Developing A Strategic Plan For A Forest Products Company

Information on creating a strategic plan, creating a marketing plan and developing a business plan, as well as additional references and recommended reading.

The Forest Products Business Planning Guide is designed to assist startup and existing businesses develop a business plan. The workbook should be used to guide your thinking as you plan to start a new business, expand an existing business or strategically prepare you in your search for capital. Upon going through the different sections of the workbook, you will have a complete plan written, and be ready to present to a banker or an investor. You can also use this plan to grow your business.

This ground-breaking book combines detailed analysis of the forest sector with modern strategic management principles to develop a vision for sustainable forest management which is both practical and theoretically robust. The book adopts a holistic approach to propose a new theoretical framework for this once traditional sector; one which reconciles current thinking in strategic management with natural resource management.

A process was designed to evaluate the sustainability and potential marketability of USDA Forest Service patented technologies. The process was designed and tested jointly by the University of North Carolina, the University of Michigan, Partners for Strategic Change, and the USDA Forest Service. Two technologies were evaluated: a fiber-based product and a wood fiber/fiberglass composite technology. The results indicate several different ways in which the technologies might be exploited to produce new commercial products for both domestic and international markets, through licensing of the patents and other agency/industry partnerships. This report represents the initial effort by the Forest Service to work in partnership with business schools to evaluate the commercial potential of patented agency technologies and locate potential licensees and cooperators interested in utilizing the technologies. The Forest Service will seek additional cooperative ventures with university business schools to develop business plans for other patented, but as yet unlicensed, technologies as the next step in the process of commercializing these technologies.