Introduction

Too often company executives and professionals spend most of their time fixing day-to-day problems. They react to problems, rather than focusing on what they would like the company to be and then on making it happen. This program focuses on changing the way we think from reacting (responding to day-to-day problems, fixing and repairing) to developing plans for what we want to have happened and then implementing the plans.

In attending this course, you will gain the skills necessary to change your management approach from letting things happen to make things happen the way we want. These are necessary skills and key issues for anyone who is involved in:

• Developing a new company/division/department
• Improving the performance of an existing company/division/department when faced with a major change in business conditions
• Balancing financial and non-financial objectives and goals
• Growing an existing company/division/department
• Planning his/her own career more carefully.

Course Objectives of Strategic Thinking & Business Planning

The central objectives of this course are as follows:

• Learn how to develop a plan to achieve the goals you want for you and your company, and develop strategic thinking in your organization/business unit/team.
• Determine where you and your company want to be.
• Develop a strategic plan for - your organization (company/division/business unit/team and for yourself personally.
• Identify the principles and mechanisms that drive successful implementation
• Develop measurable action plans that result in success. Identify, measure, and track critical success factors

Training Methodology

The approach to the seminar is to combine the formal presentation of the subject matter with class discussion of case studies that illustrate the issues that have just been presented. Some use of video-based material is included. Above all, the seminar leader will refer extensively to examples of strategic analysis and decisions made in companies with which he has been personally involved. This gives a real-life and up-to-date perspective on the subject.

Organizational Impact of Strategic Thinking & Business Planning

• A greater strategic perspective at all levels of the organization
• Development of the next generation of strategic leaders
• Development of specialist managers who are able and empowered to think strategically.
• Better appreciation by functional specialists/managers of the challenges faced by top management in taking a company forward in changing conditions.
• Better internal communication at a strategic level within the company/division/business unit/team.
• Creating tomorrow’s business out of today’s

Personal Impact  of Strategic Thinking & Business Planning

• Greater confidence in understanding the potential strategic impact of your own current specialist managerial role.
• A vital knowledge base in preparing for greater responsibility and a potential move into general management and ultimately into top management.
• A better appreciation of the holistic nature of major business decisions.
• How to change from reacting to problems to making things happen the way you want for you and your company and to recognize the importance of planning what you want to happen instead of reacting to daily problems.
• How to simplify—manage 3-5 critical things instead of managing 50-60 unprioritized tasks
• How to develop long-term/medium-term/short-term plans.

Course Outlines of Strategic Thinking & Business Planning

Day 1: How We Think: Are we simply allowing things to happen, or are we making them happen the way we want?

• What is strategy – core concept and definition of terms
• What is a Strategic Plan?
• How did we think?
  • Analytical thinking
  • Creative thinking
• What is a Leader? - The difference between leadership and management
• Strategic and operational goals – the significance and difference
• Two key roles
• Visionary - the role of the Chief Executive Officer
• Chief implementer - the role of the Chief Operating Officer
• Building a strategy/business planning team
• Mini-case 1: tutor presentation and group discussion
• Two key roles

Day 2: Strategic Planning

• Review of Day One – questions and answers
• Cost-based strategies versus differentiation-based strategies
• Concept of the “business model”: the integrated supply-demand chain
• Vision, Mission, and Values – case examples, class discussion, and guidelines
• Practical group exercise on Vision/Mission statements
• Analysis of the business environment (1) – the SPECTER technique
• Analysis of the business environment (2) - the 5-forces technique
• Mini-case 2: group work and presentation/discussion

Day 3: Linkage to Marketing and Sales and Strategy Choice

• Review of Day Two – questions and answers
• How to evaluate market structures, trends, and prospects
• SWOT analysis and the strategy matrix
• Strategic choice – how to make strategy selection decisions
• Marketing plans and sales plans
• Market plan – capturing value rather than just volume
• Sales plan – how to choose and fulfill market opportunities
• Mini-case 3: group discussion

Day 4:  Linkage to the financial dimension

• Review of Day Three – questions and answers
• Strategic versus operational aspects of finance. The strategic role of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO)
• The issue of financial risk/volatility and its impact on strategy
• Globalization of the financial markets
• The issue of financial risk/volatility and its impact on strategy
• The strategic impact of time compression and shortening life-cycles
• Capital-labor substitution, overhead cost, fixed and variable costs, breakeven analysis. The financial aspects of supply chain design – the “value engineering” of fixed and variable cost through outsourcing and “minimal inventory” processes.
• Summary – strategic cost analysis

Day 5: Bringing It All Together

• Review of Day Four
• Review of the whole course
  • Vision
  • Mission
  • Values
  • Strategic choice and critical goals
  • Marketing and Sales Plans
  • Operational Plan
• Developing Action plans
• The importance of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and measurements
• Building a business strategy team and gaining buy-in within the organization
• The importance of strategic planning aligned throughout an organization and its supply-demand chains. The emerging 21st-century concept of 'dynamic alignment'
• The 'death of distance' and the shift of competitiveness from product/service to business model
• Final thoughts and conclusions – the future of strategic management