Strategic Business Planning

Course Outline Strategic Business Planning
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Early in your career, other people make the big decisions about where your company is heading. You come to work and you watch organisational change unfold. Some of the changes impact you and you deal with them. As your career progresses however you become closer and closer to the people making the decisions and one day you have the opportunity to contribute and to be a genuine influence on the future direction of the organisation. At this level, your ideas and your decisions matter a great deal. You will be developing completive strategies, thinking through environmental change and developing plans to increase profitable revenues.
This programme provides you with the skills, and the tools to face this challenge with confidence. The programme will take you through the strategic planning process using your own organisation as a case study. You will have the opportunity to think through the competitive challenge you face and to work through the models and ideas on the course and to develop a change plan.
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Course Objectives
By strengthening your business planning skills, you will enable your department and organisation to:

• Think strategically
• Build competitive edge for your business
• Think both long term and short term
• Have a clear structure for the strategic thinking process
• Make better business decisions by using a range of analysis tools
• Review objectives and plans in the context of a changing business environment
• Turn strategies into practical proposals for change
• Produce and present a change plan
• Successfully plan for new ventures and strategies
• Identify and resolve business problems
• Recognise and exploit commercial opportunities
• Avoid wasting time on unrealistic objectives
• Engage people in change

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Who Will the Course Benefit?
This programme will benefit anyone who is, or will be, taking responsibility for driving their business forward. It will also benefit finance or support staff who want to build on their specialist skills and gain a more complete view of how to develop a successful business strategy. Typical roles will be:

• Senior Management
• General/Operational Management
• Product/Service Management
• Financial Executives
• Marketing Executives

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Course Duration
3 days
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Course Content
Day One
Strategy in Context
Why bother with strategic thinking?

• Debate about the nature of business and the role of strategic thinking
• Introduction to strategic thinking frameworks

Case study in achieving profitable growth

• Short business simulation to illustrate the complexity of decision-making and outcomes.

Core differentiation strategies

• Use of an Ansoff Matrix to identify the potential routes for profitable growth
• Review of core differentiation strategies (referencing the work of Porter)

Vision Mission and Values

• Discussion around the use of these within business. Discussion around their practical application, how to define them, how to use them

Strategic Map Model

• Introduction to the Strategic Map Model which helps to summarize the strategic agenda followed by practical work on the framework. Participants reflect on real data to review the business over the last three years

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Day Two
Competitive Edge

• Participants will use the strategic map model to present a strategic summary of the business and to highlight strengths and potential weaknesses in the company†s historic business

Defining Investment Priorities

• Discussion around market attractiveness factors to determine preferences for growth and expansion and construction of a Directional Policy Matrix (a variation of the Boston Box)

Competitive Position

• Use and application of the competitive compass to identify customer needs and how to compare your offer to the best competitors
• Use and application of the core and peripheral services model
• Case studies on differentiation
• Practical work on differentiation

Environmental Changes

• Introduction to the nature of environmental analysis
• Use and application of Porters five forces model
• Use and application of the PEST analysis tool
• Practical work to identify strengths and weaknesses
• Use of the Strategic Force Field Model to summarize the level of change in the environment and how this compares to the level of change being driven within the business

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Day Three
Presenting the Change Plans Pulling everything together into a plan

• Participants to ideally work in small groups and to focus on a particular part of the business
• Understanding what to include in a presentation on strategy using the strategic map templates
• Preparation of a board level business plan

Leading people through change

• How to engage people on the journey
• Overcoming resistance
• How to ensure the plans have the greatest chance of success
• Use and application of the change leadership model

PL2532 - Strategic Business Planning.pdf