Introduction

Increasing your competitive edge has never been more important than in the modern corporate environment. Technological innovations, globalization, digitization, and other global changes have ensured that no market is ultimately safe from extreme change or modernization.

All senior managers and executives should be aware of the exponential opportunities that exist within these changes, and how you can stay ahead of your competition by encouraging strategic thinking and implementing strategic planning.

Strategic Thinking and Planning are no longer reserved for upper-level management and should be encouraged at all levels of your organization.

This Xcelerate Training Institute course will give anyone in a position of leadership the confidence and methodology to be able to think strategically about growth opportunities and market threats and assist them with consolidating those thoughts into a structured plan. You will learn to acquire the thought processes and strategic thinking and planning methods necessary to develop a robust strategic plan.

Have you recently felt the sting of falling behind with advancements in your industry? Do you want to always be one or even two steps ahead of the competition when it comes to business development? Within this course, we will look in-depth at how you can use Strategic Thinking and Strategic Planning to ensure that you are always ahead of the competition.

By implementing a successful plan and engaging everyone in the organization with your aligned objectives, this learning will encourage leaders of all levels to impact change.

strategically across a variety of situations, resulting in effective decision making and planning.

Learning Objectives 

• Think strategically about the opportunities available to your organization and effectively consolidate these in the development of a strategic plan
• Understand the importance of a well-designed and innovative strategic plan and how this will impact the potential success of your company
• Deal with unexpected changes within your industry and remain ahead of the curve when it comes to innovation
• Be flexible with innovation and always have the confidence to assess what is required from the standpoint of what is best for the business
• Have the tools necessary to make decisions that relate to strategic level decisions
• Prepare a roadmap for your organization based on the most up to date methodology around strategic thinking and planning
• Design a much more comprehensive decision-making system, by analyzing more metrics and taking more factors into consideration
• Take the lead on rolling out a more robust strategic plan throughout your company
• Advise and educate other colleagues around the importance of keeping up to date with innovation in these areas
• Analyze real-life examples of best practice and be able to understand the successful strategic plans of other industry players
• Apply strategic thinking effectively within the decision-making process

Training Methodology 

• Seminars and Presentations – covering all the necessary learning that you require
• Lectures and guest lectures – from experts in the field
• Group work and group discussions – including role play, and discussion of key concepts
• Case studies and real-world best-practice methodologies
• Brainstorming and strategy sessions
• Exercises designed to help you use critical thinking
• The final presentation of your strategic plan

Benefits For Your Organization

• An overall better approach to strategic thinking, and more awareness of the importance of planning
• Understanding of the importance of innovation and “out of the box” thinking when it comes to strategic planning
• Improved roll out of any plans throughout departments and increased “buy-in” from employees of all levels
• Improved cohesion between departments and teams working to a detailed plan
• A focused and well thought out strategic plan developed by your senior employees that considers all current potential threats and market opportunities
• Continued learning and personal development of your employees

Benefits For You

• A greater understanding of your role as it relates to the wider strategic planning of the organization
• Improved confidence in decision making and strategic thinking
• Be able to apply strategic thinking and planning to your everyday tasks
• Greater engagement from your colleagues and other department heads
• Continued personal learning within the most advanced strategies relevant to your role
• The development of a tailored strategic plan for your organization and a deeper understanding of the benefits of innovation

Target Audience

• Senior Executives in a strategic role
• Department Heads and Managers involved in the roll-out of corporate strategy
• Anyone responsible for a cost centre or budget area relating to strategy or innovation
• Operations and HR staff to gain a better overall understanding of high-level strategic planning
• Finance / Business Development / Marketing heads of department who require a wider understanding of general corporate strategic plans

Course Outline 

Introduction to Strategic Thinking and Planning

• Defining Strategic Thinking and Planning
• Value of innovation within strategic planning
• Organizational benefits of establishing a clear strategy
• Is Strategic Thinking the best solution?
• Components, tools and frameworks of strategic analysis

The Process

• Analysis, Planning and Implementation
• Creating your process using the Planning Pyramid
• Analyzing your existing strategic process
• Preparing to develop your new strategic plan

External and Internal Analysis

• Implications and benefits of robust strategic planning
• Balanced scorecard
• SWOT methodology – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
• PESTLE, Porter’s Five Forces and other analysis tools
• GAP framework for analysis

Developing Your Strategic Plan

• Timelines, Teams and Techniques for development
• Understanding competitive advantage
• 5-page framework
• Boston Consulting Growth-Share Matrix

Planning and Implementation

• Globalization and other external considerations
• Impact of media and social media
• Encouraging creative thinking throughout your teams
• Employee engagement and values alignment

Rollout Strategy 

• Identify and implement key milestones
• Execution considerations and threats
• Use of tactical and operational goals
• Leadership development

Ensuring Long Term Success

• Identify and implement KPIs and KRA’s
• Implementation tools for key departments
• Checklists and Scorecards
• Considering potential disruptions to the long-term success of the plan

Benefits Moving Forward

• Benefits of adoption and encouraging success
• Future impact of strategic thinking – how to progress your organization
• Review of content covered in the course
• Signposting other ongoing help materials