Introduction

You have an idea to develop your existing business, start a new venture, new product, new market, or improve some processes in your company. Your idea is innovative but is it commercially viable? Do you know how to sell your proposal to management or financiers? Can your proposal make the first cut?

This programme will prove invaluable to you and your team if you answer yes to any of the following questions:

• Do you need management or financiers’ approval for revenue-generating projects such as existing or new business development, new products, new markets?
• Do you need management approval for investment in high-value process-improvement systems such as IT and supply-chain systems?
• Do your proposals receive only lukewarm response or get shelved?

This programme offers a hands-on, interactive framework to help you develop a winning business plan to support your proposal to management or financiers, with emphasis on two practical difficulties commonly faced:

• Making the first cut: How to structure the plan to catch attention
• Crossing the financial hurdle: What is needed in the financial part of the plan to support the commercial feasibility of the plan

Real-life case studies are used during the programme, covering both revenue-generating business plans and process-improvement plans.

Benefits to You

At the end of the workshop, you will be able to achieve the following:

• (For proposers) Be equipped with a practical framework to develop and present winning business plans to convince management or financiers of the commercial viability of your existing or new business development proposal or process-improvement proposal.
• For evaluators and financiers) Understand key issues to consider and pitfalls to watch out for when assessing or approving business plans.
• Understand how funding decisions are made.

Programme Outline

• Key Components of a Business Plan
  • Why business plans fail to get attention
  • Pointers for Executive Summary
• Identifying Objectives and Key Success Yardsticks
• Identifying Key Action Strategy : Marketing, Operations, Management and Financial Plan
• Financial Plan
  • Cost/Benefit analysis
  • Identifying and quantifying costs and benefits
  • Use of surrogate measures
  • Assessing funding requirements
• Identifying and Quantifying Opportunities and Risks
  • Identifying opportunities and risks
  • Building opportunities and risks into business plans
• Mapping Out Implementation

Who Must Attend

• Entrepreneurs, Business Development Managers, Business Unit Heads, Department Heads, and Executives who are involved in developing or proposing any type of business plan to convince management or financiers of the commercial viability of their existing or new business development proposal or process-improvement proposal
• Analysts & Finance Managers who are responsible for assessing the feasibility of business plans
• Those responsible for approving business plans
• Financiers who need to assess the feasibility of business plans in the course of deciding whether to provide financing

You may be in product, project, or service businesses, including not-for-profit organizations.

It will be even more effective for proposers and evaluators to attend the workshop together as this provides an immediate ground for fine-tuning and agreement upon return to the workplace.

Programme Leader

This programme will be conducted by:

Grace Chow runs a company specializing in customized financial training and business consulting service. She has over 20 years of working experience in public accounting, banking, fund management, and corporate training. She has conducted regional financial management & related programs for a wide range of clients in the Asia-Pacific region, and has worked closely with many in developing and assessing business plans which cover strategic marketing to process improvement. She is highly experienced in training participants with no financial background especially sales & marketing professionals and engineers, and at different levels from top management to executives.

Grace holds a Bachelor of Business degree and is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Singapore, CPA Australia and the Malaysian Institute of Accountants. She is the author of a book titled “Accounting Made Simple – A Layperson’s Perspective” (published by the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM)  and has contributed a chapter to another book titled “The Essence of Financial Accounting” (Special Asian Edition) which is jointly produced by Prentice-Hall and SIM.

Grace’s past & present clients include (in alphabetical order) Asia Pacific Breweries, Barnes Group, BASF, Bosch, Cable & Wireless, Carrier, Caterpillar, Citibank, Clifford Chance, Dumex, General Electric, Health Sciences Authority of Singapore (HSA), Honeywell, Hulhumale Development Corporation of Maldives, ICI, Keppel Land, Maersk, Merck/MSD, Mitsubishi, National Semiconductors, NTUC Club, OCBC, Osram, Pfizer, Productivity & Standards Board, Raffles Medical Group, Rhode & Schwarz, Roche, SAFRA, Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore Airport Terminal Services (SATS), Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE), Shearman & Sterling, Shell, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore Mass Rapid Transit, Singapore National Printers, Singapore Power, ST Aerospace, Telekoms Malaysia and Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA), amongst many others.