This is a presentation that I developed for the Enterprise Ireland Finance 4 Growth Workshop series. I presented it in Cork on Mar 10th and Dublin on Mar 11, 2015. The audience comprised GMs and CFOs of Irish SMEs;

1. Business and Financial Planning
– Finance for Growth: 10/11 March 2015 –

2.  Engineering Graduate turned Accountant
 Worked at Senior Level in Multinationals to 1998
• Finance, Lean, IT, Business Development Roles
 Business Advisory in 98
• Business Process Improvement Training and Coaching
• Team Development
• Business Planning
• Part Time FD
 EI Lean Advisor Panel, Mentor Panel, BIM Bus Dev Panel
 Accredited Mindshop Facilitator
Jim Cahill
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3. About Mindshop
3
 Network of 500 Independent Advisors in 7 Countries
• Sharing of Experiences and Best Practices
 Professional Development Support
• Tools, Training, and Support
 Online Resources
• Off the Shelf or Bespoke Training Courses
• Online Coaching Support Platform

4. 5
Roadmap
1 2
Introductions
Business
Planning
Framework
Financial
Modelling
Challenging
the Plan
Modelling
Tools
Executing
the Plan
Case Study
Summary

5. Business Planning
6
6
Outputs
 Action Plan
 Narrative
 Financials
Effectiveness of
Planning
What’s the Purpose of
Planning
Current Trends/Issues

6. Typical Narrative Content
7
Executive Summary
Market Analysis and Plan
Product or Services
HR Review
Operations Review
Financials (as Appendices)
Executive Team
If for Funding, How Funds
Will Be Used

7. Pointers on Plans
8
 Begin With the End in Mind – Users
Users
Management Funders
 Getting Buy-in
 Clear Action Items - Responsibility
and Accountability
 Coherence – Narrative with
Financials, Financials with Historics
 Demonstrate the Ability to Implement
 Management of Risk

8. Strategic Planning Process
9
Sustainable Competitive
Advantage
Marketing Strategy
Operations Strategy
Innovation
Strategy
HR
Strategy
Financial
Strategy

9. Using the Strategic Planning Process
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Prioritise the Key Issues
Create Action Plans
Improving Change Success
Prepare, Consider the SPP Elements,
3 Voices
Identify Gaps between Now and
Where
Now
How
Where
HOW do we get
there?
WHERE will we
be in the future?

10. Force Field Analysis
11
VE 1. Training
a. Research best practice techniques
b. Up-skill quickly online
2. Sales Management
a. Engage a new sales manager
b. Identify KPI’s to measure
c. Weekly sales meetings
3. Sales Process
a. Review last 10 sales successes
b. Document a simple process
c. Review industry best practice
4. Product / Service
a. Reduce product lines of poor sellers
b. Introduce new service to A customers
5. Innovation
a. Social media campaign development
b. Gather best customer testimonials
c. Use You Tube videos to promote
products
P
O
S
I
T
I
V
E
VE
1. No Accountability
a. Weekly reporting of sales activity
b. Each sales person explains results
2. No CRM
a. Implement Salesforce.com
b. Engage virtual assistant to enter new
names
3. Leadership
a. Owner needs to attend each sales
meeting
b. Paper outlining vision development for
business
4. Customers
a. Segment customer base by loyalty
b. Identify low hanging fruit opportunities
5. Reward/Bonuses
a. Research best practice
b. Implement a new bonus structure
N
E
G
A
T
I
V
E
S
A
L
E
S
G
R
O
W
T
H

11. Financial Modelling
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Framework:
 Activities
 Resources
 Financials
Who to
involve
Importance of
Assumptions
Incorporating
trends

12. Example of Projection Calculations
Comment
Opening Balance,
(Known/Calculated)
Activity (Projection)
Closing Balance (Calculated
Based on a Rule)
Collections (Calculated)
P&L Balance Sheet Cashflow
825
500
775
550
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13. Challenging the Plan
14
What-if Conversations
Risk Analysis
Scenario Planning
?

14. Risk Minimisation
Risk
Degree
of Severity
Lo 1 -> Hi 10
Probability
of Occurrence
Lo 1 -> Hi 10
Probability of
Detection
Hi 1 – Lo 10
Fail to get regulatory
approval
8 2 10
Loss of Key Developer 5 4 5
Existing Product Sales slow
sooner
8 3 2
Risk Priority
Number =
S x O x D
160
100
48
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15. Scenario Planning
1 3 52 4 6 7
Prepare the
Base Plan
Identify 4
Scenarios
Evaluate the
Scenarios
Develop
Responses
Identify
Warning Bells
Integrate the
Key Ideas
Repeat as
Required
an internally consistent view of what the future might turn out to be -
not a forecast, but one possible future outcome“ ”(Porter, 1985)
Scenario
Scenario Planning Steps
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16. Modelling Tools
17
Excel Software
X
Winforecast
(now obsolete)
Profitscout
Castaway Forecast5
Business
Plan Pro

17. Identifying Milestones & KPIs
 Identify Key Elements of the
Plan
 Identify Completion Dates
 Decide on Phasing
 Set Milestones
Executing the Plan
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Monitoring
Outcomes
Responding to
the Unexpected
 What to
watch for?
PDSA

18. Case Study – Instructions
Review the Case
Study
Discuss the Case
Study Against the
Framework Elements:
 Sustainable
Competitive Advantage
 Marketing
 Operations
 People
 Innovation
 Finance
Report BackConsolidate
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19. Strategic Planning Process
20
Sustainable Competitive
Advantage
Marketing Strategy
Operations Strategy
Innovation
Strategy
HR
Strategy
Financial
Strategy

20. Thank You
Jim Cahill
086 2323525
jim@accountsplus.ie
www.accountsplus.ie
ie.linkedin.com/in/accountsplus
www
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