Strategic Thinking and Business Planning

By the end of the program, participants will be able to:

• Define the strategic planning and control process and its main components.
• Apply strategic thinking.
• Develop organizational and departmental strategies.
• use the strategy of the organization to determine Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Utilize KPIs to draft an organizational balanced scorecard.
• Convert a strategic plan to an operating plan.

COURSE CONTENT

Strategic Management and Strategic Thinking

• Evaluation of Strategic Management
• Strategic Thinking versus Strategic Planning
• The Strategic Planning and Control Process
• Benefits of Strategic Management

Analysis of the Environment

• Results of the Analysis
• The SWOT Analysis
• Participation in SWOT Analysis
• List of Critical Issues
• Benefits and Pitfalls

Vision and Mission Statements

• Why Vision and Mission Statements

• What is a Vision? What is a Mission?
• Benefits of Statements
• How Vision and Mission Statements are Formulated
• A Checklist for a Complete Mission Statement
• Strategic Goals and Critical Success Factors
• Key Result Areas
• Communicating the Vision and Mission

Goals, Objectives and Creative Strategies

• Goals, Objectives and Targets
• Financial versus Non-Financial Objectives
• The Use of Key Result Areas
• Adopting Effective Strategies

Developing Operating Plans

• From Vision to Action Plan
• The How-How Technique to Develop Plans
• Criteria of Effective Action Plans
• Linking Goals, Strategies, Action Plans and Budgets
• Developing Departmental Plans

Developing Control Systems and Performance Measures

• Approaches to Control
• Using Key Result Areas (KRAs) to Create Key Performance Indicators (KPl’s)
• Setting Targets
• The Balanced Scorecard
• Overcoming Barriers to the Implementation of Strategic Management

TRAINING METHODOLOGY

The training methodology combines lectures, discussions, group exercises and illustrations. Participants will gain both theoretical and practical knowledge of the topics. The emphasis is on the practical application of the topics and as a result participant will go back to the workplace with both the ability and the confidence to apply the techniques learned to their duties.