| name | industry-guides |
| description | Use when a business plan, proposal, or pitch needs sector-specific operating models, benchmarks, regulation, costs, or risks from the industry guide catalogue; use the owning pipeline skill for the deliverable and country context for jurisdiction-specific facts. |
| metadata | {"portable":true,"compatible_with":["claude-code","codex"]} |
Industry Guides Skill
Overview
Use this skill as the sector-context layer for plan writing. It routes the agent to the correct industry sub-guide so section skills use realistic operating assumptions, benchmarks, and constraints for the business at hand.
Use When
- Use when a business plan, proposal, or pitch needs industry-specific benchmarks and operating context.
- Use when the sector materially changes margins, processes, regulation, or success factors.
- Use alongside core section skills to inject sector realism.
Do Not Use When
- Use the owning pipeline skill instead when the task is to draft the main business-plan artefact without sector routing.
- Do not use as a substitute for the core section skill that owns the main artifact.
- Do not assume a sector guide is authoritative for every geography without checking the country context.
- Do not copy raw reference material into a plan without translating it into the client's business reality.
Required Inputs
- Target industry or sub-sector
- Business model, scale, geography, and intended audience
- Any adjacent sections whose assumptions need sector grounding
- Known constraints or differentiators that affect which benchmarks are relevant
Workflow
- Identify the closest industry guide that matches the client's actual operating model.
- Read the guide and only the reference files needed for the current section.
- Extract the sector assumptions that materially change the draft.
- Reconcile those assumptions with country context and audience expectations.
- Apply the sector logic to the owning section skill.
- Flag where the available guide is only a partial fit.
Quality Bar
- Sector context materially improves realism.
- Benchmarks are used as ranges and decision aids, not as fabricated facts.
- Industry guidance aligns with the country and funding context.
- The integration makes the plan more specific, not more verbose.
Anti-Patterns
- Picking a broad sector label when a more specific guide exists.
- Applying guide assumptions mechanically without checking scale or business model.
- Using sector benchmarks that contradict the plan's own economics.
- Treating reference text as publishable plan prose.
Outputs
- A sector-informed input layer for the owning section skill
- Explicit benchmark assumptions and caveats
- Pointers to the most relevant guide and reference files
References
- Load the selected industry
guide.md before applying section skills.
- For retail, also load
retail/references/retail-operating-model-and-engine-plan.md
when the plan includes omnichannel operations, POS, merchandising, pricing,
promotions, markdowns, loyalty, fulfilment, returns, shrink, vendor terms,
private label, planograms, dashboards, or engine-readiness requirements.
Provide industry-specific context, benchmarks, and best practices to tailor business plan generation to the target sector.
How to Use
- Identify the user's target industry
- Load the relevant industry sub-directory's guide
- Apply industry-specific benchmarks, cost structures, and operational standards when generating any business plan section
- Flag where generic assumptions differ from industry norms
Available Industry Guides
| Industry | Sub-directory | Key Focus Areas |
|---|
| Restaurant & Food Service | restaurant/ | Food/beverage/labour cost controls, menu engineering, restaurant types, startup costs, licensing, financial benchmarks |
| Agriculture & Agribusiness | agriculture/ | Enterprise budgets, crop planning, farm financial management, agribusiness value chain, marketing channels, organic certification |
| Retail & Shop Management | retail/ | Startup costs by format, retail financial management, Strategic Profit Model, inventory/merchandising, site selection, retail analytics/KPIs, marketing/promotion |
| Food Processing | food-processing/ | Value-addition to agricultural products: dairy, bakery, beverages, spices, oils, cereals, fruits/vegetables, meat/fish processing. 46 UNDP business profiles with investment benchmarks |
| Cassava | cassava/ | Uganda sector overview, production systems (conventional vs mechanised with cost/return tables), agronomy (NASE 14, ISFM, disease management), value chain, processing technologies (HQCF, chips, gari, starch, peel feed), quality standards, seed system (CSEs/CBSMs), startup framework by capital tier, regulatory compliance |
| Dairy Farming | dairy-farming/ | Market structure, 5 production systems with economic benchmarks, regional milksheds, climate-smart feed and manure innovations, startup planning framework, soil nutrient management, value chain actors, financial benchmarks by scale |
| Livestock, Aquaculture & Farming | livestock-aquaculture/ | Poultry, piggery, dairy, cattle, aquaculture, apiculture, horticulture, agri-inputs. 22 UNDP business profiles |
| Light Manufacturing | manufacturing-light/ | Plastics/rubber, paper/stationery, metal products, crafts/decorative, recycling, electronics. 49 UNDP business profiles, plus MRP, capacity, material-flow, warehouse, and green manufacturing planning standards |
| Textiles, Fashion & Leather | textiles-fashion/ | Garments, leather goods/footwear, natural fibre products, accessories/jewellery. 25 UNDP business profiles |
Industry Guide Structure
Each industry sub-directory contains:
industry-guides/
SKILL.md (this index file)
[industry-name]/
guide.md (industry overview, business model types, key success factors)
references/
financial-benchmarks.md (cost structures, margins, ratios, P&L templates)
operations.md (staffing, equipment, supply chain, daily operations)
[additional topic files as needed]
Integration with Core Skills
When an industry guide is active, it modifies the output of core skills:
| Core Skill | Industry Guide Contribution |
|---|
| 04-market-analysis | Industry-specific market size data, growth rates, concentration |
| 05-target-market | Customer demographics and behaviour patterns for this industry |
| 06-competitive-analysis | Industry-specific competitive dynamics and positioning |
| 07-marketing-sales-strategy | Channel preferences, customer acquisition methods for this sector |
| 08-operations-plan | Industry-standard processes, equipment, staffing models |
| 10-financial-projections | Industry benchmarks for revenue, costs, margins, break-even |
| 12-risk-analysis | Industry-specific risks, failure rates, regulatory risks |
Source Referencing in Business Plans
When generating the final business plan, cite the underlying reference books where they add credibility:
- Financial benchmarks and ratios cite the source when presenting industry-standard percentages, cost structures, or financial targets (e.g., "Industry benchmarks indicate a target food cost of 30-35% of food sales (Dittmer & Keefe, 2009)")
- Regulatory and compliance frameworks cite when referencing specific standards (e.g., HACCP, Uniform System of Accounts, organic certification standards)
- Market data and industry statistics cite when presenting market size, growth rates, or industry structure data
- Pricing and costing methodologies cite when applying specific pricing formulas or costing methods (e.g., contribution margin pricing, enterprise budgeting)
- Operational best practices cite when recommending specific management systems or benchmarks
Do NOT cite sources for:
- Generic business advice that is common knowledge
- The user's own market research or primary data
- Financial projections derived from the user's specific numbers
Format citations as parenthetical references: (Author, Year) on first use. Include a "Sources and References" section in the appendices listing all cited works with full bibliographic details.
Quality Criteria
- Financial benchmarks cite ranges, not single numbers (industries vary)
- Regulatory requirements note they are jurisdiction-dependent
- Startup costs provide ranges by business size/format
- Operational standards distinguish between formats (e.g., full-service vs. fast-casual)
- Common mistakes are specific to the industry, not generic business advice
Inputs
| Artefact | Source or provider | Required? | If absent |
|---|
| Sector, sub-sector, business model, scale, location, and decision audience | Client intake and owning plan skill | Required | Ask for the missing classifier; do not pick a guide from a broad label |
| Current sector, regulatory, operating, and benchmark evidence | Selected guide plus verified primary or authoritative sources | Conditional | Use guide logic only and qualify current values |
| Money-flow and accounting definitions | Chwezi Accounting Doctrine and finance model | Required for financial benchmarks | Withhold financial conclusions until definitions reconcile |
Outputs
| Artefact | Consumer | Acceptance condition |
|---|
| Sector context brief | Owning plan, proposal, pitch, risk, operations, or finance skill | Names the selected guide, applicable operating model, material assumptions, caveats, and section implications |
| Benchmark and source register | Researcher and reviewer | Every benchmark is a range or cited fact with geography, period, source, and applicability note |
Evidence Produced
| Evidence | Format | Acceptance condition |
|---|
| Guide-selection rationale | Sector-to-business-model decision note | Explains why the chosen guide fits and where it does not |
| Assumption traceability | Claim, source, warrant, assumption, countercase, and implication table | Load-bearing sector claims are reviewable and qualified |
Capability Contract
Read or search access is required; editing or mutation is allowed only with authorised permission.
Routing and analysis default to read-only. Do not edit client facts, adopt a benchmark as a target, make regulatory or accounting claims, or recommend spending or production changes without explicit authority and verified current evidence.
Degraded Mode
Without a close guide, current source, country context, or finance doctrine, return a qualified partial sector brief with the mismatch and checks marked not assessed. Do not treat an old or foreign benchmark as current local evidence.
Decision Rules
| Choice | Action | Failure or risk avoided |
|---|
| One guide matches the actual operating model | Load it and only relevant references | Irrelevant context loading |
| Business spans two material models | Combine two guides and reconcile assumptions | Missing a load-bearing revenue or operating engine |
| No guide is a close fit | Use a bounded generic brief and request research | False sector precision |
| Benchmark affects revenue, cost, inventory, assets, payroll, or tax | Reconcile it with Chwezi doctrine and the finance model | Narrative-financial conflict |
Workflow
- Classify the customer's activity, buyer, revenue model, delivery model, scale, geography, and decision.
- Select the closest guide and document neighbouring guides rejected.
- Load only references that change the owning section's assumptions or decisions.
- Separate durable operating logic from time-sensitive figures; verify current facts or mark them unassessed.
- Reconcile country, finance, regulation, customer, operations, and funding implications.
- Run every applicable gate in
../../references/sector-regulatory-gates.md, carrying its cost, timing and stop condition into the plan and marking unavailable checks not assessed.
- Produce the sector brief and source register, including mismatch and countercase; recover by revising the guide choice when the evidence contradicts it.
- Stop release where a load-bearing claim is uncited, a regulatory stop condition is unresolved, or the benchmark conflicts with the plan model.
Quality Standards
Sector context must change a real decision, assumption, or risk. Benchmarks require source, period, geography, range, and fit; they never replace client evidence or current professional review.
Anti-Patterns
- Selecting retail for every business that sells something. Fix: classify the operating and revenue model first.
- Copying a guide paragraph into the plan. Fix: translate it into a client-specific assumption and implication.
- Using a single margin as an industry truth. Fix: cite a range and explain format, scale, geography, and period.
- Applying Uganda regulation to another country. Fix: load the correct country context and verify current law.
- Letting sector benchmarks override reconciled client data. Fix: investigate the variance and retain the supported figure.
- Hiding a partial guide fit. Fix: state the mismatch and research need.
Worked Example
A bakery with a shop and wholesale supply needs both food-processing and retail logic. Use food-processing for yield, quality, and production constraints, retail for merchandising and store operations, and reconcile inventory and margin definitions before setting targets.
