Hello guys I am sharing this , because someone just asked me a similar question and I had to sit her down and caution her.

Hence I feel others may benefit

When you are asked to submit a business plan as part of the interview process , being how jobs are scarce in Nigeria and one might often be desperate I do strongly recommend you pause.

Please note that there may be no actual position available and the company wants some outside help but are being too cheap to pay someone for it so they turn to manipulating "candidates" into doing it for them.

But if you strongly feel writing the business plan is fine then I suggest you hand it to the manager in paper and make sure a condition of you handing it to them is that it leaves with you and doesn't leave your sight (they'd just make copies of it if it did).

Note: I'm not sure if that's the best way to go about it because it seems confrontational and is accusatory to the company.

I think offering an executive summary is a great idea. And you should tell the HR rep your intention before it's done because their surprise that they aren't getting what they asked for can lead to negative feelings (I think a lot of peoples satisfaction is related to managing expectations). You can also tell them that you'll write a business plan as your first task once hired.

Alot of companies fraudulently make candidates wrote business plans and turn around not to hire them.

My own personal experience was when I was asked to do a similar exercise and I declined. The recruiter thought I was a good fit and advocated for me and spoke directly with the hiring manager, the CFO, and he had no desire for this request. It turned out to be a requirement of HR and not the CFO so in the end I didn't need to do and got the job. I think sometimes HR doesn't know how to qualify seniior candidates and comes up with tests to prove competency.
In my experience, I don't believe credible hiring managers make this request as frankly you could outsource the work and there is no way to know if you did it or someone else did it.

Anyways guys this is my own two cents o, add your own observation and opinions.

Cc Mynd44 uboma, davide470

Why would anyone good corporation outsource a business plan to candidates.

It is a major turn off.

Executive Summary is in order.