There is a lot of jargon used in this area and, where possible, it is better to avoid it. The value of business planning comes from the involvement in the process and the clear establishment of short-term targets and activities.

The essential elements of good business plans are:

• Keep directions and strategies simple
• Standard format to aid deployment
• Simple process with a clear timetable
• Good participation for surfacing of issues
• Logical link established between different levels of the organisation

My book explains this in more detail.

The Idea Maturity Process

Ideas take time to mature and refine so that they genuinely have the potential to become an innovation. The diagram looks at the stages that are needed from idea generation to established commercialisation. It also indicates the chapters of this book which cover the advice and toolkits which would be useful at each stage.

Rapid Phenotyping is an Australian company, formed in 2016 by Antony Martin, Jamie Flynn and William Palmer.

Using in-house, custom algorithms, they have developed a new, high-throughput platform that is compatible with any liquid or solid material. They have streamlined the process of calibrating accurate spectral predictions and making routine compositional analysis of materials rapid, cost-effective and accurate.

So far, they have applied this technology to rapid compositional analysis and online monitoring of agricultural and food products, but the possibilities are limitless.

Read their story in Antony Martin’s own words in my book.