The Climate-Integrated Enterprise
Business Plan Weakness Diagnostic
A climate-informed review of where growth, investment and operating plans may be exposed to changing business conditions.
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Where could your business plan be weaker than it looks?
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Most business plans are built on assumptions about cost, demand, supply, regulation and investment returns. Many of those assumptions are now changing. The Business Plan Weakness Diagnostic is a short, senior review that tests whether the plan, the investment cases behind it and the governance around it still hold, and identifies what to change first.
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Climate, energy, water, carbon, regulation and supply-chain pressures are the lens, because that is where today's untested assumptions concentrate. This is not a climate review. It is a stress test of the plan.
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​The work is contained: four to six weeks, covering document review, a targeted number of senior interviews and one prioritisation session. Your team owns the decisions.
What it is
The Business Plan Weakness Diagnostic tests where the plan may be exposed, which weaknesses are material, and what to change first in planning, investment and governance. Climate, energy and resource pressures are the lens it applies, because that is where today's untested assumptions concentrate.
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It identifies where the business plan may be exposed, which gaps are evidenced and material, and which changes to planning, governance or delivery should be prioritised first.​​
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The diagnostic helps Strategy Directors identify where the business plan may be carrying hidden weaknesses: incomplete assumptions, mispriced investment cases, unresolved trade-offs, exposed dependencies or missed opportunities. It brings climate, carbon, energy, water, nature, regulation and supply-chain pressures into the planning conversation as business variables that affect performance, resilience and competitiveness.
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Use this when​
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You're heading into a strategy refresh or annual planning cycle.
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A major capital or investment decision is coming up.
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Investment cases don't consistently price carbon, resilience, regulation or resource constraints.
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You're reviewing supply chain exposure.
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Climate commitments exist, but you're not sure they're reaching investment or planning decisions.
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A transition plan exists, but ownership, funding or sequencing are unclear.
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The Board has raised a concern about resilience.
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You suspect strategy, finance and sustainability teams are working from different assumptions about where the business is heading.
What it tells you
The diagnostic is designed to move from broad concern to specific, evidence-based findings.
It helps answer the following questions:
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Where could the plan be exposed to changing cost, supply, regulation, energy, carbon, water or customer conditions?
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Which of those weaknesses are real, evidenced, material and urgent enough to act on?
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Which decision points, planning routines, governance forums or investment criteria need to change?
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What should change first, who needs to own it, and where should it enter the next planning cycle?
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The output is a board-ready view of the material gaps, where the business plan is most exposed, the confidence level behind each finding, and which planning, governance or delivery improvements should be prioritised first.
Enterprise view of exposure
Where the business plan may be exposed, and why.
Prioritised findings
Which gaps are evidenced, material and most important to address.
Capability diagnosis
Which planning, governance, finance, data, ownership or delivery capabilities need strengthening.
Practical action plan
What to change first, who needs to be involved and how to move into action.
What you get
​​​​What the diagnostic covers
The diagnostic can be focused on a specific decision area, business unit or planning cycle, or used as a broader review of climate integration across the organisation.
It typically covers strategy assumptions, transition plan credibility, capital allocation and investment appraisal, governance and decision rights, supply chain and operational resilience, and management reporting and data. Scope is agreed at the start based on where the most material issues are likely to sit.
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The diagnostic uses three linked lenses. Together, they help identify where the business plan may be exposed, which weaknesses are material, and what organisational capabilities are missing.
Business plan
weaknesses
This lens maps where climate, carbon, energy, water, nature, supply chain and resource realities may expose incomplete assumptions, unresolved trade-offs, mis-priced investment cases, delivery risk or missed value.
Materiality
and evidence
This lens tests which weaknesses are actually present, which decisions they affect, how material they are, what evidence supports the finding, and how urgent the response may be.
Climate integration capability
This lens assesses which planning, governance, finance, data, ownership, delivery and decision-making capabilities need to be strengthened or built.
Who it is for
The diagnostic is built for Strategy Directors testing whether the current plan will hold. Chief Sustainability Officers and transformation leaders are frequently the sponsor or the closest ally in the room, and the review is built to work with them, but the plan itself, and the person who has to defend it to the board, is the reason this exists.
It is most useful where climate and natural-resource issues are becoming material, but leaders are not yet confident that these issues are built into core planning, governance and decision-making systems.​
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What this looks like in practice
Illustrative examples of the kind of gap the diagnostic finds. Not disclosed client work — the pattern is real, the detail is not.
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Exposure
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An investment case assumes stable energy costs but has never been tested against carbon price, grid constraint or resilience exposure.
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A growth plan depends on a customer segment whose requirements are shifting faster than the commercial strategy recognises.
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Mis-pricing
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A procurement strategy optimises for cost and quietly increases exposure to supplier concentration, climate disruption or regulatory change.
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A site expansion looks attractive on current assumptions but carries water, heat, insurance, logistics or infrastructure risk the investment case never priced in.
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Missed advantage
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A competitor moves first on a resilience or efficiency investment this business could have made on the same evidence, a year earlier and at lower cost.
How it works
The Business Plan Weakness Diagnostic is designed to be focused, evidence-based and practical. It moves from broad concern to clear priorities, then into the specific planning, governance and decision-making changes that would help the organisation respond.
1. Diagnose
Identify where climate and natural-resource pressures may be exposing weaknesses in the business plan. The Business Plan Weakness Map frames where to look; document review and senior interviews confirm what's actually there.
2. Prioritise
Test which issues are real, evidenced and material, using the Diagnostic Workbook to structure the evidence. No framework produces a single maturity score: what matters most is a judgement call, weighed against business implication, timing and confidence.
3. Design
Translate priority findings into practical changes to planning, governance and decision-making. The Capabilities Model identifies which root cause sits behind each weakness; the recommendation itself comes from applying that to your actual strategy, operating model and governance, not from the model alone
4. Mobilise
Agree the first actions needed to move from diagnosis to progress, drawing on the Ways-of-Working Intervention Library to select practical, sequenced changes. Owners are agreed and the first 90 day plan co-created with your team directly, in a facilitated session.
Behind the diagnostic
The diagnostic draws on four linked bodies of work: a Business Plan Weakness Map, a Diagnostic Workbook, a Capabilities Model and a Ways-of-Working Intervention Library. Together they provide structure for identifying business-plan gaps, testing evidence and materiality, diagnosing capability weaknesses and translating findings into practical change. The frameworks provide the discipline: they make sure nothing material gets missed. But no framework decides what matters most. That is a judgement call, tested against thirty years of watching how business plans succeed or fail in delivery. The question behind every finding is the same one: Is this an assumption I would take to the Board without testing it further?​​
Destination
Climate-Integrated Enterprise
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A model for stronger business decisions, where climate and natural-resource pressures are built into strategy, investment, governance and performance.
Framework
Integrated Value Planning​
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The planning approach that supports integration
Starting Point
Business Plan Weakness Diagnostic
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​The review that identifies the gaps, priorities and practical next steps.
​Start a conversation
If you want to understand where climate-related pressures may be creating gaps in your business plan, the diagnostic provides a focused, evidence-based way to find out.
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The first step is a short conversation to answer any questions you may have and to understand your context and confirm whether the timing is right. There is no commitment beyond that.