Commercial awareness in the public sector (In-House)

1 What is commercial thinking?

• Understand what it means to be a commercial thinker
• Identifying commercial opportunities often involves not only a different skill set but also a different mindset; looking at the services that you provide

2 Defining strategic commercial objectives

• Defining your key commercial objectives
• Prioritising your strategic objectives
• Two key strategic planning tools:
  • Resource and Competency Matrix
  • PESTLE
• How to apply these tools to your particular situation

3 Developing a strategic focus

• Decision-making on how to compete in the markets identified by your strategic objectives requires a strategic focus
• Developing strategic focus
• A tool for helping you to make those decisions: using the Ansoff Matrix

4 Defining customer targets

• How to think more commercially by understanding who all your customers are and how they differ from each other
• how to apply the principles to your areas to identify the type of customers you have and their key characteristics - Customer segmentation
• Who are your customers? How do their needs vary? - Scenarios

5 The competitive market place

• Understanding the competitive forces at play
• Different types of competition
• Analysing your competitive environment using Porter's 5 Forces model

6 Meeting stakeholder expectations

• Two simple models to help you identify the key stakeholders who could influence your commercial environment
• How to use your stakeholders to help you achieve your commercial objectives

7 Implementation - systems, structures and processes

• Effective commercial activity involves working with others to implement ideas and strategies
• What do you need to have in place before you implement your commercial strategy?
• How to health-check your organisation prior to implementation using the McKinsey 7S framework

8 Implementation - people and culture

• A good commercial strategy only works if the people involved buy in to the ideas and if the culture of the organisation is conducive to the effective implementation
• How the latest thinking in behavioural economics can help you develop your culture and people to work commercially

9 Tools and checklists

• Be more commercial within your sphere of influence using a commercial checklist to help you
• Using the checklist as a benchmark against the most commercially aware organisations
• Using the checklist as a health check - both corporately and individually