Course: Business Strategy & Planning
Duration: 1 day
Date: Tuesday November 18th 2008
Starts: 9.30a.m – 5.00p.m
Venue: The Malton Hotel, Killarney
Cost: €120
Trading In Tough Times
As part of our programme, ”Trading in Tough Times” is designed to help companies to face the challenges of the current economic climate. Therefore, we are presenting a one day training course on Business Strategy & Planning.
A business without a plan is like a car without a steering wheel
Strategy is the starting point for business planning – if you don’t know where you want to go, there is little purpose planning how to get there.
Every business is regularly faced with having to make choices between different potential courses of action.
In good times, you want to grow your business but in bad times, all you want to do is stay in business.
Strategy involves your business having to make hard choices deciding what it will do but also what it will not do:
- what products and services you will provide;
- what type of customer you will target and;
- how you will position your offering in the market.
It requires trade-offs – choosing to compete in one way and not in another.
It is about focusing on your options and deciding what your business will do, and planning how it will do it by:
- setting clear objectives for the future,
- ensuring better planning,
- effective management of performance and resources,
- reducing uncertainty and risk;
in order to maintain competitiveness going forward.
- In the current economic climate, with its mounting uncertainty, every business needs to: maintain competitiveness and responsiveness, which requires a full understanding of the markets and industry sector in which it operates, the trends in demand and supply, its competitors and their strengths and weaknesses;
- be aware of what is going on in the external environment, and assess the possible impact of events and forces outside its control, e.g. interest rates, energy costs, technology, regulations, market conditions, – in order to avoid the impact of ‘’sudden shocks’’ and prepare appropriate responses.
Seeking a defendable competitive advantage must be the aim of every business.
Strategy helps you achieve this goal, helping you to stay in business in hard times, but also to position your business for the upturn when it comes …..and it will come.
This one-day seminar is aimed at SME owner / managers, and explains in practical terms:
- The importance of having a business strategy;
- How to develop a strategy, taking into account the external and internal environments;
- How to develop a business plan based on that strategy.
PRESENTER
Brian O’Kane is an award-winning, best-selling and standard-setting small business writer, editor, publisher and trainer. As the founder and managing director of Oak Tree Press (www.oaktreepress.com), Ireland’s leading business book publisher, Brian has written (and co-written) over a dozen books, and edited two of the world’s largest circulation accounting magazines. He writes and speaks regularly on small business planning and strategy.
Each participant will receive a free copy of Growing Your Own Business: A Workbook(Ron Immink & Brian O’Kane).
For further information on this course,please contact Joe Barry at 066 – 9762477/ 087-2426941 or email skillnet@skdp.net
Bookings:
To book a place on this programme or for more information please contact Anne Fleming at 066 9762477 or email skillnet@skdp.net
South Kerry Skillnet is an industry led training initiative promoted by the South Kerry Development Partnership Limited.
The Skillnet Training Project is funded by the National Training Fund through the Dept. of Enterprise, Trade & Employment and by member companies.
