Strategic Thinking & Business Planning

Strategic Thinking & Business Planning is a wide-ranging programme which provides an opportunity for participants to develop their understanding of the concepts of strategic management and to review the strategic direction of their organisations/departments.It also places particular emphasis on planning and provides practical guidance on how to draw up (and monitor) business plans so that strategic goals can be turned into practical achievement.

Course Membership

All managers and professionals who need to adopt a 'strategic mindset' and particularly those who have to draw up and implement business plans for their departments and sections.

Course Objectives By the end of the course participants will:

• appreciate what 'strategy' means especially in today's turbulent environment

• have explored the 'strategic toolkit' of models and processes and learnt how to apply them to their own organisational context

• be able to analyse and respond to the forces of change working on, and within, their organisations

• be able to draft practical and realistic business plans

• be able to assess the difficulties of implementation and identify means of overcoming them

Course Outline

• Introduction to strategic thinking & business planning

• Strategy - definition and terms

• The full strategic planning process

• Preparing a business plan

• Environmental and industry analysis - PESTLE

• Competitor analysis

• SWOT and capability analysis

• Competitive advantage

• Implementation issues

• Strategic management of change

Course Methods

Strategic Thinking & Business Planning is an exciting and practical course.It makes extensive use of case studies giving participants the opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of other organisations and from examples of good and bad practice.An opportunity is also given for participants to work on drafting their business plans.