New Business Development

Realise sustainable growth by exploring and implementing new business opportunities

Are you looking for new ways to make your business grow and become more profitable? Do you want to enhance your competitive advantage?

During this 5-day journey, you will learn which avenues you can pursue to reach your ambitions and expand your business in a sustainable way. We will show you how to spot the opportunities that are worth pursuing and how you can convince your stakeholders with a sound business plan.

WHY THIS PROGRAMME?

What is the added value of the 'New Business Development' programme?

• Identify different opportunities to grow your business
• Evaluate and demonstrate the potential of your business opportunity
• Develop the essential building blocks of a business plan to map the opportunity
• Write a sound business plan and deliver a convincing pitch

DETAILED PROGRAMME

'New Business Development' is a 5-day programme:

Module 1: Defining roads for growth

What is ‘Business Development’ and why do we invest in it?

What can we learn from innovators and entrepreneurs when spotting new business opportunities?

What tools can you use to scan the environment for new ideas?

How do you systematically identify opportunities for growth?

New products or services:

• How do you truly listen to customers and identify their needs?
• What can you learn from human-centred design in this process?
• Case: Clickshare (Barco)

Strategic partnerships:

• When do we need partners?
• What are the opportunities and the risks of strategic partnerships?

New sales channels:

• Case: Greenpan

New business models:

• How can you use business model thinking as a source of new opportunities?
• What can you learn from new and disruptive business models?
• How do you generate and capture value by turning ideas into business models?
• What are the (dis)advantages of the different options?

Module 2: Analysing your growth opportunities and preparing your business plan

• How to conduct market research, assess your competitive advantage, and evaluate the feasibility of implementation?
• How do you map the financials of a new business idea?
• Case: Edgar & Cooper

Module 3: Writing your business plan and delivering your elevator pitch

• What are the key building blocks of a good business plan?
• How do you write a business plan that really convinces others?
• What are the do’s & don’ts when it comes to writing your business plan?
• How do you deliver an excellent elevator pitch? What are some key tricks for sharpening this extremely important skill?

Module 4: Organising for execution

• How do you plan for implementation? Which steps to follow?
• How do you allocate resources?
• What’s the impact of the new opportunity on your organisation?
• How do you successfully manage a team to move an idea forward?

PROGRAMME DESIGN

Sounding Board Session: Develop your business plan

Because we believe we can only be successful when you start to implement what you have learned, our programmes do not end in the classroom. That’s why we organise 2 sounding board sessions, in which our faculty coach you during the development of your business plan and the implementation of your project:

• During the first sounding board session, you refine your business pitch and present your first market research on the business opportunity you have identified.
• During the second sounding board session, you develop a full business case that you can use to convince your management to go ahead with your idea.

The sounding board sessions take place 1 month and 5 months after the programme and help you put theory into practice.

Discussion with your sparring partner

Want to roll out new business opportunities successfully? Then you need to get people involved internally as well. That’s why, on the fourth day, we also invite your internal sparring partner − he/she can be your manager or a colleague who’s also committed to the project. So feel free to already block this date in his/her calendar as well!

Guest speakers

Because bridging theory and practice is at the core of your learning experience, we invite a number of guest speakers to share their experience with you on how they have explored, validated and implemented new business opportunities. We bring a mix of testimonials from both start-ups and the corporate world. We update the curriculum and the list of guest speakers for each new edition of this programme − you can find an overview of who will be joining the upcoming edition on the faculty page.

We facilitate your journey. You make the difference.