Cost Programme to Improve Performance & Profit - Virtual Training Programme (December 8-11, 2020) - ResearchAndMarkets.com

The "Cost Programme to Improve Performance & Profit" training has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Costs are the most controllable element of the financial performance of all businesses, whether in the public or private sector. And in today's more challenging and disruptive economic environment, cost management has never been more important.

Controlling costs does not just mean across-the-board cutbacks that commonly do more damage than good. Nor does it necessarily mean the cheapest solutions: it does mean spending money for best value within the context of the organisation's overall business strategy.

Properly and professionally managing costs means having a clear competence in:

• Understanding cost management and cost control within the wider context of the overall business strategy
• First-class multi-dimensional cost analysis in order to understand the causes of costs - not just the symptoms
• Managing the disciplines of cost control - ensuring the engagement and support of top management, supported by appropriate management behaviours and disciplines
• Ensuring that all costs are professionally controlled in ways that enhance the overall business

This virtual training programme Cost Programme to Improve Performance & Profit is supported with Excel-based exercises and case studies from the course leader's personal experience and will equip you with practical tools, techniques and insights to:

• Control and manage ALL of your organisation's costs
• Fully understand the actual and forecasted expenditure, and the underlying business causes of costs, by undertaking a comprehensive analysis using a variety of cost analysis techniques
• Enhance your cost control and cost management processes to reduce waste and improve the bottom line
• Identify different ways to calculate costs and how best to determine your company's profitability and plan for future investments and expansion
• Understand how to implement a cost "right-sizing" programme, with proper focus on leadership and accountability, not just detailed cost analysis
• Provide cost information for use in corporate decision making and predict cost behaviour by estimating the cost 

Key Topics Covered:

SESSION 1

The strategic context for a Cost Programme

• Understanding the overall business strategy, including response to "disruption" from Covid-19 and other significant change factors such as technology, competitor action, geopolitics, regulatory change, etc.
• Establishing a clear Cost Strategy incorporating relevant cost targets
• Avoiding the dangers of simply cutting costs without a real understanding of what strategic change the organisation requires
• Exercise - Understanding the bottom-line impact of setting tighter cost targets
• Case Study - A vehicle manufacturer setting explicit and strategically relevant cost targets

SESSION 2

Analysing costs - Simplified ABC - Activity Based Costing

• Activity-Based Costing ABC provides an analysis of what is causing an organisation to spend money and enables it to focus on necessary performance improvement.
• This is a supporting tool to help: - Cost-cutting/downsizing / greater productivity - Understanding product/service/customer profitability
• The use of Activity Value Analysis to support ABC
• Organisations often over-complicate ABC into a huge internal bureaucracy. This session explains the concept of "simplified ABC" that can be developed in days, not month
• Exercise - To highlight the better understanding of cost causality through the use of "simplified ABC"
• Case Study - Practical application of "simplified ABC" in a large and diverse corporate Head Office function

SESSION 3

Establishing an optimum balance between fixed and variable costs

• Covid-19 has emphasised the need for businesses to be able to downsize their costs in times of disturbance. Consider the current problems of so many airlines needing massive bailouts
• This session explains the benefits of proactively managing the mix of costs between fixed (which cannot be reduced in the short-term) and variable costs (which can)
• It explains the supporting analysis and practical actions that organisations can take to improve their cost profile
• Exercise - Analysing F/V costs for your organisation or department
• Case Study - The practical application of F/V cost balance in a large IT business

SESSION 4

Implementing a major cost-reduction programme that cuts the fat not the muscle

• Many businesses try to cut costs through across the-board 10% cuts to everything. That cuts into both fat and muscle. A properly structured and managed cost programme takes an intelligent and analytical approach to cut costs where most appropriate without damaging the organisation
• The vital importance of top-management genuine commitment and visible leadership. Efficiency starts at the top not the bottom of the organisation
• Ensuring the appropriate level of ownership and accountability. Make sure the business takes a lead, not a central finance function
• Exercise - Allocating cost targets across the organisation
• Case Study - Illustrated from the course leader's personal experience of leading a major cost downsizing programme in which total headcount was reduced by 18,000 over a 3-year period whilst the business continued profitably. 

For more information about this training, visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/6h0856.

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