Business Planning Flashcards
- In terms of business planning what tools does your company use to ensure you are making profit?
- Timesheets and digital reminders if you haven’t submitted weekly
- Resource planning to ensure full utilisation
- Project reviews and fee/cost reconciliation
- GPS, team meetings and director 1 to 1s
- What is benchmarking on a construction project?
A process by which the estimated performance (often costs) of a project is compared to other similar projects. This can highlight areas of design that are not offering good value for money, or, if the price offered by the Contractor is in line with the wider market.
- What is a PESTEL analysis?
It is a way of understanding and reviewing how external forces may impact a business.
Political – political stability, corruption, foreign trade policy, tax policy, Funding grants
Economic – Growth, interest rates, inflation, disposable income of consumers, labour cost
Social - Population growth, age distribution, cultural barriers, consumer views, workforce trends
Technology – Emerging & maturing tech, copyright and patents, productions and distribution, R & D
Legal – Regulation, employment laws, consumer protection laws, tax polices, Anti-trust laws
Environment – Climate, environmental policies, availability of inputs, CSR
- What is a SWOT analysis?
- A strategic planning method used to evaluate strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats involved in a project or business venture
- Can be used as the basis for business strategy
- What are the issues relating to staff turnover?
- Loss term loss of revenue
- Cost to replace the person (hiring or agency fees)
- Leaving curve with the business and clients
- Can indicate wider issues within the business if (pay, conditions, opportunities)
- What are SMART targets/objectives as part of a business plan?
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realist
Time related
- What is an investment appraisal?
Used to assess whether a business or project would be worthwhile investment in terms of return (both financially or in terms of added value) need to consider:
* Rate of return
* Payback period
* Net present value (NPV)
- Give examples of fee earning and non-fee earning staff?
- Fee earning staff like myself who’s time is directly covered by the client.
- Non-fee earning staff like would be someone in HR or finance who`s costs client pays for through the fees on fee earning staff time.
- What is the purpose of an organisation chart?
- A graphical representation of roles, responsibilities between individuals within the organisation
- It can be used to depict the structure of an organisation as a whole or broken down by smaller business units or project delivery teams
- How do I contribute to company goals?
- As the person who manages our contracts with the client, I am responsible for applications for payment to the client, ensuring these are certified, issues compensation events on those contracts to ensure we get paid for the work we do.
- Bringing in new business (new projects)
- Helping to train junior staff
- Sharing knowledge in the business and keeping up with current standards.
- What is the purpose of Porter`s 5 forces model?
- Porter`s 5 forces model identifies competitive forces that shape every industry and helps determine an industry’s strengths and weaknesses
- Frequently used to identify an industries structure to determine business strategy.
- Supplier power
- Buyer power
- Threat of substitutes
- Threat of new entrants
- Competitive rivalry
- What is meant by business strategy?
- An outline of the actions and decisions a company plans to take to reach its business goals and objectives.
- The strategy defines what the business needs to do to reach its goals, which can help guide the decision-making process for hiring and resource allocation
- What is meant by strategic planning?
The managerial process of developing and maintaining strategic fit between the organisation objectives, resources and changing market conditions.
- What is the difference between business planning and business strategy?
- A business strategy is concerned with the entire organisation including its service offering, where it competes and how it allocates resources. It deals with fundamental choices that will affect the entire organisation
- Business plans are concerned with the detailed implementation after the big choices are made. The business plan deals with detailed implementation of specific aspects of the overall strategy.
- What is the difference between a business vision statement and mission statement?
- A vision statement focuses on the future and what an organisation wants to become.
- A mission statement focuses on today and what a business needs to do to achieve the vision
