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