Course details

Overview ?

The Course

Whether starting a business, growing a business or preparing for retirement, the probability of accomplishing your goal increases substantially when you plan it rather than just start doing it. Planning is even more critical during challenging economic times or when multiple people and groups need to coordinate their actions to accomplish the primary goals, as is true of almost all organizational goals.

In today’s challenging economic world, organizational planning has become even more critical, not only to survive but to thrive. Most business executives will agree, intellectually, with the preceding statement, but agreement is not enough.

Many organizations still fall into one of the following predicaments:

They do not plan
They do plan, but plan poorly
They plan properly, but do not communicate the plan throughout the organization
They plan properly, but do not implement the plan
They plan properly, communicate and implement, but do not measure effectively so they are never certain if they accomplished the intended result

The Goals

By the end of this program you will be able to:

Understand the concepts and the differences between of strategy, planning, goals and tactics
Demonstrate how the operating unit’s strategic plan contributes to the organization’s strategic plan
Master the steps in building a useful strategic plan
Recognize and Review your options during the process to optimize your results
Create clear, simple communication tools
Build a solid strategic plan that is unique to your organization
Develop a realistic implementation plan
Measure your results to make sure the organization is achieving its objectives

The Process

The training process is a blend of presentation, small group work on real company case studies, demonstration of template examples and practical exercises. Bring your own strategic challenges for input. Included in the manual is a comprehensive bibliography.

The Results

Obtaining “Best practice” planning tools
More effective planning process leading to more accurate measurement of success
Better decision making on more choices
Improved efficiency in the planning and implementation process reducing wasted time
More effective implementation

The Benefits

Faster results from your efforts
Better results for your efforts
More confidence in your abilities to exceed goals
Far greater motivation and proactively

The Core Competencies

This program aims to enable participants to develop the following competencies:

Strategic thinking
Problem-solving
Prioritization
Best practice tool use
Communication
Implementation
Accurate & useful measurement systems
Change management
Business analysis
Team working
Presentation skills
Creativity

The Programme Content

Strategy – what is it and how to effectively create it?

Introduction to strategy - major international concepts on what it is AND is not
Developing and using Strategic Thinking
Vision, Mission and Strategy: the relationships between & how to create the natural flow between them
The steps involved in developing a strategy: a checklist
Understanding your Unique Competitive Advantage & how to state it
Formulating strategy and managing change
Creating a corporate culture of consistent strategic development
The essence of globalization and global strategy
Review of day 1

Apply what we have learned using a Case study, template & practical exercise

The planning process

How to build and manage a strategic planning team
The framework of a strategy: avoiding 'paralysis by analysis'
Using effective tools such as the “new” SWOT, Porter’s 5-Forces, GE, etc.
Strategy Matrix: understanding options and analyzing business attractiveness
External analysis: using the PESTLE tool to gain insight & Market analysis
Determining the right strategies for the organization
Goals & Objectives: the specifics are critical
- Short-term
- Medium-term
- Long-term
Contingency planning because something always goes wrong
Documenting the plan
Review of Day 2

Apply what we have learned using a Case study, template & practical exercise

Communication – the challenge of getting everyone on the same page

How do we communicate the plan?
Using multiple channels to get the message across
Leveraging people’s learning styles to communicate more effectively
Communicating strategy through the organization
Using your Emotional Intelligence
Dealing with resistance effectively
Setting up a Rewards system
Celebrating success – but not stopping the momentum
Review of Day 3

Apply what we have learned using a Case study, template & practical exercise

Strategic Implementation

Effective implementation - converting planning into action
Planning the implementation: Using a project management tool
Setting expectations: benchmarks, hurdles, milestones
Creating Team & Tasks
Setting accountability in place
Using the Deming model: Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDCA)to increase success
Developing action plans that work
Documenting & Doing
Review of Day 4

Apply what we have learned using a Case study, template & practical exercise

Measurement for Success

How to develop accurate and relevant measurement systems
Separating the KPIs from everything else
Blending the financial and non-financial measurements - the balanced scorecard concept
Organization performance review as a baseline
Using the Balanced Scorecard as a Tool of Success
Linking the BSC to the strategic (flexible) budget
Using variances analysis to manage the plan
Review of Day 5