Navigating out of the storm - this intensive course aimed at team leaders of all levels will guide you through a review of the impact of the crisis on your whole business - or key areas - and successfully emerging from it.
It is being widely predicted that the Covid 19 crisis will herald a new global restructuring of the economic order. Capital Economics have estimated that the world will suffer a 15% drop in output whilst other research groups have suggested the figure could be as high as 20%. The prospect of a deep global recession is extremely acute with the evaporation of global trade and consumer spending. There is no doubt that we are facing un-precedented times.
A recent survey by the Office of National Statistics (ONS) found that over 50% of UK businesses only have enough cash to last six months! Debt has become a lifeline, as sales have collapsed. High levels of borrowing could also end up sinking many companies. City UK, a financial lobby group, estimates that small to medium sized businesses will emerge from the crisis with some £105bn of additional debt!
Well before the current crisis, the business models of many companies were either in difficulty or failing. Beales, Carluccio’s, Carphone Warehouse, Debenhams, Flybe, Hertz, Laura Ashley and Virgin Atlantic are just a few that have demonstrated poor organisational and financial resilience. So, as other companies navigate out of the Covid-19 storm many will fail or sail perilously close to failure.
Regardless of the gloom and pessimism we know the business world will survive and move forward. The winning companies of the future will be those populated by leaders who responded to the future, rather than the past. This is a time for abandoning the known and looking to the unknown – it’s a time for powerful conversations!
The crisis provides enormous opportunities to rethink customer value propositions and business models. We know that within weeks of the crisis starting, companies were abandoning underlying assumptions that they had relied upon for decades. Businesses swiftly circumvented long-term resistance to home working. Long standing internal silos and functional barriers were discarded within weeks. Small businesses moved rapidly to new online delivery channels and models of working. Universities and business schools that zealously clung to traditional classroom learning moved overnight to Zoom lectures. Many businesses stepped up to offer innovative customer value propositions in rapid time. Large and complex businesses enabled their teams of technical experts to collaborate across industrial and market sectors to design and develop new and much needed ventilators for hospitals in record times.
Realising the learning and insights from the crisis to create a new and more agile organisation can only be delivered if leadership teams have the right mindset and behaviours. As ever it will be a combination of hard and soft thinking that will deliver lasting outcomes.
The crisis is already destroying many business models and, in some cases, posing an existential threat to entire industries! So, do you elect to adopt the classic strategy of retrenchment and focus on strong cost and asset containment that reduces your rate of cash burn? An approach that many companies are now taking as a means of survival! Or, do you look to radical opportunities to deconstruct and reshape your business model whilst at the same time exercising prudent and well-judged financial disciplines? In such unique times, the easy option is to simply cut costs, but in the longer term you run a real risk of developing organisational inertia and obsolescence. Our stimulating and challenging three-day programme advocates harnessing the benefits of “creative destruction” with a strong financial compass to help navigate a future course.
We aim to provide a highly interactive roadmap to help your teams identify and navigate their learnings and accelerate out of the crisis.
In the years ahead having a strong cash management position will become a critical sign of financial and organisational resilience. For many companies, profitability will have to take a back seat for the near future. In recent times, having a strong cash balance has often been a source of corporate embarrassment. Why can’t you use the cash for better things? What’s wrong with your leadership ambition that you have so much cash? However, in a post Covid world, cash on the Balance Sheet will no longer be seen as a sign of leadership complacency or inefficiency.
Financial resilience will also be based on ‘operational’ gearing rather than the traditional ‘debt gearing’ of
recent decades. Future winning organisations will major on ‘cost effectiveness’ rather than cost reduction. Indeed, avoiding the knee jerk reaction of “slash and burn” will be critical to navigating the medium and long-term path to success. A focus on the strength of the Balance Sheet and the ‘quality’ of cash will be mandatory – new Bond issues, fresh revolving credit facilities (RCF) etc will all
be easier to access in a low interest economy. At the same time there will be a new focus on “operational’ cash’ from trading rather than simply borrowing it! Raising fresh equity rather than increasing the debt pile will be another key strategic discussion point for business leaders.
What’s happened? The Impact of the Crisis on our Business:
What is our Learning?
As we emerge from the global impact of COVID-19, a key focus will be protecting the profitability of businesses. Understanding the bigger picture and continued risks is paramount.
Businesses currently struggling for profitability with unstable cash flows are particularly vulnerable. However, even businesses that appear to be in good financial shape will be subject to what future demand & supply chains will return to in the ‘new normal’.
Businesses of all shapes & sizes will be required to plan, model and pull on a range of operational, financial & strategic levers. Such planning must be made against a background of the capital structure of the business and modelling of any implications.
Key focus areas in this session:
We focus on the critical leadership agenda in a post Covid world. We address the importance of leadership mindsets and behaviours along with the need to build trust and go beyond “resilience” to develop new levels of organisational agility.
Calibrating our future direction?
This module we focus on the issue of people capability and the key challenges that result from the crisis. The session will focus on some of the key actions that need to be taken to create an engaged workforce in a post Covid world.
Cash is King! Underpinning, financial resilience is the need for a strong focus on working capital management and maintaining the right level of cash flow. In many organisations cash management takes priority over profitability. In this module we focus on critical ways to unlock cash, both in terms of quick wins and long-term sustainability.
Account Receivables & Receivables
Inventories
Cash to Cash Cycle & Forecasting
In this closing session we will summarise the key learning from the programme and consolidate with participants’ key reflections and return to work, “To Do” Actions.
George Fildes (More...)
George specialises in business consultancy and financial learning aimed at delivering profit improvement and sustainable business growth. With an extensive corporate and consulting background, George’s experience spans business management, logistics, customer operations and financial management. His experience encompasses working with mature, turnaround and start-up companies.
A highly accomplished and recognised financial skills communicator (his sessions are consistently rated excellent) he has worked with a large number of leading businesses including GSK, Pfizer, Kimberley Clark, Time Warner, BBC, ITV, Sky, DHL, Christies, John Lewis, Jaguar Land Rover, Premier Foods, Heathrow Airport, Argos & Sainsbury’s, Grünenthal, Expro & Rentokil. George was also a Course Director for the Chartered Institute of Marketing and The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
Mark Thomas (More...)
Mark is a global business consultant specialising in the fields of strategy, change management and organisation development. With a corporate and consulting career involving Price Waterhouse, NCR and Unigate Group his business and consulting experiences has included restructuring programmes, mergers and acquisitions and major organisational change. He regularly leads and facilitates executive development events and workshops on a wide range of organisation change and leadership development initiatives.
His global client experiences have included working with major corporations such as: Barclays Capital, Cargill, C&A, DHL, Engie, Ferguson, Hitachi, HSBC, IKEA, KNPC, Microsoft, Pandora, Pfizer, Red Bull, Rexam, Stibo Systems, Sony, Tata Steel, Time Warner, UBS, Unilever. Mark is a Partner of the Future Work Forum and has also been a visiting member at the Tias School of Business and Society, American Management Association, Management Centre Europe & the Middle East Management Centre.
24-25 Feb 2021 Live webinar |
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24-25 Feb 2021 Live webinar |
GBP 999.00 EUR 1,439.00 USD 1,630.00 + VAT @ 20.00% |
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to attend Live webinar Please note: this event is being organised by our training partner Falconbury; clicking Enrol will take you to falconbury.co.uk to complete your purchase. |
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24-25 May 2021 Live webinar |
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24-25 May 2021 Live webinar |
GBP 999 799 EUR 1,439 1,159 USD 1,63 1,318 Until 12 Apr* |
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to attend Live webinar Please note: this event is being organised by our training partner Falconbury; clicking Enrol will take you to falconbury.co.uk to complete your purchase. |
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24-25 Aug 2021 Live webinar |
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24-25 Aug 2021 Live webinar |
GBP 999 799 EUR 1,439 1,159 USD 1,63 1,318 Until 13 Jul* |
Enrol now
to attend Live webinar Please note: this event is being organised by our training partner Falconbury; clicking Enrol will take you to falconbury.co.uk to complete your purchase. |
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24-25 Nov 2021 Live webinar |
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24-25 Nov 2021 Live webinar |
GBP 999 799 EUR 1,439 1,159 USD 1,63 1,318 Until 13 Oct* |
Enrol now
to attend Live webinar Please note: this event is being organised by our training partner Falconbury; clicking Enrol will take you to falconbury.co.uk to complete your purchase. |
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