The course

As the business environment becomes ever more uncertain and turbulent, the requirement for professional leadership and effective management control throughout organisations is at a premium. Strategic Planning, Management Control & Effective Budgeting is for those who are dedicated to maximising the performance of their organisations, as well as their own individual value-added contribution (and that of the people who work for them). The elements of the course provide a structured, coherent and comprehensive framework for addressing the challenges which face professionals in respect of both their day-to-day and longer-term responsibilities.

This course will be particularly relevant to those professionals who are involved in setting the direction of the organisation (or that of their function within it), and are also accountable for the delivery of cost-effective processes, activities and operations. This course will provide professionals with a comprehensive range of skills essential to effectively leading both people and projects/processes in times of increasing global competition, and where budgets are inextricably linked with strategy formulation, people leadership, and cost analysis.

The Structure

Module 1 - Strategy, Risks, Negotiation & Leadership

Module 2 - Effective Budgeting & Operational Cost Control

The Goals

• Develop an appreciation and understanding of strategic planning and management control processes.
• Understand how the elements within them interact to create a systemic approach to the effective and efficient management of organisations, from strategy formulation through to efficient execution.
• Learn how to recognise, manage and mitigate risk.
• Gain awareness of the kind of leadership which really makes a difference in unleashing the potential of everyone in the team.
• Understand the key factors which lead to sustainable business success.
• Think in terms of terms of process-value added to customers/shareholders.
• Integrate the organization's strategic planning with budgets and processes of cost control.
• Understand the importance of project management, appraisal, planning.
• Explore traditional versus innovative budgetary techniques.
• Explore capital and activity-based budgeting techniques.
• Identify key strategic and financial indicators for the business, and how and when to monitor them.
• Discuss the problems and limitations of budgetary control and look for alternative tools.
• Understand the importance of balancing financial and non-financial measure in managing projects.
• Link budgetary processes with quality issues and business process improvement.
• Identify priorities for continued professional development.

The Process

The course is a mixture of speaker input, facilitated discussion, syndicate work and practical exercises, with an emphasis on delegate involvement at all times. We use company examples to illustrate how the techniques presented have been applied in real case studies.

The Benefits

• Each person will learn how to:
  • Learn a coherent framework to apply to any organisational activity, process or change
  • Understand the factors involved in using a plan to achieve measurable results
  • Learn techniques to plan, prioritise and implement effectively
  • Anticipate and prepare for contingencies and changing circumstances
  • Increase levels of confidence in dealing with superiors, peers and subordinates
  • Gain project management abilities
  • Integrate planning, budgeting and cost control by relying on a financial-based language
  • Manage different types of cost and their relevance to decision making
  • Understand the problems of overheads and how Activity Based Analysis may aid decision-making and pricing strategies
  • Select the performance measurement system that works
  • From cost to strategy to performance measurement
  • Looking beyond budgeting: balanced scorecard, six-sigma and Business Excellence

The Results

• Develop a comprehensive understanding of what contributes to, and creates, business success
• Understand and manage the complexities of organisational realities
• Develop approaches to increase organisational effectiveness and efficiency
• Create higher levels of understanding, collaboration and performance within and between teams
• Increase the ability to respond flexibly to changing circumstances
• Reduce uncertainty and maximise the clarity and commitment of staff at all levels
• Facilitate the elimination of non-value activities and the reduction of costs within key projects
• Contribute to the achievement of breakthrough improvements in competitiveness
• Successfully build an integrated planning, budgeting and reporting process
• Understand projects' costs behavior and patterns
• Ensure that processes of business planning, budgeting, and management reporting are robust in themselves and suitable for your organization
• Describe specific cost analysis and performance measurement techniques
• Explore Balanced Scorecards and six-sigma, and the Business Excellence Model
• Facilitate the continuous and radical redesign of business processes
• Support a process-centred organizational culture that focuses on customer value

The Core Competencies

• Participants will develop the following competencies:
  • Understand how to develop, implement and manage business strategy
  • Appreciate, identify, manage and mitigate risk
  • Understand the process of effective and successful negotiation
  • Understand how effective people leadership leads to tangible business success
  • Master techniques for costing & budgetary analysis
  • Be able to identify the right processes to redesign in terms of added-value
  • Confidently contribute to business process improvement
  • Permits testing of financial impact of strategic direction

The Conference Content

Module 1: Strategy, Risks, Negotiation & Leadership

• Strategy
  • Introduction to strategy - background, historical developments, major theories
  • Thinking strategically
  • A consistent approach to strategy development
  • The relationships between vision, mission and strategy
  • The steps involved in developing a strategy
  • Implementing a strategy
• Risks
  • The meaning and nature of risk
  • Identifying the risks in a given strategy
  • Prioritising risks
  • Contingency planning
  • Risk mitigation strategies
• Negotiation
  • The essential role of negotiation
  • Focusing on mutual interests
  • How to separate the people from the problem
  • Remaining objective and dispassionate
  • Negotiating with more powerful people
  • Negotiating tactics
• Leadership
  • The strategic nature of leadershiP
  • The differences between leadership and management
  • Turning leadership theory into practical leadership
  • Maximising the performance of each team member
  • Motivating the 'average' employee
  • Developing a personal action plan for further self-development
• Strategic Leadership Workshop
  • This module comprises a series of interactive workshop activities to develop:
    • Intrapersonal skills
    • Interpersonal skills
    • Strategic leadership for team development
    • Innovative Leadership skills

Module 2: :Effective Budgeting & Operational Cost Control

• Introduction: Building a Common Financial Language
  • The key role of budgeting and cost control in contemporary organizations
  • The 21st century business imperative: delivering value added (but to whom?)
  • Towards a cross-functional process-view of the organization
  • Financial vs. Managerial accounting (for decision making)
  • Understand you processes: integrating financial and non-financial aspects
  • Identify the key processes/projects for your own organization
  • Video, Examples & Discussion
• Budgeting and Cost Analysis
  • Cost concepts and terminology
  • Different costs for different purposes
  • Fixed vs. Variable costs: the Cost-Volume-Profit analysis model
  • Contribution Margin analysis
  • Manufacturing vs. non-manufacturing costs
  • Period vs. Product costs: inventory evaluation and control
  • Case study
• Traditional vs. advanced techniques in cost-control
  • Under-costing and over-costing: the consequences for profitability
  • How to refine a costing system?
  • Indirect (OH) vs. Direct costs: Traditional Cost Allocations systems vs. Activity-Based Costing (ABC)
  • Cost hierarchy & Cost drivers
  • Linking resources, activities and management
  • Introducing Activity-based budgeting (ABM) and management (ABM)
  • Video, Case Study and Examples
• Master Budget, Flexible budgets and Variance Analysis
  • Define the master budget and explain its major benefits to an organization
  • Describe the difference between a static budget and a flexible budget
  • Compute flexible-budget variances and sales-volume variances
  • Discuss the behavioral implication of budgeting
  • The budgeting process in your organization: how to improve it?
  • Which tools shall we use to complement budgeting and costing?
  • Problems, Case Study and Exercises
• Beyond the Budgets: Balanced scorecards and Six-sigma
  • Broadening performance measurement systems
  • The key role of customer satisfaction and business process reengineering
  • Beyond budgeting: integrating financial and non-financial issues
  • Introducing the Balanced Scorecard
  • Introducing the Strategy maps
  • Introducing Six-sigma
  • Video, Case Study and examples