Strategic Thinking and Planning

Why Attend

An organization without a strategy is like a ship without a rudder. How can organizations continue to provide exceptional value to stakeholders and customers if they are not clear on where they are heading and how they will get there? The answer is they can't. This is where the role of strategy becomes essential. Strategy is about setting ambitious goals, understanding the surrounding current and future environment and providing a sense of direction for the organization. In this course, we will cover the 7 steps of the strategy management process, starting with the 'thinking' components of strategy, moving into the 'planning' components and ending with 'execution'. At the end of the course, participants will be able to implement or improve the strategic process at their organizations to reach their vision and achieve their mission.

Course Methodology

The course enables participants to practice the development of each of the strategy management steps. In addition, the most important strategy tools and frameworks will be discussed and put into practical use during the course.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Differentiate between strategic thinking and strategic planning
• Analyze the current environment using different strategic frameworks
• Develop organizational vision and mission statements
• Analyze and assess various competitive strategic options
• Formulate strategic objectives, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and targets

Target Audience

All managers and senior professionals who are involved in influencing, formulating or supporting the long term planning and strategy of their department or organization, as well as those who are responsible for linking, measuring and improving the performance of the organization, including strategy or performance management professionals, balanced scorecard managers, business unit and department managers and business analysts.

Target Competencies

• Strategic thinking
• Strategic planning
• Situational analysis
• Developing vision and mission statements
• Performance management
• Results orientation

Strategic Thinking and Planning

• Strategy safari
• The strategic management process
• Strategic thinking versus strategic planning
• Benefiting from strategic management
• Myths about strategy

Analysis of the Environment

• Porter's 5 forces
• Creating and capturing value
• Conducting a SWOT analysis
• Fundamentals of the PEDESTL framework
• Succeeding in strategic analysis

Vision and Mission Statements

• Using vision and mission statements
• Definition of vision statements
• Formulating vision statements
• Definition of mission statements
• Formulating mission statements
• Embracing organizational values

Assessing Strategic Choices

• Porter's generic competitive strategies
• Developing a competitive advantage
• Product development
• Market development
• Horizontal integration

Strategic Objectives, KPIs, and Targets

• Ensuring strategic alignment in the organization
• Developing effective strategic objectives
• Using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC)
• Using Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
• Developing different types of KPIs
• Setting SMART targets