The Management Team section should also include biographies of company's Advisory Board and/or Board of Directors. While having well-known advisors/board members adds credibility to business plan, it is highly effective to explain how these advisors will directly impact company through strategic advice and/or providing conduits to key clients, partners, suppliers, etc.

In summary, Management Team section of business plan is an opportunity to prove to investors that your company has necessary talent to succeed. Rather than waste this opportunity by merely showing employee resumes, which could be included in Appendix, section should be used to explain precisely how team is uniquely qualified to execute venture in its present state.

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Organizational Culture

The foundations of a strong organization are:

1. Developing a clear and compelling Purpose 2. Identifying organization's Mission to achieve Purpose 3. Agreeing on a set of Values by which to carry out Mission 4. Adopting a Servant Leader attitude throughout organization

An organization's Purpose is "Why" of its existence. It’s not what it does as much as what it is striving to accomplish. It is a statement of greater good it is attempting to achieve. It answers question: "Why are we here?" and helps give clarity and focus to each person in organization. It is yardstick by which decisions are measured.

An organization's Mission is "What" of an organization. It is a definition of what company does to achieve its stated Purpose. It begins to define core proficiencies of a business and helps keep it focused on achieving its Purpose.

An organization's set of Values is "How" of an organization. It defines what an organization most values in execution of its Mission. It's not an all encompassing list of possible values as much as a statement of what organization most values in its people and their conduct. It defines behaviors and culture within an organization. It helps set guidelines of what is and is not acceptable.

At core of Servant Leadership is premise that customer is most important person to organization. As a consequence of that premise, it only follows that most important people to customer are frontline staff. They're people who customers interact with on a daily basis. This understanding leads to philosophy that job of manager of frontline people is to make their jobs as easy and effective as possible so customer has best experience possible. The result is an organizational chart that looks like an inverted pyramid. This servant attitude focuses leaders on developing those around them. It leads to people working together in a collaborative, solution-oriented environment.

How does one go about developing Purpose, Mission, and Values? Falling back on our understanding of Servant Leadership and importance of everyone in organization, creation of Purpose, Mission and Values requires input from people in all areas of company. They (the Purpose, Mission, and Values) need to be relevant to all involved, they need to be consistent with one another, and they need to be used consistently as a yardstick for decisions and policies. There’s nothing worse than developing Values and just paying them lip-service by not living them day-to-day. A practice like that lacks integrity and actually becomes a demoralizer.

In summary, when we combine personal competency in all areas of leadership skills with an organizational culture which supports people, their development, and their success, we end up with exceptional leadership which, in turn, inspires best effort in others.