The plan: executive summary, introduction and goals

Why the plan matters more than it looks

• The plan is not an introduction to the report. It is the standard against which both cycles are reviewed — "review" is defined as comparing the outcome with the original planned activity.
• That has a practical consequence: anything you do not state in the plan cannot be reviewed. A goal you never wrote down is a goal you cannot show you met.
• The grade ladder runs through the plan directly: planning (Achieved), planning in depth (Merit), comprehensive planning (Excellence).

The seven required sections

The teaching guide names them, so use them as your headings:

1. Executive summary
2. Introduction
3. Business goals, including values and priorities
4. Marketing
5. People
6. Finance
7. Operations

Executive summary

• A short summary of the whole plan, written last and placed first.
• Half a page at most. It should tell a reader who reads nothing else: what the activity is, who it serves, what the community well-being purpose is, what it will cost, and what it aims to achieve.
• Write it last because you cannot summarise decisions you have not made yet.

Introduction

• What the activity is — the good or service being produced, described concretely.
• Who the community is, and what relationship you have with them.
• Why this activity — the need or opportunity it responds to, and how you know it exists.
• Who is involved — the group, and any community organisation you are working with.
• The timeframe — when each cycle runs.

Business goals, values and priorities

Goals

• Goals are what the activity is trying to achieve, and they must be measurable, or the review has nothing to compare against.
• Cover both sides of the activity:
  • Commercial goals — units produced and sold, revenue, costs covered, surplus generated
  • Community well-being goals — who is reached, what improves, and how you will know
• Write each so it names a number and a date: "deliver 40 meals per week to the village by week three", not "help the community".

Values

• What the group has decided matters about how the activity is run — honesty in what you claim, fair treatment of everyone involved, care with the community's time, safety.
• Values belong in the plan because the standard makes ethics an explicit part of the guidance, and because a value that is written down can be reviewed against.
• Where the activity involves a marae, kōhanga reo or iwi organisation, state the tikanga you will follow and how you found out what it is.

Priorities

• What comes first when two goals conflict — and they will.
• Every activity eventually faces a decision between selling more and serving the community purpose, or between finishing on time and doing it properly. Deciding the priority in advance is what stops the decision being made by whoever is loudest on the day.
• Example: "Where the two conflict, the well-being outcome takes priority over surplus — we will reduce the price before we reduce the quantity delivered."

What "comprehensive" planning looks like

Level	The plan…
Achieved	States what will be done, by whom, when, and what it will cost
Merit	Explains why each decision was made, with reasons — why this price, this quantity, this schedule
Excellence	Anticipates what could go wrong and states what will be done about it; sets measurable success criteria for every goal; integrates business knowledge into the reasoning throughout

• The single most valuable Excellence-level addition is a short contingency section: what happens if fewer people turn up, if a supplier is late, if the weather stops the activity, if a group member is away. It is also the section that saves the activity when something does go wrong.