Preparing and Implementing a Business Plan
Creating a business plan helps you clearly see the opportunities and obstacles you’ll inevitably face as you pursue your business idea. By implementing a business plan, you stand a better chance of getting the support you need to succeed.
In this course, you’ll learn about what a business plan is, the business planning process, and the steps you need to take when creating a business case. You’ll also learn how to carry out an internal analysis and about the key elements examined in any external and SWOT analyses.
Finally, you’ll learn about activities that can help you when implementing a business case, including developing action plans and determining how the implementation should be measured, monitored, and assessed.
0.5 Hours
- Distinguish between different parts of a business plan
- Sequence the steps for preparing to develop a business plan
- Recall the steps for conducting an internal analysis as part of business planning
- Identify environmental factors to be considered in an external analysis
- Recognize examples of elements of a SWOT analysis
- Recall the elements of an action plan
- List the activities involved in measuring and controlling the implementation of a business plan
- Recognize activities and guidelines for developing and implementing a business plan
Thinking Strategically as a Manager
To resolve many of the threats and challenges that your organization will likely have to face, it’s essential that you develop a business strategy that incorporates a clear vision, new ideas, and innovative solutions.
This course explores the characteristics of strategic thinking, as well as the traits you need to plan and implement an effective strategy. It also covers how to develop your capacity for thinking strategically through creative thinking, being prepared to deal with complexity, and being aware of what’s going on inside and outside your organization.
0.5 Hours
- Recognize characteristics of strategic thinking
- Recall traits of strategic thinkers
- Recognize techniques you can use to develop a clear vision in order to enhance strategic thinking
- Identify methods of becoming a strategic thinker through being creative
- Select ways of dealing with complexity in order to become a strategic thinker
- Recognize strategic thinking techniques involving knowing what’s going on in your organization
- Use methods to develop your strategic thinking skills
Using Strategic Thinking to Consider the Big Picture
Big-picture thinking stretches beyond the short term and considers how an organization can succeed in the long term. By thinking strategically about a problem using the bigger picture, you can elevate your perspective and get a better idea of the forces at play within your organization.
This course describes how systems thinking can help you become skillful at making sense out of opposites and contradictions and better understand cause and effect while managing your department according to the business strategy. It explains actions you can take to encourage creative thinking and come up with solutions that take into account the bigger picture.
You’ll also learn how understanding your organizational value chain can help you connect to the organization’s strategy and implement it more effectively.
0.5 Hours
- Recognize ways to get a sense of the bigger picture by elevating your perspective
- Identify examples illustrating how understanding paradoxes helps in gaining a big-picture view of your organization
- Recognize techniques to understand causality in order to get a sense of the bigger picture of your organization
- Identify the steps to take in considering external factors to gain a big-picture view of your organization
- Distinguish between actions that encourage big-picture thinking in relation to internal direction and internal stakeholders
- Recognize how assessing your organization’s value and supply chains can help you develop big-picture thinking
- Use methods to increase your big picture view of your organization
Identifying Risks in Your Organization
Risk is an inevitable aspect of any business. As a manager, it’s important that you mitigate or avoid the potential impact of a risk if it comes to pass, to ensure the long-term survival of your organization. This course focuses on the first step in managing risk, identifying risks to your organization.
You’ll explore the difference between internal and external risks, and how some risks may actually present a strategic opportunity. You’ll also learn how to use some techniques that can help you identify risks and calculate the probability that they will occur, including root cause identification, the Delphi technique, and brainstorming sessions.
0.5 Hours
- Distinguish between internal and external risks
- Match situations to either the brainstorming or interviews risk identification technique
- Recognize when to use reviews and analysis in identifying risk
- Recognize actions to take in planning a brainstorming session
- Identify guidelines for conducting a brainstorming session to identify risks
- Recognize ways to deal with common brainstorming challenges
- Use techniques to identify risks in your organization
Assessing Your Organization's Risks
Risk is a fact of life for businesses and one that will never just go away. But before you can start managing risk, you need to be able to assess a risk – as well as its probability – in order to create a strategic plan that will enable you to avoid or mitigate its potential negative impact.
In this course, you’ll learn some common techniques for assessing risk, including opportunity assessment, and threat assessment using FMEA – failure mode and effects analysis.
0.5 Hours
- Identify the key concepts in assessing risks
- Distinguish between common techniques to assess opportunities and those to assess threats
- Recognize techniques to assess both opportunities and threats together
- Identify questions to ask when performing an assessment of opportunities
- Recall the steps in assigning rankings during a threat assessment
- Sequence the steps to take in calculating the RPN and prioritizing risks
- Recognize methods for performing a risk assessment
Responding Effectively to Risks
The third step to take when managing risk, once you’ve identified and assessed risks to your organization, is to deal with them appropriately. Some risks may have a higher probability of becoming a reality than others, while others may have more of a negative impact.
You’ll need to treat each of these types of risks differently. This course covers how to create an effective strategy for responding to risk, such as risk exposure adjustment and contingency planning. It also outlines specific strategic plans for dealing with a risk that may be a threat or an opportunity.
Target Audience
0.4 Hours
- Match examples of avoiding threats to the appropriate methods
- Recognize methods of transferring threats
- Identify ways of mitigating threats
- Match types of threat acceptance to examples
- Sequence the responses to opportunities
- Recognize how to effectively use contingency response strategies
- Use techniques to effectively respond to risks
Big Data Fundamentals
You’ve probably heard of big data, but what exactly is it, and how can it be used to give your organization a competitive advantage? In this course you’ll learn about the key characteristics of big data, the benefits it can provide, and the types of data it incorporates.
You’ll also be introduced to the different ways it can be applied, depending on your market sector.
This course also covers some fundamental security challenges of big data and some best practices for managing big data through an effective information lifecycle.
0.4 Hours
- Recognize the key characteristics of big data
- Identify the benefits of big data to organizations
- Distinguish between the two types of data source in big data
- Recognize applications of big data by market sector
- Identify best practices for securing big data
- Recognize the phases of the data life cycle
Big Data Interpretation
Using big data can lead to significant gains for your organization. Managing big data effectively can lead to lower operating costs, better decision making, and innovative new product development. Dealing with big data means utilizing big data technologies to identify, gather, and analyze data sets and develop big data strategies that reap benefits for your organization.
In this course, you’ll learn about the data analysis process. You’ll be introduced to the most common basic and advanced analytics methods, including data mining.
You’ll also learn about some of the most common big data tools and their associated uses, and some challenges to keep in mind when undertaking big data analysis activities in your organization.
0.4 Hours
- Sequence the five steps of the data analysis process
- Identify the four data analysis categories
- Recognize basic data analysis methods
- Recognize advanced data analysis methods
- Recognize some of the most common big data tools used for data storage, management, cleaning, and mining activities
- Recognize some of the most common big data tools used for data analysis, visualization, integration, and collection activities
- Identify the challenges associated with big data analysis
Knowing When To Take Strategic Risks
Risk taking can revolutionize business, but you need to know when and how to take a strategic risk when the opportunity arises. Managing risk means effectively assessing a threat by recognizing the probability of that risk occurring and evaluating the impact of the risk should it occur.
In this course, you’ll learn to define strategic risk taking, what holds individuals back, and how to make calculated leaps of faith.
0.4 Hours
- Identify the types of business risk
- Recognize examples of strategies for dealing with risk aversion
- Identify the reasons risk-taking is necessary
- Identify the steps of developing a risk plan
- Recognize best practices to foster strategic risk-taking in an organization
- Knowledge Check: Fostering Strategic Risk-taking Skills
Finding The Quality In Your Data
Successful data management in the age of big data is a challenge. Applying data quality best practices while making adjustments and optimizations can help your organization meet its business goals.
In this course, you’ll learn about using data science in data quality management. You’ll learn how to determine the quality of data, challenges and solutions for gathering quality data, and how to assess the value of data.
0.4 Hours
- Identify the key characteristics that define quality data
- Recognize the advantages of identifying smart data within big data sets
- Identify the steps for creating a business case for the use of quality data
- Recognize the challenges for effectively gathering quality data and ways to mitigate them
- Recognize the benefits of assessing your data quality
- Knowledge Check: Determining the Quality of Your Data
The Effects of Environmental Change On Business
As the planet’s environment changes, so do its effects on the business world. Environmental changes impact business practices. From natural resources to supply chains, to logistics, to energy sources, to customer behaviors and demographics, businesses must adapt or be left behind. Further, climate change requires business adopt sustainable practices in order to remain economically viable and environmentally responsible.
In this course, you’ll learn about how the changing environment impacts businesses, economically, environmentally, and socially. You’ll learn about local regulations and global agreements that affect how businesses may operate, and the clean tech and steps toward sustainability that companies can take to create sustainable business practices.
Materials in this course are based upon content provided in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review.
0.5 Hours
- Recognize the impacts of environmental change on business practices
- Identify requirements in key regulatory agreements that impact business sustainability practices
- Identify ways that business practices and environmental changes affect each other
- Identify actions businesses can take to begin adopting sustainable practices
- Knowledge Check: Understanding the Effects of Environmental Change
Weighing Risks and Opportunities of Implementing Sustainability Initiatives
As the planet’s environment changes, so do its effects on the business world. Environmental changes impact business practices. From natural resources to supply chains, to logistics, to energy sources, to customer behaviors and demographics, businesses must adapt or be left behind.
Further, climate change requires businesses to adopt sustainable practices in order to remain economically viable and environmentally responsible.
In this course, you will learn about the organizational risk companies face if they don’t embrace sustainability, some common reasons why organizations resist such a move, potential business opportunities presented by sustainable practices, and the business benefits of adapting sustainable business practices.
Materials in this course are based upon content provided in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review.
0.4 Hours
- Identify the risks organizations can face by not embracing sustainability
- Identify some of the common reasons why businesses resist the move to sustainability
- Recognize opportunities afforded by implementing sustainable practices
- Identify potential business improvements derived from adopting sustainable business practices
- Knowledge Check: Understanding the Risks of Ignoring Sustainability
Building a Strategic Commitment to Sustainability
In today’s business world, sustainability is a strategic necessity. The pressures on companies to be more socially, environmentally and economically sustainable are mounting on many fronts. Consumers and shareholders expect more than lip service – they want demonstrated commitment.
In this course, you’ll learn about ways to identify areas where you can implement sustainable business practices, and some key lessons that can help you integrate sustainability into your company’s business strategy.
Finally, you’ll learn about some concepts that may help you discover other ways you can move your company into higher levels of sustainability by considering some larger systems approaches.
Materials in this course are based upon content provided in partnership with MIT Sloan Management Review.
0.4 Hours
- Recognize why sustainability is mission-critical for businesses today
- Identify examples of the types of initiatives businesses often consider for adopting sustainable business practices
- Identify evidence-based actions companies can take to integrate sustainability into business strategy
- Identify evidence-based actions companies can take to get commitment and buy-in from key stakeholders
- Match system-based approaches to sustainability with their descriptions
- Knowledge Check: Understanding How to Build a Commitment to Sustainability
Horizon Scanning: Identifying Future Opportunities
The most successful organizations can spot signs of change and adapt to it – or even better – seize change as an opportunity. This capability to scan the horizon of the future is also known as environmental scanning.
In this course, you’ll learn what horizon scanning is and how it can benefit your business.
You’ll also learn to recognize key areas of change and understand the steps involved in horizon scanning. In addition, you’ll learn how to analyze the data you collect and communicate it so the best decisions can be made.
0.5 Hours
- Identify the importance of horizon scanning in business
- Recognize key areas of change that can impact organizations
- Identify the steps in performing horizon scans
- Recognize how to analyze horizon scans to make connections
- Describe challenges and opportunities in implementing the results of horizon scans
- Knowledge Check: Assessing Your Skills in Horizon Planning