The financial crisis seems to be over; nevertheless, topics such as "credit crunch" and "securing liquidity" have established themselves as empirical values in times of economic crisis. Entrepreneurs and credit institutions are sensitized. Crisis scenarios that were considered improbable just a few years ago must be included in future planning. Since crisis developments cannot generally be influenced by individuals, the question arises as to how companies can use their own resources to prepare for more restrictive access to financing. Even without further economic crises, the demands of investors and lenders will increase.

Credit institutions do not only want to analyze the past, but will demand more information about the future development of a company, similar to investors. The analysis of future viability becomes an essential part of their credit decision, along with rating and collateralization. The business plan is thus coming more into the focus of management and the company's equity and debt investors.

Importance of business plans for established companies

A business plan is much more than just a numerical representation of a company's future. The structure of a business plan shown (Fig. 1) is primarily valid for already established companies. For start-up companies, feasibility studies would complement the setup. In the following, business plans of existing companies are discussed (however, the statements can also be transferred to business plans of start-up companies).

The financial and economic crisis has led to an increased relevance of business plans among stakeholders and to changes in their requirement profile.

The examination of the future viability of companies has recently come into the focus of banks as a further additional task. In the Basel II rating, the focus is clearly on the company's balance sheet-related business figures - to determine the so-called one-year probability of default.