Sales & Operations Planning Leadership
Run the meeting where the money meets the plan. In five days you will build a complete S&OP system — demand, supply, the integrated reconciliation and the executive cadence — on real demand data, and defend it to a mock supply-chain board.
The executive challenge
The problem this program solves
S&OP is the management system that aligns demand, supply and finance into one executable plan — and it fails everywhere the same way: forecast politics, siloed numbers, no executive decision and a meeting that reports instead of deciding. This programme teaches S&OP as leadership: demand planning craft, supply constraint management, the financial reconciliation, the executive S&OP cadence, and the change leadership that makes the process real. Every lab runs on realistic demand and supply data.
Context
Why this matters now
Capability
What you will be able to do
- Build the demand plan: baselining, promotions, the forecast-value-added discipline
- Manage the supply side: capacity, constraints, scenario planning
- Run the integrated reconciliation: one plan, one number set, financial sign-off
- Design the executive S&OP: cadence, decision rights and the agenda that decides
- Measure the process: forecast accuracy, plan adherence, inventory economics
- Produce and defend an S&OP operating design for your organisation
The IPAT Course Standard
The five-day journey
Each day is a deliberate progression in managerial capability — from strategic context, to analytical frameworks, to applied practice, to executive judgement under pressure, to a capstone that produces something your organisation keeps.
IPAT Signature Case™
The Surge Nobody Planned
A viral moment doubles demand for your flagship SKU in two weeks. Supply can cover 60% of the surge; three national accounts have volume commitments; the uncommitted channel is where the brand’s new customers are; and airfreighting the gap destroys the quarter’s margin. The S&OP meeting is Monday.
Your decision: As supply chain director: allocate by contract and disappoint the growth channel, allocate by margin and manage the contract breach, or split allocation with a transparent plan and expedited recovery — with revenue, margin and relationships all in play.
Real-World Case Study
Target Canada: The Plan That Could Not Breathe
Target’s 2013 entry into Canada — 124 stores in months, on a supply chain that never stabilised — produced empty shelves beside overfilled warehouses, and a USD 7 billion exit within two years. The post-mortems agree on the cause: demand and supply planning were disconnected from store reality at launch scale, and the leadership cadence never caught it.
The lesson: S&OP exists to force the honest conversation before the money is committed: the cadence and reconciliation discipline this programme drills is what Target Canada lacked.
IPAT Data Lab™
A consumer business holds 40% too much inventory, misses its service targets anyway — and every function blames the forecast.
Dataset: A realistic demand and supply dataset: sales history, forecast versions with overrides, capacity constraints, inventory positions and service outcomes.
Your task: Audit forecast value added, rebuild the integrated plan, and design the S&OP cadence that keeps it honest.
An FVA audit, a rebuilt integrated plan and an S&OP design.
Data → Analysis → Decision, not Data → Code → Certificate
Day 5 · The Capstone
What will you change when you return to work?
Build the delivery blueprint for your organisation's most important programme: governance, controls, commercial strategy and the first 90 days.
Methodology
Frameworks you will master
- • IPAT Strategic Execution Framework™
- • IPAT Data-to-Decision Framework™
- • Five-step S&OP process with executive cadence
- • Forecast value-added measurement
- • Inventory economics and service-level design
Career Outcomes
Where this program takes you
Salary bands reflect 2025–26 market benchmarking across African markets plus global mobility ranges.
Cohorts
Upcoming cohorts
New dates are being scheduled
Register with your preferred start date and our admissions team will match you to the next available cohort — or contact us to arrange an in-house delivery for your organisation.
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