Strategic Thinking & Planning

Course details

Who Should Attend:

• Managers
• Prospective Managers
• Supervisors & Team Leaders

• An overview of the difference between mission and vision statements
• Learn how to develop objectives, goals and action plan for the strategic plan
• Explore key issues that affect your organisational strategic-tactical balance
• Master strategic analysis tools to help understand your strategic environment
• Learn how to design, plan and implement effective strategic change projects
• Develop skills for evaluating opportunities and threats to your business
• Learn how to diagnose and manage organisational strengths and weaknesses
• Master and practice creative thinking techniques to encourage new ideas
• Understand how to develop new strategies and options for your organisation
• Recognise the need for change and deal with the discomfort change brings
• Explore the main components of the strategic planning and control process
• Learn how to convert a strategic plan to an operating plan.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Distinguish between the vision and the mission statement from a strategic perspective
• Devise and communicate an inspiring, meaningful vision to all the organisational stakeholders
• Develop robust strategic thinking skills to assess the macro and micro factors affecting the organisation and the market
• Formulate and execute strategic plans to meet objectives
• Align your organisation with your strategic planning goals by integrating strategy, objectives, metrics and performance
• Manage culture, human resources, skills, processes and structure for strategy execution
• Become more influential in driving strategic change and effectively manage any resistance to change
• Assess the changing business environment and identify strategic options for long-term competitive advantage
• Successfully execute strategy to achieve anticipated results
• Put the strategic plan into action by creating a powerful communication strategy that can convey your ideas to the team so they are motivated and know what to do
• Establish performance indicators that suit your organisation and truly measure the success or failure of the strategic plan.

• What is a Vision? What is a Mission?
• Communicating the Vision and Mission
• Organisational core values
• Planning: strategic, tactical and operational
• Strategic Thinking vs. Strategic Planning and "Helicopter View"
• The Strategic Planning and Control Process
• Creativity and Brainstorming
• Tools and Techniques for internal analysis
  • The SWOT Analysis
  • Balanced Scorecard
• Tools and techniques for external analysis
  • PEST/PESTLE Analysis
  • Competitive advantage/unique selling points
  • The Extended Boston Consulting Growth Share Matrix
  • Porter's five competitive forces
  • Growth drivers
• Monitoring The Strategic Plan implementation
• Elements for strategic success
• Recognising the need for change
• Benefits of strategic management
• Setting strategic objectives
• SMART(ER) objectives and goals
• Criteria of effective action plans
• Linking goals, strategies, action plans and budgets
• Motivating employees to accept and 'buy in' to new strategy
• Implementing the strategic plan
• Communicating the strategic plan
• Developing control systems and performance measures
• The Balanced Scorecard.