The 5 Day 'MBA'

This programme is tailored for progressive leaders and managers who want to gain a clear understanding and overview of the essential elements of a major MBA programme but in a significantly shorter time. The “5-Day MBA” will help you understand, create and implement an action-framework that equips you to make profound and immediate impacts on your personal and organisational performance. 

Course Overview

Booking Information

Dates	Prices	Book This Course	Discount
27/Feb - 02/Mar 2012	£ 3095		-
09 - 13 Jul 2012	£ 3095		-
05 - 09 Nov 2012	£ 3095		-

 

Programme Details

DAY 1
THE IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY IN BUSINESS SUCCESS

Overview of Strategy
• What is strategy?
– A range of definitions
– The impact of different contexts on strategic planning
– The effect of turbulent conditions on planning assumptions
– Strategy providing a sense of direction
– Strategy as a heuristic to focus decision making
• Strategy v Tactics
• “I have a cunning plan…”
• Strategy, vision and mission
• Why successful strategy formulation is more than just theory
– When smart brains fail in practice

How is Strategy Made?
• Design v emergence
• Linking strategy formulation with strategy implementation
– Adjusting for real world experience
• Strategy processes within organisations
• How much scientific analysis?
• Corporate and competitive strategy
– What businesses or industries should we be in?
– How should we compete?

Organisational Values Underpinning Strategy
• Core ideology – values and purpose
• Vision and mission
• Profitability and economic value added
– For Shareholders or Stakeholders?
– Balancing short term financial measures with strategic development and implementation
• Organisational values as a differentiator

Building Blocks of Strategic Analysis
• Analysing an industry
– Profit Potential
– Structure
– Competition
– Market Share
– Competitor analysis
– Segmentation
– Strategic groups and complementors
– Game theory – competitors’ likely reactions to your strategic moves
– Key success factors for securing competitive advantage
• Analysing your resources and capabilities
– Core competences
– SWOT and BWOT analysis
– Cost advantage v differentiation advantage,and the value chain
– Maximising superior resources and capabilities
– Exploiting differences and key strengths
– Developing resources and capabilities
– Impact of organisational design and structure
– Establishing competitive advantage
– Knowledge management and human resources

Competitive Advantage
• What is it? How does it arise?
• Identifying others’ competitive advantage
• Cost advantage v differentiation advantage
• First mover advantage
• Differing market environments
• Responding to change – internal and external
• The role of innovation
• Sustaining competitive advantage

Applying Strategy to Different Environments
• Industry life cycles
• Innovation and disruptive technologies
• Strategy in the face of uncertainty
• Scenario planning

Adapting Strategy for Developing Markets
• PESTLE analysis
• Institutional voids
• Asymmetry of information
• Differentiate between market and non-market factors
• Create “rules of the game”
• Understand formal and informal rules
• The non-market environment – four “I”s. Integrating with market strategy
• Entry strategy
• Local partners
• Understanding the social network of key local decision makers
• Reshaping the value chain – reorganise or relocate?
• Importance of local knowledge and information channels
• Exploiting voids
• Corruption – how does this affect entry strategy?
• Importance of what not to do

Strategy Implementation
• Strategy without implementation – not much of a future
• Implementation as the real value-added
• The challenges to implementation
– Bridging the link between strategy and organisational capability
– Inertia and the politics behind getting things done
• Impact of process, actors, organisational structure, contingencies
• Three “R”s for implementation
• Implementation in contested arenas
• Aligning organisational architecture and technology
• Leveraging resources
• Using organisational architecture and technology to manage changes to strategic environment, harvest
opportunities
• Strategy fits the environment and architecture supports the strategy
• Three Frames approach to implementation

Case Study – The differing strategy implementation of the USA and North Vietnam in the Vietnam War: how and why
David beat Goliath

DAY 2
MAKING INFORMED DECISIONS

The Importance of Process in Decision Making
• Classic approach
– Define the objective
– Gather relevant information
– Evaluate the feasible options
– Choose the best alternative
– Make and validate decision
– Implement and re-evaluate
• Lobster Pot model
• Identifying the problem
– Pareto analysis
– Five “Why”s ?
• Effects of underlying psychology
– Cognitive bias
• Understanding key business drivers and variables
• Understanding and assessing risk parameters
• Building post-decision tracking, evaluation and adjustment process

Limits to Rational Decision Making
• Smart people sometimes make dumb decisions
• “Bounded rationality”
• Dangers of Groupthink
• Measures to avoid Groupthink
• Abilene paradox
• Organisational structure and politics – effect on individual decision making
• Personality, culture, social interaction
• Impact of bias in groups
• Sloan’s dilemma

Case Study – US President Jimmy Carter and the Iranian Hostage Rescue Mission – Operation Eagle Claw (1980)

Group Input to Decisions
• Delphi technique
• Vroom-Jago decision model
• Stepladder technique
• Brainstorming
• Charette procedure
• Starbursting
• Reframing a problem
• Six Thinking Hats

Practical Exercise – Group brainstorming a problem

Decisions With Multiple Criteria
• Paired comparison – the relative importance of options
• Force field analysis – weighing the pros and cons
• Decision matrix

Traps in Decision Making
• The impact of first impressions
• Anchoring
• Confirmation bias
• Overconfidence
• The inertia of the status quo
• Retrievability and availability bias
• The conventional wisdom
• The apparent power of experts
• Affirming what we know
• Risk attitudes and framing
• Unnecessary risk aversion

Decision Making in Uncertainty
• Using probability analysis
• Bayes’ theorem
• Applying expected value and the use of Perfect Information
• Decision tree analysis
• Sensitivity analysis

Practical Exercise – Build a decision tree from data and scenario provided

DAY 3
NEGOTIATING FOR SUCCESSFUL OUTCOMES

Why Negotiate?
• Defining negotiation
• Differentiating between needs and wants
• Understanding business dynamics and stakeholder interests
• Understanding why “we are where we are” – the alternatives to negotiating
• Balancing time and effort of negotiating with possibilities of better outcome

Understanding the Process
• Preparation
• Presenting
• Bargaining
• Settle / Abandon
• Agree

Bargaining Strategy and Style
• Understanding power
• Win/win or win/lose?
– Integrative bargaining
– Distributive bargaining
• Getting to “Yes”
– Decouple people from issues
– Needs rather than positions
– Seek options for mutual gain
– Objectivity not subjectivity
• Behavioural implications
– Awareness
– Patience
– Communication skills
• CACACA
– Compete, Avoid, Compromise, Accommodate, Collaborate, Agree

Negotiation Tactics and Ethics
• Bluffing v lying
• Dealing with liars
• Spying v information gathering
• Intimidation, games and manipulation
• Competing for success
• Logistics
• When to adjourn / break out
• Decoupling the opposing team
• Exploiting team differences and positional inconsistencies
• Coalition building in multi-party negotiations

Negotiation Psychology
• Time pressures
• Emotion
• Cultural differences
• Relative power
• Motivation
• Hidden agendas
• Personality types
• Ego

Summary: the Dos and Don’ts of Negotiation
Negotiation Role play Exercise

DAY 4
WHAT MAKES MANAGERS EFFECTIVE?

What is a Manager?
• Management v administration
• What is “management”?
• Mintzberg’s 10 Managerial Roles
• Fayol’s Five Functions of Management
• Fayol’s 14 Principles of Management
• Control over task content and methodology
• Control over resources – physical and human
• Management as an economic activity
• Marshalling resources to maximise economic output
• The role of authority
• The source of managerial power
• Managing personal interdependencies
• A managerial identikit

The Business Context
• Organisational culture, legacy and environment
• Zeitgeist
• Hierarchy, power and influence
• Personal interdependence
• Networking and information flows
• Cultural factors
• Hofstede’s five Dimensions of Culture
• Managing teams and groups

Managers as Leaders
• What is a leader?
• Must managers be leaders?
• Core models of leadership
• Leadership styles
• Contrasting leadership and power

Group Discussion – Barack Obama – what type of leader?

Leading Teams and Groups
• Fundamentals of group behaviour
• Five stage model of group development
• Why people join groups
• Role identity and role perception
– Zimbardo’s prison experiment
• Conformity
• Social loafing effect
• Groupthink and input to decision making
• Difference between groups and teams
• Types of teams
• Key roles within teams
• Team effectiveness models

Leaders as Motivators
• Theories of motivation
– Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
– McGregor’s X and Y theory
– Expectancy theory
– Equity theory
• Does pay motivate?
• Aligning incentives
• Goal setting and reinforcement theory
• Work Interest Schedule
• Maintaining motivation over time
– AMO Theory
• Role of trust
• Implications for managers

Group Discussion
• What really motivates me?
• Implications for my managerial style and effectiveness

Leading Clever People
• Defining “clever people”
• Understanding the needs and motivations of clever people
• The challenges of leading clever people
• Dynamics of clever people within teams
• Organisational implications of clever people
• Dos and Don’ts

Developing New Leaders
• Identifying and selecting potential leaders
• Training leaders
• Mentoring and coaching
• Structuring leadership opportunities

DAY 5
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Leading in The Face of Change
• Understanding the dynamics of change
• Types of change
• Planned v emergent
• People, process and culture
• Understanding the forces resistant to change
• Managing emotions and fear
• Complexity theory
• Change strategies
• The tipping point
• What can leaders do to effect change?
– Kotter’s eight Steps
• Change managers and change agents
• Participants and stakeholders
• Managing the transition curve – three phases
• What happens when change stalls?
• Building in exit points
• Change audit – what are the costs of change?

Project Management
• What is a project
– Why do projects fail?
– PRINCE2
• Aligning organisational culture and structure to projects
– Identifying the project players
– Roles and accountability
• Project framework
– Project stages and gates
– Milestones
– Planning the project and developing control methodology
• Cross functional boundaries
• Building the project team

Running the Project
• Balancing the project (cost, time & scope)
• Resources and financing
• Controlling the project
• Risk management
• Reporting and project meetings
• Communication and information flows
• Managing “scope creep”
• Assessing performance (time, cost, quality)

Closing a Project
• Formal user acceptance
• Ongoing operational procedures
• Documentation and reference materials
• Implementation plan for follow-on action
• Resources and plan for dealing with snagging issues
• Ongoing support from third parties involved in the project
• Lessons learned report and post project review

Case Study – UK Passport Agency delays – summer 1999

Course Debrief
• Group discussion
What are the five most important managerial insights I have gained?

Course Leader

ROBIN LAHIRI
Robin Lahiri has nearly 30 years’ professional experience in the Law, financial services, investment, commercial banking and Energy sectors and has extensive personal experience of entrepreneurial projects. He trained and qualified as a UK Solicitor with a major London law firm and has spent much of his career as a lawyer in financial services and Energy. He has held several senior Executive level positions, including Legal Counsel & Compliance Director at US investment bank, Dillon Read, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Legal Director in the Treasury & Capital Markets Division at The Royal Bank of Scotland through the 1990s and European General Counsel at US energy firm, El Paso.

He has built and managed high performing professional teams and has had a “bird’s eye view” of organisational success and failure in different markets. Robin is renowned for his commercial approach and his ability to communicate subject matter in a clear and informative manner. His career experience has provided him with a detailed insight into the importance of executive leadership in driving sustainable business success in challenging and highly competitive environments. Robin has both a Law degree (MA) and an MBA from Oxford University and is an accredited mediator. He is also a visiting lecturer at Queen Mary, University of London.