Objectives:

• Understanding the concept of strategy making and its benefits
• To better understand the role of leadership in strategy making
• To understand the link between involvement and accountability
• To provide insights into developing implementation plans
• Know how to develop an actionable financial plan with controllable milestones
• Learn skills to understand and avoid the pitfalls of strategic planning

Outlines:

What is strategic and financial planning?

• The role of strategy in business and why it matters
• The ingredients of a good strategy
• Customer analysis and market segmentation
• Effective strategy making processes with proper financial planning
• Tools for understanding industry developments
• The core strategic financial choices for a business
• Who is responsible for strategy making and who should be held accountable?

Integrating strategic and financial planning with operational management

• Contrasting management with strategic leadership
• The competencies of strategic leadership
• The top manager as strategist
• The CFO as strategist
• Using Scenario analysis and environmental scanning
• SWOT and other acronyms
• Corporate Culture and its effect on strategy and financial planning
• The operational manager’s role in strategy
• Case study

Using evidence for strategic and financial planning

• Analyzing the market place and the customers
• Understanding the competition
• Financial analysis: past, present, and future
• Knowing the core strengths and weaknesses of your business
• Identifying your core competitive advantage
• Developing Vision statements that make a difference
• Developing mission statements that make a difference
• Examining alternative strategies
• Creating the strategic plan
• Case study

Implementing strategic and financial plans

• Using financial planning to prepare the ground for change in the business
• Communicating the strategy and having control points
• Overcoming internal political resistance
• Reviewing and measuring progress with proper variance analysis
• Turnaround and corrective measures
• Managing implementation as a continuous process

Becoming a leader of strategic financial planning

• Building strategy making and implementation into the role of managers
• Developing strategic leadership capability
• Creating organizational commitment to the business strategy
• Leading strategy making teams effectively
• Incentive plans
• Balanced Scorecard and other performance management systems
• Realistic action planning