course | Feasibility Studies and Business planning

Feasibility Study Fundamentals & Project Definition

Understanding Feasibility Studies

• Purpose and importance of feasibility studies.
• Role of feasibility studies in investment and business decision-making.
• Feasibility study versus business plan.
• Key stages of the feasibility study process.
• Understanding the business opportunity or project concept.
• Defining project objectives, scope, and expected outcomes.
• Identifying key stakeholders and their information requirements.

Building the Feasibility Study Framework

• Key components of a professional feasibility study.
• Establishing assumptions and evaluation criteria.
• Identifying data requirements and information sources.
• Understanding primary and secondary data.
• Evaluating the reliability and relevance of available information.
• Structuring the feasibility study report.
• Developing an effective executive summary.

Market, Technical & Operational Feasibility

Market Feasibility

• Understanding the target market and customer requirements.
• Conducting market research and analysis.
• Using primary and secondary market data.
• Assessing market size, demand, and growth potential.
• Identifying market trends and key demand drivers.
• Customer and market segmentation.
• Competitor and industry analysis.
• Assessing competitive positioning.
• Developing realistic sales and demand projections.
• Identifying market opportunities, constraints, and commercial risks.

Technical & Operational Feasibility

• Understanding technical and operational feasibility requirements.
• Evaluating alternative technical solutions.
• Assessing technology, equipment, facilities, and infrastructure requirements.
• Evaluating operational capacity and resource requirements.
• Assessing location and facility considerations.
• Evaluating supply chain and supplier requirements.
• Identifying staffing and organizational requirements.
• Estimating initial and ongoing operational costs.
• Identifying operational constraints and implementation considerations.

Financial Feasibility & Financial Modeling

Building the Financial Model

• Understanding the role of financial modeling in feasibility studies.
• Identifying project investment requirements.
• Estimating capital expenditure and operating expenditure.
• Developing revenue, volume, pricing, and cost assumptions.
• Understanding fixed and variable costs.
• Preparing projected revenues and expenses.
• Developing projected cash flows.
• Understanding working capital requirements.
• Developing integrated financial projections.
• Reviewing and validating key financial assumptions.

Cost of Capital & Project Valuation

• Understanding the time value of money.
• Present value and future value concepts.
• Understanding project financing considerations.
• Estimating the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC).
• Understanding the Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM).
• Determining appropriate discount rates.
• Estimating Free Cash Flow.
• Understanding terminal value.
• Connecting financial assumptions to project valuation.

Investment Appraisal, Risk & Scenario Analysis

Evaluating Financial Viability

• Understanding investment appraisal and project selection.
• Payback Period (PP).
• Discounted Payback Period.
• Net Present Value (NPV).
• Internal Rate of Return (IRR).
• Profitability Index (PI).
• Break-even analysis.
• Profitability and financial ratio analysis.
• Comparing alternative investment opportunities.
• Interpreting investment appraisal results.
• Understanding the strengths and limitations of different appraisal techniques.

Risk, Sensitivity & Scenario Analysis

• Understanding risk and uncertainty in feasibility studies.
• Identifying key project and investment risks.
• Assessing market, financial, operational, and implementation risks.
• Identifying critical assumptions and variables.
• Conducting sensitivity analysis.
• Assessing the impact of changes in demand, pricing, costs, investment, and other assumptions.
• Developing base-case, best-case, and worst-case scenarios.
• Understanding scenario analysis in investment decisions.
• Evaluating the financial impact of uncertainty.
• Developing risk responses and contingency considerations.
• Incorporating risk analysis into the final feasibility recommendation.

Business Planning & Feasibility Decisions

From Feasibility Study to Business Plan

• Understanding the relationship between feasibility studies and business planning.
• Translating feasibility findings into a structured business plan.
• Defining the business model and value proposition.
• Establishing strategic objectives and priorities.
• Defining products, services, customers, and markets.
• Developing the operational approach.
• Establishing organizational and resource requirements.
• Connecting financial projections with the business plan.
• Developing implementation requirements and milestones.
• Defining responsibilities and resource requirements.
• Identifying key performance indicators and success measures.

Integrating Feasibility Findings

• Integrating market, technical, operational, financial, and risk findings.
• Evaluating the overall attractiveness and viability of the proposed project.
• Identifying dependencies and critical success factors.
• Comparing alternative options.
• Assessing trade-offs between financial and non-financial considerations.
• Determining whether assumptions and projections remain realistic and supportable.

Recommendations & Decision Making

• Developing clear, evidence-based recommendations.
• Establishing Go / Modify / No-Go decision considerations.
• Identifying conditions required for successful implementation.
• Highlighting major risks, constraints, and assumptions.
• Identifying common feasibility study mistakes and interpretation errors.
• Communicating limitations and uncertainties appropriately.
• Presenting recommendations effectively to decision makers.

Presenting the Feasibility Study & Business Plan

• Structuring the final feasibility study presentation.
• Developing a clear management-level executive summary.
• Presenting financial and non-financial findings effectively.
• Communicating assumptions, risks, and scenarios.
• Presenting the proposed business model and implementation approach.
• Supporting recommendations with relevant evidence.
• Responding effectively to management and stakeholder questions.