Strategic Planning for Business Unit Managers Training Course

Course overview

Business-unit managers are expected to turn enterprise strategy into a credible operating plan while managing competing priorities, constrained budgets, volatile demand, and dependencies they do not fully control. Many plans fail because they list initiatives without testing market assumptions, quantifying value, assigning ownership, or defining how progress will be reviewed. This course addresses the practical work of setting direction for a business unit: deciding where to compete, what capabilities to build, which investments to fund, and which activities to stop.

Participants learn to construct a strategy from evidence rather than aspiration. They use PESTLE, Five Forces, customer and competitor analysis, SWOT/TOWS, value-chain analysis, and scenario planning to diagnose their unit’s position. They translate strategic choices into a strategy map, balanced scorecard, OKRs, initiative portfolio, financial assumptions, risk register, and governance cadence. The course also develops the judgement required to distinguish strategic objectives from operational measures, evaluate trade-offs, and align unit plans with corporate priorities.

Instruction combines expert-led analysis, realistic business-unit cases, facilitated challenge sessions, and structured planning workshops. Participants work with Excel-based planning models, Power BI dashboards, prioritisation matrices, and decision templates. By the end of the week, each participant has produced a board-ready business-unit strategic plan pack containing a strategic diagnosis, three-year ambition, strategic themes, measurable objectives, prioritised initiatives, resource assumptions, risks, and a 90-day execution plan.

The programme is designed for experienced managers who own a function, product line, geography, service operation, or profit-and-loss segment and need to lead planning conversations with senior leaders, finance partners, and cross-functional teams. It is equally useful for managers inheriting an existing plan that requires sharper choices, clearer measures, and stronger execution discipline.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Diagnose a business unit’s strategic position using PESTLE, Five Forces, value-chain, competitor, and customer analysis
• Convert SWOT findings into strategic options using a TOWS matrix
• Build market, financial, and operating scenarios with explicit assumptions and trigger points
• Formulate strategic choices using a clear where-to-play and how-to-win decision framework
• Create a strategy map and balanced scorecard linking objectives, measures, targets, and accountable owners
• Prioritise strategic initiatives using weighted scoring, dependency mapping, capacity analysis, and investment criteria
• Develop an Excel-based business case with benefits, costs, sensitivity analysis, and resource assumptions
• Produce a business-unit strategic plan pack with governance routines, risk controls, and a 90-day implementation roadmap

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Business Unit Managers — who must convert corporate direction into an investable and executable unit plan
• General Managers — who own P&L, growth, service, or operational performance across a defined business area
• Heads of Department — who need to align functional priorities, budgets, and capability plans to unit strategy
• Regional Managers — who balance local market opportunities with enterprise standards and targets
• Product Line Managers — who must choose markets, customer segments, investments, and portfolio priorities
• Operations Managers — who need to connect strategic objectives to capacity, process, workforce, and delivery plans

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have at least two years of management responsibility for a team, function, product, region, service line, or budget, and should be familiar with their organisation’s annual planning and performance-review cycle. The course assumes comfort reading basic revenue, cost, margin, budget, and KPI reports, plus the ability to use Microsoft Excel for simple tables and calculations. Participants should bring knowledge of their own business unit’s objectives, customers, key measures, and current challenges. Prior formal training in strategy, finance, Power BI, or project management is not required; advanced spreadsheet modelling is also not required.

Training methodology

The programme uses short instructor-led modules followed by applied planning work. Participants analyse a realistic business-unit case, then progressively apply each method to their own unit or a supplied scenario. Workshops include competitor analysis, scenario construction, initiative scoring, strategy-map design, and investment challenge panels. Small-group reviews simulate discussions with finance, executive sponsors, and delivery teams, requiring participants to defend assumptions and trade-offs. Daily outputs are assembled into a final strategic plan pack, followed by a peer review and a practical 90-day application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Diagnosing the Business Unit’s Strategic Position

• Business-unit mandate, decision rights, and corporate strategy alignment
• Defining the unit’s market boundaries, customer segments, and profit pools
• PESTLE analysis for regulatory, economic, technology, and demand drivers
• Porter’s Five Forces and industry attractiveness assessment
• Customer needs, jobs-to-be-done, and value proposition analysis
• Competitor benchmarking and strategic group mapping
• SWOT synthesis and evidence-quality testing

Workshop: Participants build a strategic diagnosis canvas for a case business unit, identifying its critical external drivers, customer needs, competitors, and evidence-backed SWOT findings.

Day 2: Making Strategic Choices Under Uncertainty

• Converting SWOT findings into TOWS strategic options
• Where-to-play and how-to-win choice architecture
• Value-chain analysis and distinctive capability assessment
• Three-horizon planning for core, adjacent, and future growth
• Scenario planning using critical uncertainties and impact matrices
• Assumption logs, leading indicators, and scenario trigger points
• Strategic trade-off decisions and stop-doing criteria

Workshop: Participants develop three plausible future scenarios and select a strategic option set, documenting assumptions, trigger points, and activities to stop, defer, or accelerate.

Day 3: Translating Strategy into Measurable Objectives

• Strategic themes, ambition statements, and planning time horizons
• Strategy maps across financial, customer, process, and capability perspectives
• Balanced Scorecard objective design and cause-and-effect logic
• OKR design: outcomes, key results, confidence ratings, and ownership
• KPI selection using leading, lagging, outcome, and driver measures
• Target setting with baselines, benchmarks, and tolerance thresholds
• Power BI dashboard requirements and metric-definition controls

Workshop: Participants create a strategy map and scorecard for their selected business-unit strategy, including objectives, KPIs, targets, data owners, and review thresholds.

Day 4: Funding and Mobilising the Strategic Portfolio

• Initiative definition: scope, outcomes, milestones, and accountable sponsors
• Weighted scoring models for strategic fit, value, feasibility, and risk
• Benefits mapping and logic models for strategic initiatives
• Excel business-case modelling for costs, benefits, margin, and cash impact
• Sensitivity analysis for volume, price, cost, and delivery assumptions
• Resource capacity planning and cross-functional dependency mapping
• Microsoft Project roadmaps, sequencing, and critical-path considerations

Workshop: Participants prioritise an initiative portfolio and prepare an Excel-based investment case and delivery roadmap for the highest-value initiatives.

Day 5: Governance, Risk, and Strategic Execution

• Strategic execution governance: forums, escalation paths, and decision rights
• Quarterly business reviews and strategy-refresh cycles
• ISO 31000 risk assessment principles and business-unit risk registers
• Risk appetite, control actions, contingency plans, and ownership
• Stakeholder mapping for executive sponsors, finance, operations, and customers
• Strategic communication narratives for senior leadership approval
• Ninety-day mobilisation plans and implementation commitments

Workshop: Participants present their completed business-unit strategic plan pack to a review panel and leave with a prioritised 90-day mobilisation plan, governance calendar, and stakeholder actions.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Project, ISO 31000

A typical training day

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

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions