MANAGEMENT PLAN

     5.1     Board of Directors - Names and Qualifications

     5.2     Senior Managers - Names, Positions, and Qualifications

     5.3     Advisers - Names, Roles and Qualifications

     5.4     Retained and Other Professionals - Names, Roles and Qualifications

    5.5     Organization Chart

    5.6     Gaps in the Management Structure and How those will be Addressed

    5.7     Management Team Ownership and Compensation

    5.8     How the Management Team Will Adjust for Business Growth

Section 5.1 through 5.4:

The first part of the management plan will describe the Management Organization. Include all aspects of management including the Board of Directors, Senior Management Team as well as Advisers and Retained and Other Professionals.

A Board of Directors is a panel of individuals who are elected by a corporation’s shareholders to oversee the management of the firm. Many firms have active boards of directors that provide guidance and lend legitimacy to the firm. Board members often consist of a mix of external directors drawn from outside the company, as well as some of the senior managers (sometimes called “Officers”), who are both members of management and internal board members.
The Senior Management Team consists of the senior executives of your business. For a small start-up business, this is pretty straight forward. Usually, the team of promoters that decide to collaborate and form a new business recognizes that they need to play a role in managing the business. Fledgling businesses seldom have cash resources to hire professional managers. So the promoters assume management roles. For purposes of this assignment, assume that each team member assumes a senior management role. Typical initial roles might include Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). It's not uncommon for the initial management team to double up on responsibilities, because there are more responsibilities than people available. Briefly describe your management team. A good way to do this is to create a management team skill profile. This is a brief summary of the skills and experience that each team member brings to the business.
An Advisory Board is a panel of experts who are asked by a firm’s managers to provide counsel and advice on an ongoing basis. These are usually uncompensated positions, that are an opportunity for highly skilled and experienced managers to "pay it forward" by providing guidance for a new company. These individuals don't have actual job responsibilities in the company. They simply meet with the company management to provide suggestions and provide diversity to the decisions the management makes.
At times, Retained Professionals such as attorneys and accountants, and other professionals, such as Information Technology Consultants, Technical Consultants, or others who are brought on board in a compensated, contractual situation, assume important roles in a new venture’s success. These individuals and firms should be identified and included as part of a firm’s overall management team in the firm's business plan.
What you want to include in these sections is a brief "bio-data" for each of the individuals you identify for the various positions. A bio-data is a brief couple of paragraphs that describe a person's education, work experience, and skills that enable them to be successful in the position they occupy. It's not a full resume, and shouldn't be that detailed.

Decide how many positions you will have and then describe the candidates that occupy those positions. For the Senior Management Team, the names are simple - they are the members of your team. For the Board of Directors, Board of Advisors, and Professionals sections, you can just make up fictitious names. Have fun with this - such as the Law Firm of Dewey, Cheatum and Howe. They shouldn't be real people unless you're describing an actual real business that one of your team members is already operating.

Section 5.5:

After introducing the entire team, show how they interact using an organization chart.

Discuss and display in a chart, how the company’s management will be organized – the organization structure. This will be demonstrated through an Organization Chart that shows the various management positions, their reporting relationships, and the names of the parties filling the positions. Since this is a young company, the organization chart should reflect your relatively modest size and not be overly complex. You can add complexity to the Organization Structure as the company grows.

Section 5.6:

However, even small companies have a minimum requirement for management responsibilities, and initially, there may be more responsibilities than available managers. In such cases, the unfilled/open/vacant responsibilities should be shown on the Organization Chart and described, indicating both the plan for filling the vacancy, as well as the manner in which the responsibility will be handled in the interim (usually by the available managers doubling up on their responsibility areas).

When describing these “management gaps” include a graphic. Use the chart that is described in the textbook. List the responsibilities across the top and the names of onboard managers down the side. It uses X symbols to show filled positions, and O symbols to show vacancies (gaps in the management structure.)

An example of the chart is provided in the attachment below.

After presenting the chart, you should explain all the gaps with O symbols. How are you solving those gaps presently? Presumably, you are doubling up on responsibilities for those individuals who are currently engaged (or perhaps you are hiring a consultant, or a temp). And what is your longer-range strategy and timetable for filling those gaps?

Since these are management team gaps, you should show the position on the org chart and then indicate the position is vacant, open, or unfilled.

Section 5.7:

The next part of the management plan will describe the compensation and ownership interests that the management team personnel have in the business venture. This will enable investors to assess how “invested” the management team is in the success of the business. It is necessary to fully disclose the ownership structure of the new venture and the compensation of the members of the management team in the business plan. A table should be created that shows the names of each of the owners of the firm, along with their age, their percent ownership in the company, and their compensation if they work for the firm.

Ownership is based entirely on cash contributed. So if Manager A contributes $40,000 and Manager B contributes only half of that, then they won’t have equal shares of the company. In fact, A will have 2/3 of the shares and B will have 1/3 of the shares.