Introduction:

This powerful new program explores the factors that drive strategic success and failure, and how to harness them for personal and career success.  It is designed for those who are not directly involved in strategy formation, but who wish to understand how strategy impacts the success of their company, and how to apply and lead strategic thinking within their own team.  It provides a perspective and vocabulary for strategic decision-making that enables participants to understand and support the strategic direction of their organization, and at the same time enhance their own career success.  Participants will learn:

• The principles of successful strategic thinking and action
• The principal models of strategic theory and the history of strategic thinking
• How to identify strategic moves by competitors
• How to contribute to strategic success in daily actions
• Why and how their own organization undertakes strategic change
• How to apply strategic thinking to their own job and that of their team

Course Objectives:

By the end of this course delegates will be able to:

• Understand how strategic thinking has developed and evolved over the past fifty years
• Comment effectively on strategy and its implementation within your own organization
• Differentiate strategy from tactics
• Link strategic decisions to Return on Capital (ROCE) through Value Creation and Market Focus
• Learn the key models and vocabulary to “talk strategy” effectively with others
• Link daily actions and team performance to headline strategy
• Recognize  some of the key factors that lead to changes in strategy
• Create your own personal strategy for success

Who Should Attend?

Professionals, Managers, Specialist Managers, Operational Managers, Team Leaders, Supervisors, Lead Auditors, Auditors, and Engineers involved with the planning process who seek to enhance their planning skills, any professional who is required to make strategic decisions, and anyone who wishes to learn the principles of strategic thinking and how to apply them in their own job and their own career 

Course Outline:

Strategy Concepts

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

The Evolution of Strategic Planning and Strategic Thinking

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

A Process for Creating and Updating Strategy

• Recognize  different approaches to creating and updating strategy within an organization
• 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 organization

Strategies for Growth, Profitability and Value Creation

• Articulate the link between growth and profitability in public and private sector organizations
• 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
• Recognize  and communicate to others the drivers for strategic change within your organization
• Use insights from past experiences with business and personal change to support the process of strategic change in your company

Engaging Your Organization in Strategic Thinking

• Ask strategic questions that relate your work to the organization’s direction and strategic initiatives
• Formulate strategic hypotheses that suggest directions for the firm to consider
• Explore the strategic conversations you want to have when you return to your workplace

COURSE LOCATIONS