Effective Business Planning Skills

Effective Business Planning Skills

Duration: 1 Day

Planning in business is one of the key skills required by managers. The ability and discipline to plan on a short, medium and long-term basis is a great asset to the ‘pro-active’ manager and their organisation.

This programme looks at the mechanical and visionary aspects of planning whilst ensuring that decisions are based on fact rather than assumptions.

Course Designed For

This course is designed for managers wishing to develop planning skills within the workplace. This would be an ideal course for those entering management for the first time or wish to build on their planning skills.

Objectives

How will you and your organisation benefit…

Upon completion of this course you will be able to:

• Seek out factual information and reduce the risk of making assumptions
• Create short, medium and long term plans
• Set measurable objectives
• Introduce measurement tools to test progress
• Examine situations from different perspectives

Course Outline

The Planning Process

• The importance of planning
• Sources of data – environmental scanning
• The consequences of assumption
• Forms of business plans

Setting Objectives

• Making plans that are measurable
• Ensuring objectives are SMART
• Communicating plans effectively
• Evaluating progress
• Repositioning

Visionary Planning

• Dealing with uncertainty in planning
• Scenario analysis

Managing the Planning Process

• Delegating
• Structuring the plan
• Keeping people informed

Further Development

• Delegation
• Time Management
• Communication Skills
• Problem Solving through Creative Thinking