The Course

To managers and leaders moving into a significant leadership position, you face the challenge of developing and executing strategies in a dynamic global environment. You must build a team and manage internal and external resources and relationships so that your organization can enhance your value chain and deliver results. As the leader, you are in charge and need to enhance your personal impact and influence to meet these challenges. Only a systems wide view of your business and the world in which it operates can help you to become an effective, operational and visionary leader.

The Advanced Strategic Management programme will help you build the skills you need to boost performance in your business today and to prepare your organization to sustain performance in the future.

The Goals

·         Strategic: Keeping your focus on both strategic and operational goals and adjusting to the continual changes in the market.

·         Organization: Aligning the organization to fit the new strategy and culture.

·         Leadership: Increase your effectiveness as a visionary leader to make a greater impact on the people over time.

·         Leading Teams: Increase your ability to effectively build the collaboration necessary to get your strategies approved and people to cooperate.

·         How: Case studies, videos, simulations, workshops, individual project-work, weekend retreats, group sessions, guest speakers and Faculty coaching will help you to take the classroom back to your office. The first two weeks will deal with thinking strategically about your business and managing your organization to realize your goals. The third and final week will focus on the challenges of execution.

The Delegates

Executives and high level managers taking on additional strategic leadership responsibilities, who are looking to sharpen their analytical skills and strategic leadership effectiveness. Middle managers contributing to the strategies and execution of an organization.

The Process

The process utilizes all aspects of learning and development including media slides, case studies, video examples, articles from high level business universities and interactivity among delegates. Workbooks are used to focus on many of the challenges you face, such as customer analysis, stakeholder analysis, strategy and leading change. They serve as tools to help translate your learning into concrete plans and actions, as well as to engage your organization and team back at the office.

The Benefits

·         Prepare to boost performance at individual, team and business-unit levels

·         Ensure that your organization is keeping ahead in a constantly changing business environment

·         Enhance your personal impact on strategies and change

·         Provide a clear view of the changes and challenges of the global economy

·         Enhance your capability to make the right decisions regarding budget and resources

The Results

·         A better understanding of the complexities of choosing the right strategies and changes for the organization

·         Develop your ability as an influential leader and build a stronger, committed leadership team

·         Develop and broaden your perspectives, challenge and stretch your thinking

·         Understand and keep ahead of the pace of change

·         Focus both on building your own capabilities and those of your organization

The Core Competencies

·         Systems and Strategic Thinking as applied to making better long term decisions

·         Leading from the top, to build a success leadership team

·         Build Strategic Planning Criteria, to organize a successful planning team

·         Understanding the markets, to gain the insight needed to make better strategic decisions

·         Competitive analysis, to benchmark your performance

The Programme Content

Strategic Management

·         Strategic Management – a new focus

·         The Role of strategic management

·         The functions and capabilities of a strategic manager

·         The Strategy Hierarchy

·         Global Changes and Challenges

·         Case Studies on Strategies

·         The Benefits of Strategic Management

The Strategic Process

·         The Strategic Process

·         Understanding Strategy VS Strategic Planning

·         Choosing the right strategies

·         The Environmental Scan

·         MBC VS SBC Strategies

·         Avoiding Strategic Failures

·         Examples of Strategic Successes

·         Blue Ocean VS Red Ocean Strategies

·         Building Value into the Value Chain

·         Applying lessons learned to your organization

Strategic Management Skills

·         Thinking like a Strategic Manager

·         The Leadership Capabilities of Strategic Management

·         Self Analysis

·         Building your Strategic Skills

·         Leading others through the Strategic Process

·         Examples of Strategic Leaders

·         Your ability to communicate your changes

Managing the Culture & Changes

·         The Significance of the Corporate Culture

·         The Leaders role in Establishing the Culture

·         Merger and Acquisition Strategies

·         Why most M & A’s fail and how to avoid failure

·         The Dynamics of Changing the culture to meet the strategies

·         Team Case Study Exercise

·         The Ten Elements to building the Culture

·         The Dilemma of multi cultural corporations

·         Making the changes in strategy work

·         Video Case Studies

The Strategic Plan

·         Preparing a Plan

·         Implementing the Corporate strategies

·         Evaluating & Monitoring the strategies

·         The Dynamics of Strategic Execution

·         Building a Leadership Legacy

·         Review Exercise

Understanding your Creativity

·         Creativity & your personality

·         Understand and use personality styles as a management tool

·         Creative flexibility to manage effectively

·         Importance of perception

·         Maximising our perceptual ability

·         Creativity and the Holistic Model

·         Creative people from the past

·         Building a Creative Model

Generating Creativity

·         Understand how creative thinking works

·         Developing Openness to new ideas

·         The Creative Mind: Whole Brain Thinking

·         Distinguish stages of the creative process

·         Recognise what makes excellent creative thinking

·         Identify and understand the creativity in others

·         Developing a Creative environment

·         Consciousness and competence

Strategies for creative problem solving

·         Problem solving strategies

·         Getting in the right mindset

·         Taking risks & looking for paradigm shifts

·         Defining the Real Problem

·         Recognising mental blocks to creativity

·         Brainstorming for solutions

·         Utilising the SLIP technique

·         Utilising the drill down funnel

Encouraging a creative climate at work

·         Releasing creativity at work

·         Fostering creativity

·         Incubating ideas

·         Challenging assumptions

·         Creativity for business breakthroughs

·         Sharpen your creative thinking: Metaphors & Analogies

·         Releasing Creativity through Coaching

Leading on the creative edge

·         Innovative leadership for excellent performance

·         Convergent & Divergent Thinking Skills

·         Developing creative potential in teams

·         Understanding creative people

·         Motivating creative individuals at work

·         Interacting creatively

·         Planning your Creative future