Business Planning Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Business Unit Managers, Strategy Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-SP-058

Before you join: Participants should have experience contributing to budgets, operational plans, projects, service improvements or management reports.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Business plans often fail not because leaders lack ideas, but because strategy, market evidence, operating choices, financial forecasts and delivery commitments are assembled separately. A board may receive an attractive growth proposal without clear assumptions; a bank division may approve initiatives without capacity; an NGO may commit donor funds without measurable benefits. The result is delayed decisions, budgets that cannot support priorities, and plans that are not used after approval.

This Business Planning Training Course shows participants how to turn a strategic direction into a decision-ready business plan. They assess markets and capabilities, define objectives, compare options, build a business model, and convert selected priorities into initiatives, resources and measures. The course develops practical command of PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, SWOT, VRIO, Business Model Canvas, driver-based forecasting, sensitivity analysis, RACI and Balanced Scorecard. Participants learn to test assumptions, quantify financial consequences, identify risks, and present a concise case for investment, service change or growth.

Instruction combines short briefings with sector-relevant cases, facilitated group analysis, planning simulations and structured peer review. Participants apply the methods to a supplied case or an approved workplace priority, then assemble a usable business-plan pack. They leave with templates for strategic analysis, option appraisal, financial projections, implementation governance and performance review, plus a personal application plan. The course is suited to managers responsible for growth, transformation, service improvement, investment proposals or annual planning cycles.

What you will be able to do

  • Define a planning mandate, decision rights and approval route for a business plan
  • Assess market conditions and competitive pressures using PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces
  • Diagnose internal capabilities using SWOT, VRIO and value-chain analysis
  • Appraise strategic options using weighted criteria for fit, feasibility, risk and return
  • Develop a business model using the Business Model Canvas and unit-economics analysis
  • Build driver-based forecasts, cash projections and sensitivity analyses
  • Translate strategic priorities into initiatives, milestones, accountabilities and resource plans
  • Produce a decision-ready business-plan pack with measures, risks and governance arrangements

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce stronger investment proposals and annual business plans
  • Challenge weak assumptions behind growth and transformation initiatives
  • Present strategic choices with clearer financial and operational evidence
  • Translate broad objectives into owned actions and measurable outcomes
  • Build credibility in planning, budget and approval discussions

For your organisation

  • Improves consistency between strategy, budgets, initiatives and performance measures
  • Produces better-supported decisions on investment, growth and service changes
  • Reduces delivery risk through explicit assumptions, dependencies and accountabilities
  • Strengthens financial discipline through driver-based forecasts and sensitivity testing
  • Creates business plans that support regular review and corrective action

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can establish a clear planning mandate, scope and governance structure for a business plan.

  • Purpose statements, planning horizons and decision rights for business planning
  • Clarifying the planning mandate, sponsor expectations and approval route
  • Strategy maps connect mission, priorities, capabilities and measurable results
  • Distinguishing strategic, operating and financial plans and their dependencies
  • Planning calendars aligned with budget cycles, board meetings and reviews
  • Assumptions registers separate known facts, estimates, constraints and uncertainties

Participants can build evidence-based assessments of external conditions, customers and competitors.

  • PESTLE analysis identifies material political, economic, social, technological, legal factors
  • Porter's Five Forces tests industry attractiveness and profit-pool pressures
  • Customer segmentation combines needs, behaviours, value potential and buying criteria
  • Competitor profiles compare offerings, capabilities, pricing, channels and stated intent
  • Market scenarios express alternative demand, regulation and competitor-response conditions
  • Evidence logs record sources, confidence levels, dates and unresolved questions

Participants can identify the internal strengths, constraints and strategic issues shaping plan choices.

  • SWOT synthesis converts evidence into prioritised strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
  • VRIO assessment tests resources for value, rarity, imitability and organisation
  • Value-chain analysis locates cost drivers, bottlenecks and differentiation opportunities
  • Capability heat maps compare required capabilities against current maturity
  • Root-cause analysis separates symptoms from structural performance constraints
  • Strategic issue statements frame choices, consequences and decisions required

Participants can formulate objectives and select strategic options using explicit decision criteria.

  • Vision and strategic intent describe the future position sought
  • Strategic objectives use outcome language, baselines, targets and timeframes
  • Ansoff Matrix compares market penetration, development, product development and diversification
  • Option appraisal weights strategic fit, feasibility, acceptability, risk and return
  • Decision criteria expose trade-offs between growth, service, resilience and margin
  • Strategic themes group interdependent objectives into coherent change agendas

Participants can design a viable business model and define the operating choices needed to support it.

  • Business Model Canvas tests customer value, revenue logic and key resources
  • Value propositions link target segments, pains, gains and differentiated offers
  • Revenue models specify price architecture, volume assumptions and collection timing
  • Cost structures distinguish fixed, variable, direct and shared costs
  • Unit economics calculate contribution margin, break-even volume and customer lifetime value
  • Operating model choices define processes, locations, partners and service levels

Participants can prepare financially credible projections and test the assumptions underpinning a business case.

  • Driver-based forecasts connect operational volumes to revenue, costs and cash
  • Three-statement projections reconcile profit, balance sheet movements and cash flows
  • Capital expenditure plans distinguish maintenance, replacement and growth investment
  • 13-week rolling cash forecasts expose liquidity timing and funding requirements
  • Sensitivity analysis tests price, volume, cost and working-capital assumptions
  • Investment cases use NPV, IRR, payback and hurdle-rate decisions

Participants can convert strategic priorities into resourced initiatives with clear ownership and benefits measures.

  • Initiative charters define scope, benefits, owners, milestones and dependencies
  • Work breakdown structures convert strategic initiatives into manageable deliverables
  • Critical path analysis identifies schedule constraints and milestone slippage risks
  • RACI matrices allocate accountable, responsible, consulted and informed roles
  • Resource plans match skills, capacity, funding and procurement lead times
  • Benefits realisation plans assign measures, baselines, owners and review dates

Participants can design performance measures and review arrangements that keep the plan under active management.

  • Balanced Scorecard links financial, customer, process and capability measures
  • KPIs specify formulae, data sources, thresholds, owners and reporting frequency
  • Leading and lagging indicators distinguish drivers from confirmed outcomes
  • Target cascades connect enterprise goals to functions, teams and individual accountabilities
  • Performance dashboards highlight exceptions, trends, forecasts and corrective actions
  • Data-quality checks test completeness, timeliness, consistency and traceability

Participants can identify planning risks, stakeholder concerns and change actions before implementation begins.

  • Risk registers document causes, events, impacts, controls and owners
  • Risk heat maps assess likelihood, impact, velocity and control effectiveness
  • Scenario planning prepares contingent responses to plausible strategic disruptions
  • Assumption stress tests identify triggers requiring plan revision
  • Stakeholder maps prioritise influence, interest, concerns and engagement actions
  • Change impact assessments identify affected roles, processes, systems and behaviours

Participants can produce and maintain a business plan that supports decisions, accountability and review.

  • Business plan narratives connect evidence, choices, economics, execution and governance
  • Executive summaries state the decision required, rationale, value and risks
  • Board papers present recommendations, options, financial implications and approvals
  • Planning governance defines review forums, tolerances, escalation and decision rights
  • Quarterly business reviews compare actuals, forecasts, actions and revised priorities
  • Personal application plans schedule first decisions, stakeholders and follow-up reviews

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Business planning charter template
  2. Strategic analysis and evidence pack
  3. Weighted option appraisal matrix
  4. Driver-based financial model template
  5. Initiative roadmap and RACI matrix
  6. Business-plan governance and review checklist

Who should attend

  • Business Unit Managers — need to convert priorities into funded, deliverable plans
  • Strategy Managers — need consistent methods for evaluating and presenting strategic choices
  • Programme and Project Managers — need to connect initiatives with benefits, resources and strategic objectives
  • Finance Business Partners — need to challenge assumptions and build credible financial cases
  • Operations Managers — need to align capacity, process improvements and service targets
  • Public Sector and NGO Managers — need to justify investment, programme choices and funding requirements

Skills and tools covered

Strategic option appraisalBusiness model designFinancial forecastingImplementation planningPerformance measurementPlanning governance

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces, Business Model Canvas, Balanced Scorecard

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course combines focused instructor briefings with worked examples, case analysis, group planning tasks, financial modelling discussions and decision simulations. Participants examine realistic planning choices such as market entry, service redesign, branch expansion, digital investment and programme funding. Facilitated peer review tests the clarity of objectives, assumptions, options and implementation logic. Structured application planning helps participants adapt the course methods, templates and governance practices to a current workplace business-planning requirement.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience contributing to budgets, operational plans, projects, service improvements or management reports. They should be comfortable interpreting basic business information such as revenue, costs, volumes, targets and performance measures. Familiarity with spreadsheets is useful because financial assumptions and forecasts are discussed, but advanced modelling skills are not required. No formal strategy qualification, finance qualification or prior experience writing a full business plan is required. The course is most useful when participants can identify a current or upcoming planning priority from their work.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants should have experience of planning, budgeting, project delivery, operational management or reporting. No formal strategy or finance qualification is required, although familiarity with basic revenue, cost and performance data is helpful.

Participants may bring a current planning challenge, approved business case, budget assumptions or strategic priorities. Confidential material should be anonymised, as trainers use supplied cases where workplace information cannot be shared.

The course is designed for managers who must develop, assess, approve or deliver business plans. It is particularly relevant to business unit leaders, strategy staff, finance partners, operations managers and transformation leads.

Strategy courses focus primarily on setting direction and making competitive choices, while project management courses focus on delivering defined projects. This course connects strategy to a funded business model, financial case, delivery roadmap, measures and governance cycle.

Participants can use the templates to structure annual plans, investment proposals, service redesign cases and growth initiatives. The methods also support more disciplined challenge of assumptions during budget reviews and management meetings.

Five training days run from 08:30 to 16:30, providing about 6.5 contact hours each day. Time is allocated across strategic analysis, option selection, business modelling, financial planning, implementation, performance management and plan presentation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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