The Art of Strategic Management

Courses Syllabus

Introduction

Gain a deep understanding of what makes the difference between strategic success and failure, so you can increase your personal effectiveness in your organisation. This powerful new programme offers an overview and introduction to strategic thinking for those who are not directly involved in strategy formation, but want to expand their perspective and understanding of how strategy impacts their work life and the success of their company. It is designed to provide a perspective and vocabulary about strategy that enables the participant to constructively support the strategic direction of the firm. In this programme you will learn how to:

• Better communicate with the leadership of your organisation
• Understand your job in the broader context of strategy implementation for the firm
• Understand the interactions between your organisation and the environment in which it operates
• Recognise strategic moves of competitors and industry patterns that influence strategy success
• Contribute to strategic success in your daily actions
• Add value to your position: stay on top of external trends
• Understand why and how your company undertakes strategic change

objectives

• Provide a Strategy Vocabulary that Enables you to “Talk the Talk” with a Manager or Executive of your firm
• Expand your understanding of how Strategic Thinking has developed and evolved over the past forty years
• Develop your appreciation of Strategy Formation and Implementation within your organisation
• Link the Strategy of a firm with the Desired Outcomes of either Return on Invested Capital, or delivery of Best Value, through Value Creation and Market Focus
• Link your Daily Activities to Your Strategic Direction so that you can locate yourself in the Strategic Process of your own firm
• Recognise factors that induce change in strategy and what change might mean to your firm
• Expand your ability to ask strategic questions and contribute to the Strategy Formation of your organisation

Contents

Day One

Strategy Concepts

• Recognise how strategic thinking has developed and how it influences strategies within your organisation
• Understand the importance of vision and values to communicating strategy in organisations
• Identify the key strategies for every organisation
• Distinguish between the process of creating strategy and the content of strategy

Day Two

The evolution of Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking

• Follow the progression of strategic thinking in business and anticipate where strategy may next develop
• Identify the different conceptual frameworks from which strategic thinking has developed and identify which are active in your organisation
• Recognise the commonalities that exist in different approaches to developing and implementing a strategy
• Articulate the conceptual framework of strategy that your firm uses today

Day Three

A process for creating and updating strategy

• Recognise different approaches to creating and updating strategy within an organisation
• Identify the applicability of a particular approach with the characteristics of a firm and of the environment the firm faces
• Match different processes to specific issues or situations that could develop in your firm
• Strategy in the organisation
• Connect the relationship between strategy formation and implementation and day-to-day activities
• Recognise how strategy is created and implemented at multiple levels of the organisation

Day Four

Strategies for growth, profitability and value creation

Articulate the link between growth and profitability in public and private sector organisations

• Understand the key factors that make the difference between strategic success and failure
• Relate Action Plans to strategic initiatives and individual performance
• Create conditions that foster Achievement of Strategic Initiatives within the firm when strategy changes
• Recognise and communicate to others the drivers for strategic change within your organisation
• Use insights from past experiences with business and personal change to support the process of strategic change in your company

Day Five

Engaging your organisation in Strategic Thinking

• Ask Strategic Questions that relate your work to the organisation’s direction and strategic initiatives
• Formulate Strategic Hypotheses that suggest directions for the firm to consider
• Carry on Strategic Conversations that you want to have when you return to your workplace