Strategic Planning & Goal Setting: Setting Business Goals, Targets & Deliverables (Certified Planner)

Overview:

Introduction:

Effective strategic planning is essential to the future success of any organization. However, most strategic planning is lacking in vision. It is merely a straight-line extrapolation of the past into the future. In a world where the pace of change is greater than ever before this is at best shortsighted and at worst a prescription for disaster. Real strategic planning is about positioning the organization for a future that will be different from the past. This new seminar will focus on strategic planning as the essential management system guiding the organization into the future by setting focused goals that will establish and enhance competitiveness. The highlights of the seminar are as follows.

Course Objectives:

At the end of this course the participants will be able to: 

• Understand how to design visionary strategic plans.
• Work out how to translate strategic plans into action plans.
• Examine a model for organizational and individual assessment.
• Provide insights into strategic planning problems to avoid.
• Identify and learn from examples of strategic success and failure.
• Understand the nature of the organizational life cycle.
• Provide insights into productive contingency planning.

Targeted Audience:

• Specialist Managers
• Operational Managers
• Team Leaders

Course Outlines:

Unit 1: The Strategic Planning Process:

• Introduction to the seminar – structure, and content.
• Strategy - concept, and significance.
• “Competitive Positioning” versus “Blue Sky” approaches.
• Achieving competitive advantage through flexibility and agility.
• The interaction of strategy, structure, and business processes.
• Gathering information and intelligence for the SWOT analysis.
• Mini-cases and group discussion – “Cost versus Differentiation”.
• Review of Day One.

Unit 2: The Strategic Planning Process:

• Vision and mission statements - preparing for the future.
• Business analysis and contingency planning.
• Strategic choice.
• Converting the SWOT analysis into the “Strategy Matrix”.
• Strategy formulation – programs, projects, policies.
• Transforming the organization - strategy implementation and managing change.
• Mini-case and group discussion – major strategic re-orientation.
• Review of Day Two.

Unit 3: Assessing the Current State of The Organization:

• Leadership and management in relation to strategy.
• Customer and market focus.
• Human resources and knowledge management.
• Building a strategic planning team.
• Effective process management to achieve business results.
• Monitoring and measuring business performance.
• Mini-case and group discussion - a market entry problem.
• Review of Day Three.

Unit 4: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Strategic Planning:

• The strategy life-cycle and the problem of strategic drift.
• Getting innovative thinking into the organization.
• The potentially negative dimensions of success.
• How to avoid “paralysis by analysis”.
• Overcoming the inability to evaluate fresh ideas, denying the truth, and thinking inside the box.
• The critical importance of team building and teamwork.
• Mini-case and group discussion - how and why a good organization can go bad.
• Review of Day Four.

Unit 5: Personal Strategic Planning:

• Applying strategic tools and techniques to the individual.
• Personal goal setting, creating a personal strategic plan.
• Implementing change – achieving progress as a strategic manager.
• The mix of competencies and personal skills required in 21st-century business.
• Executing strategy – how to break it down and get it done.
• Developing inspiration and gathering support.
• Overcoming adversity by leveraging your skills and building on success.
• Conclusion – a personal role in strategic planning and goal-setting processes.