Danida Fellowship Centre (DFC)
COWI A/S
Private Sector Development Training
Parallelvej 2
DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby
Denmark
Preliminary Course Planning: SMEs within Productive Industries
and Services
Tel +45 45 97 22 11
Fax +45 45 97 22 12
www.cowi.com
Table of Contents
1
Introduction
1
2
Objectives of the training course
2
3
Target group
2
4
Approach
2
5
Course outline
4
6
Venue and Facilities
8
7
Staffing
8
1
Introduction
In response to DFC's plan to offer training courses in private sector development in 2008, DFC called for COWI to present a capability statement including
ideas for potential topics (April 2008). On the basis of the capability statement,
Danish embassies reported their priorities in relation to topics for the training
courses (May 2008). COWI has been asked to plan a training course within the
topic of "SMEs within Productive Industries and Services."
According to the Danida strategy for the promotion of trade, growth and development, Danish assistance is seen to revolve around two pillars, namely economic growth and enhanced social development.
The SME sector is seen as an important part of the national economy in developing countries. It is important to support the framework conditions for private
sector development and SME development in order to make business conduct
profitable while it is also important to improve the internal performance of
SMEs by strengthening their knowledge and skills within business management
and development and market orientation.
The competitiveness of SMEs within productive industries and services is highly dependent on their ability to produce good quality products with minimal
defects, optimised costs and to deliver on time. The implementation in the
company of a lean manufacturing culture will assist the company into achieving
such goals.
This document presents preliminary thoughts on the training course on "SMEs
within Productive Industries and Services" in relation to objectives, target
group, approach, course contents and modules, logistics and staffing.
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Objectives of the training course
The overall objective of the training course is to build the capacity of SMEs in
managing production processes and plan their business and market activities.
The objectives of the training course can be divided into two: 1) enhancing the
performance of the SME through strategic business management; 2) improving
production management.
The first objective is to introduce the participants to comprehensive SME training in strategic business management, change management, human resource
development, and the principles and tools of market analysis and marketing.
The second objective is to improve the participants' understanding of how to
manage their production through value chain management, quality management
and cost reductions (financial management tools).
3
Target group
The overall target group of the training course is private sector actors within the
SME sector. These may include:

Business owners and entrepreneurs

Senior management and specialists supporting strategic, financial and
production management

Representatives from SME associations
SMEs that operate within productive industries and services are diverse and
may cater for local, regional as well as/or international markets. The market
orientation is, however, not the main focus of this course but rather participants
should be interested in improving the management of their production processes.
As mentioned in the capability statement, we strongly suggest that participants
be selected from existing business cooperation initiatives (e.g. B2B, PPP)
and/or BSPS programmes to the extent possible. This ensures that a certain degree of pre-selection has taken place in relation to legal compliance in the country of origin as well as a certain degree of interest in improving business performance and maintaining or developing relations with the Danish market.
We propose that the criteria for selection of participants include consideration
of company size and sector and we would prefer to be involved in the selection
of participants.
4
Approach
Training methods. Throughout the training course, various training methods
will be applied including participatory approaches, teacher centred training,
cases and best practice material and examples. The course will introduce the
participants to methods, approaches and tools that participants will be asked to
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apply in problem-solving situations through discussions, group work and individual planning sessions in relation to development of business plans.
Cases. Participants will be exposed to Danish and European examples but we
shall at the same time strive to use cases and examples from the participants'
countries of origin in order to ensure that the training is made relevant to the
contextual background of the participants.
Individual business plan. We propose to develop the course in a very practical
way in order to provide the participants with an opportunity for experiencing
management principles put into practice, e.g by focusing the training of actual
problems of performance in the participants' own organisations. Participants
will be asked to develop/improve their own company business plan or strategic
plan by using the tools and methods presented during the course. A number of
business plan development sessions coached by experienced facilitators will be
included in the programme.
Excursions. The training programme will include some carefully selected excursions to organisations and businesses of high relevance to the participants.
The exposure to 'real-life' aims to ensure practical learning aspects. Visits to
relevant trade fairs may also be included1.
Practical visits. If feasible, we suggest that participants that already participate
in business cooperation initiatives under the Danida B2B or PPP programmes
will spend 2 days visiting their respective Danish partners at the end of the programme. The participant and the Danish partner will be responsible for developing individual programmes for the visit and will be encouraged to discuss the
business plan/strategic plan developed during the training course.
Pre- and post-course activities .We propose that time is set aside for supporting
course participants before and after their stay in Denmark in order to facilitate
the most optimal learning process. This support could be made available
through an e-learning facility set up by COWI (CoursePortal).
1

Before the course: We suggest that participants are guided to prepare
themselves for the course by describing their company according to a
number of set criteria, e.g. company mission, strengths and weaknesses
in relation to production processes, and market position. These considerations will feed into the individual work with company business plans
during the stay in Denmark.

After the course: Upon return to their home countries, participants will
be given the option to continue the dialogue with their facilitators on
the actual implementation of their business plan through the CoursePortal. The CoursePortal will furthermore support continuous networking
Foodpharmatech is an international trade fair for machinery, packaging and ingredients for the
food and pharma industry. This is largely dominated by small and medium industries, catering,
mainly for the domestic market. It takes place in Herning, Denmark, 11-13 November 2008.
Agromek is an international trade fair for agricultural products and machinery held in Herning,
Denmark, 25 - 29 November 2008.
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among participants and they will be encouraged to interact and share
experiences after the end of the course.
5
Course outline
The table presented on the following pages presents our proposed course outline. The outline should not be perceived as a full course programme, but merely as a reflection of the intended overall contents of the course. The detailed
course curriculum will be developed upon having received information regarding the needs, interests and responsibilities of the course participants as described in their application forms to DFC. Learning material for the different
modules will likewise be developed and selected during detailed course planning.
The course management may decide to pay more attention to one of the immediate objectives of the training course in the development of the detailed course
curriculum rather than equal attention to both of them, depending on the background and interests of participants and the experience within production management. In this connection, it may also be deemed relevant to merge or omit
certain modules while putting more emphasis on others.
We propose to allocate 2½ weeks for the course in view of the type of participants expected for this course. It is unlikely that managers/decision-makers
from private sector entities will be able to leave their positions for periods
longer than a couple of weeks. We propose that the first 2 weeks will consist of
actual training at the premises of COWI. The remaining 2-3 days will be set
aside for practical visits to Danish partner companies. These practical visits will
have to be arranged by the participants themselves in cooperation with their
partner company, i.e. COWI will not be involved in this part of the stay.
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Contents/ Activity
Facilitator
No. of
Sessions
Module A-1
DFC
1
COWI
1
COWI
1
COWI
2
COWI
1
COWI
1
Introduction to DFC
Module A-2
Course introduction, incl. teambuilding
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Introduction to course programme and schedule, and facilitators
Round table introduction: who are we?
Clarification of expectations ('hopes and fears')
Define and agree on success criteria and ground rules for the course
Team building
Practical information about study, study place and facilities
Learning approaches
Module B-1
Strategic Management and Leadership
•
•
•
What is strategic planning and management
Why is strategic planning necessary (to cope with business risks, to make
decisions etc.)
How to develop and implement a business plan or a strategic plan? (measure and plan based on realities, simulating the decision options etc.)
Module B-2
Monitoring and improving business performance
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Defining business targets
Performance planning and monitoring
Tools for business performance appraisal
Linkages between performance measurement systems and strategies
Key performance indicators
Enterprise benchmarking
Exercise: define business targets
Module C-1
Building capacity through Change Management
•
•
•
•
•
•
What is change management and why is it important?
Manage change as a process
Identifying responses to change
Planning a change intervention
Steps in implementing a change intervention
Exercise: imagine and plan a change intervention in your company according to the major steps of a change process
Module C-2
Human Resources Development to increase the performance of an SME
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Human resource planning
Motivation and team work
Career and staff development
Skills training and development
Organisational development
Organisational culture
Gender aspects
Case: human resource planning in a SME
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Contents/ Activity
Facilitator
No. of
Sessions
Module D-1
COWI
1
COWI /
External
3
COWI /
External
2
COWI /
External
2
COWI
1
COWI
3
Marketing and branding
•
•
•
•
•
•
Market analysis
Developing a marketing plan
Marketing research
Creating a marketing strategy
Brand management - product differentiation
Exercise: how to marketing your specific product?
Module E-1
Value chain management - a value-adding process
•
•
•
•
•
•
Value chain analysis
Mapping of sectors and chains
Design of interventions for value chain development
Measuring value-chain effectiveness
Supplier management
SME clusters and partnerships
Module E-2
Production management and performance
•
•
•
•
•
•
Production planning and simulations
Which manufacturing operations add value?
How to improve product and production performance?
How to measure and prepare major decisions regarding changes in production and introduction of innovations to adapt to requirements of change?
Lean production
Relation between lean manufacturing and production performance measurement
Module E-3
Managing costs in production
•
•
•
Performance/Efficiency in production: terminology, calculation of measures
based on actual data
Costs: ex-factory cost, calculation of standard labour hours and cost, cost
data entry
Labor performance: its calculation, data collection, use of factory floor control sheets
Module E-4
Quality Management in production
•
•
•
Total quality management
Quality and standards improving process organisation
Quality data
Module F
Developing Individual Business Plan/Strategic Plan
Participants should start developing a business plan already before departure for
the training course, considering main points of concern in their business.
A number of plenary sessions supported by coaching in smaller groups will assist participants in developing and/or sharpening their business plan.
Presentation and feed back including possible networking arrangements with
fellow participants.
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Contents/ Activity
Module G
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Facilitator
No. of
Sessions
2
Exposure / Excursions
A number of excursions to relevant businesses and/or organisations will be
planned, e.g.:
•
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Danida business related initiatives and programmes
•
Danish Import Promotion Programme
•
Danish Federation of Small and Medium-Sized Entreprises (DFSME)
•
Danisco
Module H
4
Exposure / Practical visits
If feasible, practical visits to Danish partner companies will be arranged. The
Danish companies will be responsible for setting up individual programmes.
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6
Venue and Facilities
Training activities will be conducted at COWI's Head Office in Lyngby where
a maximum of 20 course participants can be accommodated. Computer and Internet facilities will be available for the participants at the premises of COWI
during the course period.
7
Staffing
The point of contact for DFC will be the Course Management, whose main
tasks and responsibilities will include, but not be limited to overall planning of
the course, liaison with DFC, contact with participants prior to the course start
and coordination of trainers and facilitators before, during and after (follow-up)
the course.
For the Course Manager, we propose Mr Peter Mallow. Furthermore, an Assistant Course Manager will be identified among the below mentioned key staff
members.
Upon award of the contract we will establish a course curriculum development
group consisting of the course manager and main course facilitators.
In the following we present the names of key staff members of the training
course. They will act as course managers, trainers and facilitators and some
may take on more than one of these responsibilities during the course. Pls. refer
to the capability statement from April 2008 for detailed profile descriptions:

Peter Mallow (Course Manager)

Nicolas Gebara Jørgensen

Kimiko Ishida Pedersen

Mikkel Klim

Zita Rye Hedeby

Carsten Glenting

Mikkel Rye Christensen
For selected topics we intend to draw on external trainers with specific
knowledge and competences.
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