Ibis offer a combination of distance learning and in-company seminars for specific aspects of business plan training.
They are designed to be tailored to particular company requirements, though each has a series of common components.
Because they are delivered in-house, they provide a cost effective introduction for key staff to all the vital elements of the development and management of the business plan.
Most business plans are not comprehensive
Most business plans do not integrate monitoring with planning to form a continuous management control system
Most business plans do not effectively identify and manage risk
Most business plans are top down rather than bottom up reviews
Most business plans do not focus on building and maintaining competitive advantage
Most business plans do not develop skills and business understanding throughout the enterprise
Most plans are completed in small groups and do not involve team building throughout the enterprise, which enhances motivation and commitment to the plan
Course description:
A three-day course on business planning and the creation of expert systems for business plan development within an established enterprise, based around the Ibis
business plan outline. It is most appropriate for managers with profit and loss responsibility and those involved in corporate planning from medium sized to large scale organisations. It is relevant for both the profit and non-profit sectors.
All materials will be supplied. These include hard copy and electronic versions of the course manual (180 plus pages which includes the step by step guide for business plan completion) and the course slides, plus sample business plans for review and analysis.
Objectives:
To provide delegates with a structured way of answering the three basic questions of business planning: Where are we? Where do we want to be (and when)? How are we going to get there cost effectively;
To introduce the concept of expert systems into business planning through a structured step by step guide;
To enable participants to work through the planning issues in their own organisation in a series of workshops;
To provide the Ibis business plan manual which participants will take with them to introduce and maintain high quality business planning and control in their enterprises, driving profitability, growth and reducing risk.
Session 1. Introduction to course and delegates. What is best practice in business planning?:
What do I get from this session? An overview of the basic components of a
good business plan.
Session 2. An example best practice business plan – what should be in
it and what not. Gap analysis- what your organisation is currently doing and
what it should be doing to improve its business planning.
What do I get from this session? A review of your existing planning process
and the identification of gaps .
Session 3. Overview – creating the overall planning framework.
Strategic business units, knowledge centers, authority and responsibility.
Planning cycles, planning horizons, planning reviews, management by objectives,
business monitoring.
What do I get from this session? How to make the organisation ready for
implementing a comprehensive planning system.
Session 4. Work smarter rather than harder – getting the information
inflow right. Aligning information systems withknowledge
centres:
What do I get from this session? How to improve information management to
build a more competitive and action orientated enterprise and create a base for
planning and control.
Session 5. Group work- Completing the plan 1. Using the planning
format with the sample plan. Creating the overall planning framework and
information management. Defining the planning organogram. Creating knowledge
centres, defining authority, establishing relevant information flows, business
model, corporate governance, critical success factors, legacy issues, lessons
learnt success and failures.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how the
supplied manual can be used to create a functioning framework for more effective
planning and control.
Session 6. Where are we? Understanding the base line –
revenues, costs, key performance indicators, benchmarks.
What do I get from this session? How to use the planning
platform as a base for all quantitative analysis and control.
Session 7. Group work. Completing the plan 2. Using the planning format
with the sample plan. Defining KPI's
and benchmarks for each knowledge centre within your own enterprise.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how key performance
indicators and benchmarks are chosen for a particular example.
Session 8. Market drivers, competition and internal resource analysis and
their influence on what the enterprise can achieve.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how external forces set
limits on the setting effective objectives.
Session 9. Group work. Completing the plan 3. Using the planning format
with the standard plan. Reviewing market drivers, competitive positioning and
internal resources.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how a standard approach
to analysing market drivers, competitive positioning and resource analysis is
vital to assist in the creation of realistic objectives.
Session 10. Where do we want to be? Getting from the base line. Corporate
strategy, SBU strategy, knowledge centre strategic options.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of the relationships
between differing strategic horizons and how they will inter-relate in practical
terms.
Session 11. Group work. Completing the plan 4. Using the planning format
with the standard plan. Strategic choices over the planning horizon, for the
enterprise, the SBU and the knowledge centres.
What do I get from this session? How the planning manual can be used to
identify strategic requirements, and how these will determine the complexity and
difficulty of strategic implementation.
Session 12. Where are we likely to be? Forecasting techniques,
qualitative and quantitative. The forecast grid, choosing the forecast case.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of the range of forecasting
techniques and how they should be applied to each of the major components of the
business plan.
Session 13. Identifying and filling the strategic gap. The contributions
of the existing business, withdrawal, consolidation, market penetration, market
development, product development, and diversification. Choosing implementation
options.
What do I get from this session? A understanding of how the golden circle
concept can be applied for the development of the business plan and what
different implementation options exist.
Session 14. Completing the plan 5. Using the planning format with the
standard plan. Choosing the strategic options for the future plan and the
appropriate implementation mix.
What do I get from this session?. The appropriate choices for strategic and
implementation options for a particular business case example.
Session 15. Initial cash flow analysis, funding implications, trade offs,
synergies. Links back to strategic objectives.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how strategic and
implementation options need to be converted into financial targets and how this
will lead to funding decisions.
Session 16. Risk. Creating a risk profile, identifying the major failure
points, options to build out risk, developing the contingency plan.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how important risk
identification and coherent risk management approaches are to the achievement of
the plan.
Session 17. Finalising the plan. Action planning, stagegate and HACCP.
Authority and responsibility. Internal communication to knowledge centers.
Formal agreement. Communication. New target creation.
What do I get from this session? An understanding of how important it is that
all members of the organisation comprehend and agree to the direction of the
plan and that responsibility has been taken for its implementation.
Training using simulations and games is widely held to be one of the best ways of building team commitment and productivity
Simulations and games are one of the most effective training methods
Simulations and games enable any enterprise to explore alternative development options and understand risk
Created from the linkage of key performance indicators in existing companies, the business plan game has developed as a useful training tool for larger groups within companies and organisations and at a generally lower level of management responsibility.
Research shows that most start up businesses fail because of a lack of understanding of the demands of business development, with over 50% failing through non-financial weaknesses.
Why Ibis?
Most start up business plans fail to incorporate continuous monitoring and control systems, an area in which Ibis have long specialised
Most start up business plans fail to sufficiently identify non financial and non marketing failure points
Most start up business plans do not concentrate on the demands of project management and action planning
Course description:
A two day training course combined with a start up business plan manual which takes the delegates through the process of developing a business in a step by step fashion using worksheets. The full contents can be seen on the start up
business plan outline page. It is most appropriate for individuals considering starting their own businesses and for those that are involved in assisting small business development.
Course objectives:
To develop a bottom up rather than top down approach to the development of a comprehensive and effective plan;
To create a structure which will enable the business to control its development and to easily integrate new activities;
To introduce crucial planning and control concepts;
To work through a manual to enable delegates to take away a structure which will enable them to easily complete their business plan
Course materials:
All course materials are supplied. These include copies (both in printed and electronic formats) of the start up business plan manual, presentation slides, sample case studies.
Course description:
Session 1 Introduction to the course
Session 2 Understanding the demands of the start up plan
Session 3 Group work: Reviewing samples of start up plans
Session 4 Where do you want to go?
Session 4 Creating the management information system
Session 5 Defining the business
Session 6 Group work: Presenting the business concept
Session 7 Operating requirements – setting targets and controls
Session 8 Managing risk
Session 9 Group work: Key risks in the plan
Session 10 Funding
Session 11 Action planning – the critical path and stage gate
Training in the identification and use of key performance indicators (KPI);
Training in the creation of standard operating procedures (SOP);
Training in the development of a contingency
plan;
Training in competitive analysis
Residential courses in France for both established and start up businesses based next to the theme park and high technology centre at
EuroDisney, accessible by air and train. These courses are held in May and September each year.
More information on the way in which Ibis can contribute to your business plan development is provided at
Advantage Ibis
More information on the Ibis approach is also available on the FAQ
page..
Business Plan SOP
A comprehensive, easy to use 188 page manual containing scores of worksheets and notes. The contents follow the
business plan outline, and have been rigorously tested during years of
training throughout the world. The Ibis business plan manual is delivered in Word format, so that users can complete the worksheets and transfer them into the body of their own business plan.
