What is the role of a strategy and business planning officer?
- Strategic Planning Functional Competencies
Posted by: Mansour Baker
The Strategy & Business Planning Officer is responsible for leading the Strategy & Business Planning, coordinating the annual strategy review, all business planning activities, operating budget activities and annual performance planning & KPI setting activities.
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Key Accountabilities
1. Annual Strategy Review
- Facilitates the annual review of company’s vision, mission, and strategy by formulating & updating the strategic priorities for the year considering the current business & market situation and the overall company strategic objectives
- Coordinates & reviews the annual strategy update with the Board and communicates the outcome with Senior Management team
- Reviews, validates, and communicates the assessment of the impact of business strategies
2. Business Planning
- Reviews, approves, and issues guidelines for business planning activities
- Reviews business planning activities from the entire company and assesses their alignment with strategic priorities
- Reviews and validates the evaluation of cash flow implications
- Formulates recommendations for which activities should be approved for presentation to the Board
- Coordinates with the CEO, the relevant committee, and the Board to get necessary approvals
- Communicates the approved plan to relevant people in the company, ensuring that the annual budget process is adhered to
3. Annual Budget
- Directs, oversees, and controls the execution of company’s annual budget planning process, consolidates departments’ budgets, presents, and defends final annual budget plan to the Board for review and approval.
- Coordinates the development & review of the financial planning cycle
- Reviews and validates the evaluation of cash flow requirements
- Formulates recommendations for which activities should be approved & summarizes budgetary implications for presentation to the Board
- Coordinates with the CEO, the relevant committee, and the Board to get necessary approvals
- Communicates the approved plan the company leadership team
4. Performance Planning and KPI Setting
- Formulates and agrees appropriate KPIs for the company
- Reviews & validates the scoring (ranking) for KPIs and the balanced scorecards as prepared by the team
- Communicates the scoring (ranking) for KPIs and the balanced scorecards to the Board and company
- Reviews, validates, and communicates all the necessary management reports produced by the Strategy and Business Planning Team
Organizational Relationships
- Receives direction on matters of company policy and strategic objectives from CEO & the Board
- Keeps the CEO and members of the relevant committee informed as to his functional activities
- Makes recommendations to the Board as regards to updated strategic priorities for the year and business activities that should be supported
- Communicates budgetary & cash flow implications of recommendations to the Board
Independence of Operations and Decision-making Authority
- Works independently guided by functional and company strategic objectives
- Conducts independently all Strategy and Business Planning activities, provides priorities and expertise in Strategy to achieve company’s objectives
- Sets business directions and working methods within his/her Team in accordance with established company policies
- Judges current working methods and is free to initiate new approaches in which company’s objectives and practices are continuously improved
- Advises the CEO and the relevant committee on major strategic issues or opportunities
Qualifications
- Undergraduate Degree in Business / Finance, and MBA from a globally recognized Business School or University
- Extensive experience in Strategy & Corporate Finance in the relevant industry
- Minimum 20 years’ experience with a successful track record in a similar position in a best-in-class peer group company, or a leading strategy consultancy
- Excellent knowledge and experience of long-term strategic planning, budgetary planning & control
- Strong drive for results, able to communicate effectively with leaders
Strategic Planning Functional Competencies
Definition
Ability to analyze business trends, implications and options to devise holistic and long-term strategic plans to meet Company’s objectives and future goals.
Basic Level
- Contributes to strategic direction of the organizational unit.
- Able to analyze and comprehend organizational goals and strategies developed by others.
- Prioritizes work in alignment with business goals, acts in accordance with externally set strategies, objectives, or goals.
Competent Level
- Utilizes experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. Responsible for measuring accomplishments against organizational objectives.
- Defines business strategies and contributes to the enterprise’s vision.
- Develops long-term objectives, strategies, and goals. Orients to longer terms than day-to-day activities; determines long-term issues, problems, or opportunities. Develops and establishes broad scale, longer-term objectives, goals, or projects (e.g., affecting a business, department, several departments, or a large organization). Develops a business strategy.
- Assesses and links short-term, day-to-day tasks in the context of long-term business strategies or a long-term perspective; considers whether short-term goals will meet long-term objectives. Reviews own actions against the organization's strategic plan; considers the big picture (e.g., quality assurance initiative) when considering possible opportunities or projects or thinks about long-term applications of current activities. Anticipates all possible responses to different initiatives.
Advanced Level
- Maintains a clear focus on internal and external customer needs.
- Plans and budgets for future resource requirements.
- Effectively sets priorities.
- Establishes challenging, attainable goals and objectives based on a customer focus perspective.
- Looks to the future with a broad perspective.
- Ensures performance measures are in place to monitor progress and assess accomplishments and achievement of strategic goals and objectives.
- Develops initiatives to achieve goals and objectives.
- Ensures contingency plans exist for problems and situations that might occur; redesigns the department and/or organization to better meet long-term objectives; establishes a course of action to accomplish a long-term goal or vision, and/or shares own view of the desirable future state of the business, department, or organization.
- Articulates the vision and plans to others.
