Management Education and Training Programs

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Management Education and Training Programs
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We offer a series of modular best practice
training programs in two categories
Planning Performance Management (PPM)
Change Management Leadership (CLM

• PPM0 Practical Performance Management
• PPM1 Strategic planning
• PPM2 Tactical/operational planning
• PPM3 Financial planning/budgeting
• PPM4 Forecasting
• PPM5 Management reporting

• CML0 Creating a performance improvement culture
• CML1 Using benchmarking and best practices to
  drive change
• CML2 Building the business case
• CML3 Developing change leadership skills

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Our programs are based on David Axsons best
selling book
Praise for Best Practices in Planning and
Performance Management

• "This is a very practical book that quickly gets
  to to best practices.
• "Decision-makers in any organization (regardless
  of its size or nature) will benefit substantially
  from the information, insights, and suggestions
  which Axson provides in this volume.
• "At last a reasonable definition for best
  practice.
• "An entertaining, insightful book - I found it
  useful in describing how benchmarking can be used
  to good effect in practice - in real situations -
  from someone who has definitely been there and
  done it."

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About David AxsonDavid Axson personally leads
all our training programs

• Over 25 years experience of leading major change
  programs
• Author of two books, Best Practices in Planning
  and Management Reporting (2003) and Best
  Practices in Planning and Management Reporting
  (2007)
• Co-founder of The Hackett Group, a leading
  benchmarking and best practices advisory firm
• Former Head of Corporate Planning for Bank of
  America
• Extensive experience working in North America,
  Europe and Asia
• Degrees in Accounting and Computer Science from
  the University of Leeds in England
• Certified Member of the British Computer
  Society

Praise for David Axsons as a trainer and
speaker I could sit through a week long seminar
from David "I have heard David speak a number of
times and find him a reason to come to these
events "Fantastic speaker, great
energy "Excellent perspective and comments that
challenge current practices "Makes you think
outside the box "Entertaining"
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Background to our programs
Case Studies include
Program Elements

• Review of best practices
• Case studies
• Self study exercises
• Individual
• Group
• Group discussion

• American Express
• Bank of America
• Cisco
• Coca Cola
• General Electric
• Google
• Honeywell
• Johnson Johnson
• Microsoft
• Proctor Gamble
• Save the Children
• Southwest Airlines
• Starbucks
• Tata
• Wal-Mart

• Guiding Principles
• Transfer knowledge to participants
• Practical application, not theory
• Equip participants to drive continuous
  improvement

Student Profile All our training programs are
designed for professionals and managers from all
business functions who wish to learn more about
practical best practices that they can apply in
their own organizations. We can tailor our
programs to the backgrounds of participants.
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Program DescriptionPMP0 Practical Performance
Management (2 days)

• Topics covered
• Performance management today
• Pain points
• External environment
• Opportunities
• Best practices
• Strategic planning
• Operational planning and budgeting
• Forecasting
• Management reporting
• Creating a best practice vision
• Selling the need for change
• Getting started

• Questions Answered
• Where are our greatest improvement opportunities?
• What do best practice look like?
• Which best practices are most applicable for our
  organization?
• How do we tailor best practices to our specific
  needs?
• What will the future state look like?
• How do we sell the need for change?
• Whats the best way to get started?

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Program DescriptionPMP1 -- Strategic Planning (1
day)

• Topics covered
• Defining strategy
• Components of a strategy
• Role and value of mission and vision statements
• Strategic thinking vs. strategic planning
• Setting strategic priorities
• Evaluating alternative strategies
• Developing the right measures
• Translating plans into action
• Link to tactical and operating plans
• Establishing accountability and ownership

• Questions Answered
• What is the role of a good strategy?
• Are mission and vision statement of any value?
• Who should be involved in the strategic planning
  process?
• What are the outputs of the process?
• How should the strategy be used?
• When do you change your strategy?
• How do you measure progress?
• Who owns the strategy?

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Program Description PMP2 -- Tactical/Operational
Planning (1 day)

• Topics covered
• Defining tactical and operational planning
• Comparison of a typical vs. best practice process
• Components of the operating plan
• Understanding business drivers
• Defining the right content, level of detail and
  time horizon for the plan
• Designing the planning process
• Link to budgets
• Integration of projects and initiatives
• Establishing accountability and ownership

• Questions answered
• Whats the difference between the
  operating/tactical plan and the budget?
• How do we identify the drivers of our business?
• How do ensure our tactics support our strategy?
• How we integrate project plans into the overall
  operating plan?
• What is the role of finance in the tactical
  planning process?

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Program Description PMP3 -- Financial
Planning/Budgeting (1 day)

• Topics covered
• Defining financial planning/budgeting
• Comparison of a typical vs. best practice process
• Components of the financial plan
• Defining the right content, level of detail and
  time horizon
• Designing the budgeting process
• Link to tactical and operating plans
• Establishing accountability and ownership
• Using rolling budgets
• Discussion of why some companies are abandoning
  budgets
• Use of technology

• Questions answered
• How much detail should be included in the budget?
• How do we minimize sandbagging or conservatism
  in the budgets?
• How do we get operating managers to own their
  budget?
• How do we reduce the time it takes to create and
  approve the budget?
• How do we make the budget relevant to business
  managers not just accountants?
• What tools and technologies can best support the
  budget process?

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Program Description PMP4 Forecasting (1 day)

• Topics covered
• Defining forecasting
• Comparison of a typical vs. best practice process
• Types of forecast
• Defining the right frequency, content, level of
  detail and time horizon for the plan
• Using of a rolling forecast
• Review of forecasting tools and techniques
• Establishing accountability and ownership for
  forecasts
• Use of technology

• Questions answered
• How many different forecasts do we need to
  develop (e.g. sales, production, finance, etc.)?
• How do we improve the accuracy of our forecasts?
• Under what circumstances should we use a rolling
  forecast?
• How do we integrate the forecast with our budget?
• What is a driver-based forecast and when is most
  useful?

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Program Description PMP5 -- Management Reporting
(1 day)

• Topics covered
• Types of management information
• Defining management information needs
• The information delivery process
• Using Balanced Scorecards
• Making reporting relevant
• Identifying key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Value of leading versus lagging indicators
• Turning information into insight
• Characteristics of a great management report
• Designing the right management information
  systems (MIS)

• Questions answered
• How do we define the management information
  requirements?
• How useful are event-triggered and exception
  based reports and who do we create them?
• How do we effectively use a balanced scorecard?
• How do we simplify our reporting and deliver
  better information, faster?
• How do we improve the quality of the data we
  collect?
• What technologies work best?

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Program Description CLM0 Creating a
Performance Improvement Culture (2 days)

• Topics covered
• Setting priorities for improvement
• Role of measurement
• Benchmarking
• Internal productivity measurement
• Empowering people across the organization
• Role definition senior management, middle
  management, staff, customers and vendors.
• Planning for change
• Managing and sustaining the change process
• Rewards and incentives

• Questions answered
• How do we create and sustain a performance
  improvement culture?
• How do we find credible benchmarks?
• How do we engage and motivate people to
  participate in the process?
• How do we get started?
• What does a performance improvement process look
  like?
• What are the risks?

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Program Description CLM1 -- Benchmarking and
Best Practices (1 day)

• Topics covered
• What is benchmarking
• Defining and using best practices
• Developing a practical benchmarking program
• Review of benchmark metrics for key business
  functions
• Finance
• Human resources
• Information technology
• SGA expenses
• Identifying the right best practices for your
  organization

• Questions answered
• What is the value of benchmarking?
• How do we know whether a practice is really a
  best practice?
• How do we find credible benchmarks?
• What types of company should we benchmark?
• How do we build benchmarks into our internal
  management reporting?
• How do we customize best practices to our own
  needs?

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Program Description CLM2 -- Building the
Business Case (0.5 days)

• Topics covered
• Sizing the opportunity
• Estimating the benefits
• Efficiency
• Effectiveness
• Estimating the costs
• Alignment with strategy
• Identifying and measuring the risks
• Selling the change

• Questions answered
• What type of payback should we expect?
• What are the hard and soft elements of the
  business case?
• How we develop a simple yet credible business
  case?
• How do we integrate external benchmarks into our
  business cases?
• How do we measure that the expected benefits are
  actually realized?
• How we link business cases to budgets?

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Program Description CLM3 -- Change Leadership
Skills (1 day)

• Topics covered
• Attributes of a leader
• Selecting the team
• Building the plan
• Developing the right incentives
• Communication planning
• Progress reporting
• Securing and sustaining commitment
• Measures of success

• Question answered
• What makes an effective team leader?
• How do we assemble the best team for a project
  (skills, experience, culture, etc.)
• How do we sell the need to change and then keep
  people motivated during and after implementation?
• How we handle resistance?
• What types of team structure work best?

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Sample Agenda

• 8.00 8.15 Introduction review of learning
  objectives
• 8.15 9.15 Current vs. best practice
  comparison
• 9.15 10.00 Group exercise process analysis
• 10.00 10.15 Break
• 10.15 11.00 Group exercise report out
• 11.00 12.00 Best practice case study
• 12.00 1.00 Lunch
• 1.00 2.30 Best practice discussion examples
  
• 2.30 3.00 Group exercise
• 3.00 4.00 Review of best practice benefits
  and risks
• 4.00 4.45 Implementation issues
• 4.45 5.30 Question and answer session

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For further information

• Contact David Axson by
• Email at daxson_at_sonaxgroup.com
• Phone at 1 [phone]
• Mail at
• Sonax Group Inc
• Willow House
• 1464 Willow Lane
• Akron, Ohio, 44333
• USA