If there’s one thing about Babson that stands out more than the lack of social life, it’s the emphasis on business plans. You’ve probably had to write one in an EPS class or at least toyed with one for your FME business. EPS 3501 was all about how to write a business plan. Aside from classwork, there are multiple business plan competitions each year (including some on the upcoming Founder’s Day.)

That’s great that we learn so much about business plans, but it just hit me that I have been taught many things about writing a business plan or finding venture capital for a business, while learning very little about running a business. Yes, I had FME, and yes I’ve read a ton of HBS cases. But I’m still left feeling that there is a little more emphasis on the planning and not so much on the execution.

What makes the business plan focus even more ironic is a study, conducted by Babson, which found no difference between businesses started with a business plan and those without one. Guy Kawasaki wrote about the study on his blog – check it out to see more about the study and the findings.

To summarize, the study analyzed 116 businesses started by Babson alums and found no statistical difference in success between those businesses started with formal written plans and those without them.

So the next time your professor wants some detailed 50 page business plan, just show them a copy of this study

(The full study is available for download here.)

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