraordinary move, the Government of India agreed to a decentralised planning process and the coordination of this task was given to a non-governmental organisation (NGO). The resulting planning process reached out to thousands of people across India, using a range of innovative tools and strategies, with the ultimate aims of biodiversity conservation and livelihood security. There are valuable lessons to be learned from this pioneering attempt which had results that were often surprising, inspiring and also disappointing. The paper draws lessons for the future based on the NBSAP process and subsequent developments. Selected lessons are presented here on the themes of voluntarism, targeting multiple social sectors through a complementary cluster of tools, the importance of emphasising the planning process as well as the final product, and the need for politically astute positioning for final acceptance of the plan. These lessons have relevance for transforming future public planning processes in environmental as well as non-environmental sectors, within and outside India.     

商业银行SOA从何处着手建设

虽然目前业界对SOA仍有着不同的理解,但对SOA所能实现的目的基本上认识一致,那就是实现企业IT资产的最大化复用,让IT变得更有弹性,能更快地响应业务部门的需求,实现企业真正的“面向服务”。对于企业的CIO来说,SOA的意义就是,以业务为核心,提高IT系统扩展的灵活性以及IT资产的复用,达到业务的灵活组合。从这个角度看,SOA的关键就是能否满足用户的需求。     

基层央行构建"大监督"机制的设想

人民银行职能调整后，基层央行主要履行执行货币政策、提供金融服务、维护区域金融稳定等职能。这些职能的履行主要以资金为操作对象，包括信贷资金、国库资金、联行资金、发行基金、存款准备金、备付金以及人民银行自身财产、财务资金及衍生的利息、租金等，具有涉及面广、金额巨大、风险点多、难以控制等特点。因此，如何加强内部控制、确保资金安全变得日益重要。然而，受多种因素的制约，目前人民银行的内控监督机制已经远远不能适应新形势的需要，为提高监督成效，防范案件发生，     

亚行3亿美元贷款支持中国修建铁路

亚行将提供3亿美元贷款,支持中国修建一条全长944公里的铁路,以促进内陆欠发达地区的经济增长. 中国铁路的货运密度全球第一,客运密度则仅次于日本位居世界第二,中国政府正大力改善国内的铁路运输条件.尽管如此,由于体制方面的障碍,中国铁路的营运力仍滞后于需求的增长.     

商业银行数据仓库建设及数据服务价值

随着信息化的飞速发展,服务行业,特别是金融业在客户需求与市场环境的共同作用下,信息支撑服务逐步彰显其强大的生命力和不可替代性。如何从纷繁复杂的银行运营、渠道等交易系统中将松散部署的基础数据集中加工、清洗、转换、存储,并建立逻辑关系索引,驱动数据转化为管理信息,使其在银行业务服务、管理决策中发挥关键作用？中国光大银行（以下简称“光大银行”）近年来在“以客户为中心、以服务为导向”的发展战略背景下,     

要在不断解决矛盾的过程中构建和谐社会

构建社会主义和谐社会是党和国家在社会主义建设新时期所做出的一项重大战略决策.因此对和谐与和谐社会进行理论性的研究和探讨既具有时代性,又具有现实性.由此而提出的几点要求对人们的工作和社会实践有着重要的现实指导意义.