Building the Business Case Seminar: Kuwait, 14-15 May 2006

The Business Case is no Longer Optional

It's no secret that the current business climate is rapidly losing its tolerance for management errors while the need for rock-solid accountability is increasing. Most important business decisions today require a business case. Everyone talks about the "business case," but surprisingly few know what this means or what makes the difference between a strong case and a weak case.

Join more than 7,600 other professionals who have taken the same training at Boeing, Cisco, Ericsson, McDonald's, Microsoft, IBM, Peoplesoft, the US Department of Defense, and dozens of other organizations. Learn and practice the proven approach presented in the white paper Business Case Essentials and the best selling Business Case Guide. (See seminar agenda below).

Previous offerings of this seminar were sold out. Enrollment is strictly limited to 24 participants for each session.

Who Should Attend

Since 1994, Solution Matrix Ltd. has helped thousands of business people and others to understand the essentials and deliver business case results that score high in credibility, accuracy, and practical value. Building the Business Case is designed for

Those responsible for project, program, or product proposals
Managers with a need to bring consistency, discipline, and accountability to decision making and planning in their organizations
Consultants who advise clients in decision making and planning
Those who propose or plan major IT acquisitions or changes
Business people responsible for capital spending decisions
Sales people and sales managers who need to show customers that a decision to buy is a good business decision
Business school faculty who focus on business planning, finance, decision-support, and business strategy

What You Will Learn

Building the Business Case seminars feature "hands on" workshops with real business case examples. Most participants have little or no prior experience in finance or business planning. During the course they build the benefits rationale, cost model, and financial analysis at the heart of a professional quality business case. At this seminar you will learn:

The essential building blocks that every business case must have
What to look for in case reports that makes the difference between a strong case and a weak case
The difference between the case for decision support and the case for business planning
How to build credibility as you build your case
How to legitimize and measure the full range of business benefits—even the so-called "intangibles"
How to build a financial modeling system for asking "what if" questions, finding which assumptions that drive results, and measuring risk and uncertainty in your projections
How to package and present business case results for maximum impact

Venue

Seminar hours will be 0900 to 1700 (with a one-hour lunch break) on Saturday 18th of February and Sunday, 19th of ebruary 2006. Arrival by 0845 each morning is requested. Further details will be e-mailed to participants upon registration. Lunch both days and refreshments are included in the seminar fee.

Location

Kuwait City (also Al-Kuwait - ??????), population 191,000 (1991), is the capital of the emirate of Kuwait and part of the Al-Asimah goveronate. Locally it is informally known as "The City" (Al-Diera - ??????), it contains the Majlis Al-Umma (Kuwait's parliament), most Governmental offices, the headquarters of most Kuwaiti corporations and banks, the Liberation Tower and the Kuwait Towers (Source: en.wikipedia.org).

The Kuwait International Airport code is KWI.

The Seminar Building the Business Case will be held at:

Radisson SAS Hotel
AL BIDA AL TAWOUN STREET
SALWA, 13122

P.O. Box 26199, 13122 Safat, Kuwait
Tel: +965-5756000, Fax: +965-5750155/66
reservations.kuwait@radissonsas.com
www.radissonsas.com

Seminar Leader

Building the Business Case is led by Johannes Ritter, Managing Director of Solution Matrix Ltd. Europe. Johannes Ritter has 10 years experience with business cases in start-ups, telecommunication, IT, and real-estate. Prior to joining Solution Matrix Ltd. and settung up the European office, he worked at one of the largest consulting companies. He has led consulting projects and workshops in 20 countries and is a frequent speaker at seminars. He is a recognized authority on the application of cost/benefit analysis and business case development.

Price

Enrollment is strictly limited and available space will be filled in the order registrations are received. Seminar Fee: US $1,500 per person. The seminar fee includes:

All training materials
One copy of the Business Case Guide, 2nd ed (PDF edition)
The Business Case Template Package (MS Excel and MS Word)
Financial Metrics Pro (MS Excel)
Lunch and refreshments for all days

Download your copies of the Business Case Guide, Business Case Templates, and Financial Metrics Pro immediately after registering!

Team Discount: When five participants from the same organization register with payment at the same time, the fifth participant attends free. Send requests for a free fifth participant by email to smatrix@solutionmatrix.com. Please identify the participant, his or her contact information, organization, and names of the other four registered participants.

No Hassle Money-Back Guarantee: If you are not completely satisfied with Building the Business Case, please let us know in writing within 15 days after seminar completion, and we will refund 100% of your seminar fee. Reservations may be cancelled up to 15 days before the seminar, subject to a US$150 cancellation fee. Substitutions may be made at any time up to the start of the seminar.

Registration

Submitting a registration request affirms that you have read and accept the seminar cancellation and substitution policy (above).

This link take you to our secure online shopping cart page, where you will be asked to provide the name of the registered participant, contact information, and credit card details to complete payment of the seminar fee.

Register online for participating 2 days at the 18-19 February Seminar in Kuwait

To register by mail or fax

Download printable registration form for 2 days participation

For more information please contact:

Johannes Ritter, Managing Director, Solution Matrix Ltd., Frankfurt, Germany
johannes_rittert@solutionmatrix.de

Seminar Agenda

Building the Business Case

Day 1 Morning (0900 - 1200)

Introductions and Overview

Introductions, participants and instructors

Business case overview (the view from 39,000 feet)

5 keys to a successful case (overview from 2,000 feet)

Review essential financial concepts Part I

Measuring business performance

Planning and budgeting concepts

The time value of money.

Designing the Case

The Business case introduction

The subject statement: What is the case is about? What business objectives does the subject addressed? What business problems does the subject solve?

The purpose statement: Why the case is being built? For whom? What information do they need?

Case scope and boundaries: Whose costs and whose benefits will be included, over what time period?

Three case studies (Other case studies added at participant request)

Justifying a major software system (ERP system)

Estimating marketing program ROI

Deciding whether or not to launch an e-business venture

Workshop Practical Exercise 1: Subject, purpose, scope and boundaries

Lunch (1200 - 1300)

Day 1 Afternoon (1300 - 1700)

Essential financial concepts Part II

Financial decision criteria and financial metrics in the business case

Designing the Case (Continued)

· Methods and assumptions

Scenario design

Data sources

The cost model: The rules for deciding and communicating which cost items belong in the case and which do not. Also helps ensure that different scenarios are compared fairly.

Making assumptions

Precisely what do "cost" and "benefit" mean?

Building the Case

Analyziing costs and benefits

Cost models for the case studies

Day I Summary and Wrap Up

Day 2 Morning (0900 - 1200)

·Review of Day 1, overview of Day 2

Building the Business Case (Continued)

Analyzing costs and benefits (continued)

The full range of business benefits

Building the benefits rationale: Legitimizing benefits for the business case and measuring value in financial terms

The benefits rationale for case studies

Workshop practical exercise 3: Establishing the benefits rationale.

Lunch (1200 - 1300)

Day 2 Afternoon (1300 - 1700)

Building the Case (Continued)

The Financial model

Cash flow statements

Assumptions and the dynamic model

"Costing" and "valuing" from the assumptions

Analyzing results

Workshop practical exercise 4: Building the financial model

Non-financial results in the business case

Packaging and Presenting the Case

Asking "what if" questions · Sensitivity, risks, and contingencies

Simple sensitivity analysis, asking: Which assumptions are most important in driving results?

Sensitivity analysis: rigorous

Risk analysis, asking: How likely are the projected results? How likely are other results? What might happen to the change the results?

Recommendations and conclusions

Meeting business objectives: What it's all about

Contingencies: What must we mange, to bring in the predicted results?

Risks: What must we watch

Workshop practical exercise 5: Recommendations and conclusions for the case studies

Your next steps

Course summary and wrap up

Day 3 (optional)

For professionals, who have ownership for developing the business case

Morning (0900 - 1200)

Review of Business Case Sales Process

Objective: Transfer of ownership

Objective: Built-in credibility

Objective: A compelling Lexmark message

The Customer case-building project

Key players and the customer reference group

Customer buy-in for the case building project

Customer decision criteria

Sources of customer data

The financial Model: Heart of the Customer Case

What the financial model looks like

What the financial model says

Primary decision criteria

Risk and sensitivity analysis

Recommendations and conclusions

Three Scenarios

Full Value Business as Usual

Full Value Future State (Proposal

Incremental Scenario

Workshop I: Design the structure of the Financial Model

Lunch (1200 - 1300)

Afternoon (1300 - 1700)

Introduction to the Dynamic Financial model

Assumptions and cost/benefit projections

Basic principles of modeling

Workshop II: Creating a dynamic line item for the cash flow statements