The School of Strategy

A unique and highly interactive learning experience held over five days. 

Course Overview

Booking Information

To have a customised version of this course delivered In-House please call Tom Gooderham on +44 (0)20 7017 7195.

 

Programme Details

INTRODUCTION

Timetable for the programme and methodology of the workshop, discussion about learning styles and expectations (Note: depending on the needs of each delegate, timetable may be changed as required.)

GOVERNANCE AND THE CONTEXT FOR STRATEGY

•What is Corporate Governance and is it important?

• Review of global governance reform and the effects of globalisation

• ‘Enterprise Governance’ as a more holistic model for strategic development

• Director responsibilities to lead, not manage, the strategic process

• Developing a corporate code of conduct in a global market along with corporate behaviour guidelines for ‘walking the talk’

• Ethically influencing your organisation and managing the political dimension

VIEWING STRATEGY

• Considering the significance of personal ‘frames of reference’

• Understanding what drives you; your values, beliefs and personal identity and the effects on what you believe you see

• Laws of Personal Affluence – the power of intent

• A review of techniques to understand people’s thinking styles –MBTI and SDI

• Discuss the role of creativity in strategic thinking

• What is "strategic leadership" and its relevance for planning?

• Integrating the soft and the hard issues for better performance

• Observe the disconnect in current approaches to corporate strategy and business strategy

STRATEGY SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT

• A walk through various schools of thought of the last 40 years, as classified by Mintzberg et al

~ The Prescriptive School

~ The Descriptive School

~ The Configuration School

• Review of Strategic Perspectives – Richard Whittington

~ Classical

~ Evolutionary

~ Processual

~ Systemic

DEFINING STRATEGY

• Strategy and some of the core ideas behind it

• What is strategy and what are top teams looking for from their strategy process?

• Forms of strategic development

• The five Ps of strategy coupled with the benefits of planning

• Competitive advantage and a discussion on its sources

• The critical difference between corporate and business level strategy

ORGANISATIONAL LEARNING AT THE CENTRE OF ALL PLANNING

• Organisational structures and their impact on creating a meaningful workplace with passion

• Building a ‘Learning organisation’ and move organisations from ‘Good to Great’ and then ‘Built to Last’ – Jim Collins

• The Crossan four ‘I’s organisational learning framework for transformational change

• Tools for creating organisational effectiveness; The critical importance of THEORY U – Otto Scharmer

• How to analyse your individual, corporate and leadership cultures using Cultural Transformational Tools (CTT) and ‘whole systems’ thinking – Richard Barrett

• The use of cognitive and causal mapping to understand strategic context – Ackermann and Eden

• Using Appreciative Inquiry to develop insights and understanding

• Developing team and organisational vision, mission and purpose statements and linking them with organisational strategy

• Strategic storytelling to communicate the "spirit and soul" of a business

CORPORATE AND BUSINESS STRATEGY

• The crucial difference between strategic planning and business planning and the dangers of budgeting

• Why we must focus on ‘strategy’ first and ‘tactics’ second

• Reviewing some of the main strategic frameworks and concepts such as Mintzberg, Steiner, Argenti and Ansoff

• Understanding the ‘Value to Values’ (V2V) and ‘Strategic Evolution’ Frameworks of Malcolm Lewis

• Formulating robust strategies – a practical approach using ‘spiral circuits’

• Understanding the difference between skills, competencies, core and distinctive competencies for people and organisations

STRATEGIC TOOLSET REVIEW

• Dynamic SWOT Analysis

• PESTEL environmental scan

• McKinsey seven Ss

• Porter’s five forces

• Porters Matrix

• Value Chain Analysis

• Activity Based Costing (ABC)

• Strategy Activity Tree (SAT)

• Strategy Mapping

• Scenario Planning

• Strategic Options Grid

• Root Cause Analysis

•Wishbone Analysis

• Force Field Analysis

• Balanced Score Card (BSC)

• Risk Management

STRATEGIC MARKETING – INTERNALLY AND EXTERNALLY

• Understanding how marketing strategy relate to the organisation

• Further analysis tools

• Boston Growth Matrix

• Ansoff Matrix

• Directional Policy Matrix

• GE/McKinsey Matrix

• Product life cycle analysis

• Identifying risk for future action and successful market choice

• Leveraging competitive advantage from your distinctive competence

• Producing strategies and tactics to develop your marketing mix

FINANCIAL ANALYSIS

• The mindset to ‘managing for value’ (MFV) by understanding the difference between financial results and economic value created

• Key financial and business performance ratios combined with the extended DuPont model for communicating to business managers

• Key valuation techniques and the link to strategic modelling and scenario planning

• Budgeting and ‘Beyond Budgeting’

• ‘Budgeting without Numbers’ and the link to strategic storytelling

• Connecting finance to the balanced scorecard (BSC)

MANAGING STRATEGIC CHANGE

• The role of communication in modern organisations

• Connecting with different types of personalities in order to motivate them through the change process

• Create genuine empathy, self-awareness and an ability to effect change

• Developing the steps to effective programme and project management

• Defining the linkage between change and strategic development

MASTERING HIGH LEVEL PRESENTATION SKILLS

• How to connect with any audience – large or small

• Avoid death by PowerPoint

• How to move your audience to take action

• How to deliver "unpopular" news

• The secret tools of influence that add power and impact to your message

YOUR PERSONAL ACTION PLAN

• Review your steps to personal development

• Committing to making a change in the future

Your Comprehensive Course Programme cont.

Course Leader

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