Course Overview

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

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 organisation.

This 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 organisation with your aligned objectives, this learning will encourage leaders of all levels to impact change.

This Zoe training course will empower you with the knowledge and the confidence to be able to make the high-level strategic decisions necessary to cope with change and uncertainty.

You will learn the most up to date tools for strategic analysis and the methodologies to follow to always keep you one step ahead of your competitors, and always able to respond to market opportunities or threats. And you will gain the confidence to think strategically across a variety of situations, resulting in effective decision making and planning.

Course Objectives 

Upon successful completion of this Strategic Thinking and Planning course, you should be able to –

• Think strategically about the opportunities available to your organisation 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 organisation based on the most up to date methodology around strategic thinking and planning
• Design a much more comprehensive decision-making system, by analysing 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
• Analyse 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 

This course will be taught as an interactive training program and will provide you with plenty of opportunities to learn from and engage with other learners. You will also experience –

• 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

Organisational Benefits

By encouraging your employees to participate in this course you will be impacting your organization in the following positive ways –

• 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

Personal Benefits 

By taking part in this course, you will be able to enjoy the following benefits –

• A greater understanding of your role as it relates to the wider strategic planning of the organisation
• 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 organisation and a deeper understanding of the benefits of innovation

Who Should Attend?

This course is very suitable for –

• 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 

Module One – 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

Module Two – The Process

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

Module Three – 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

Module Four – Developing Your Strategic Plan

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

Module Five – Planning and Implementation

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

Module Six – Rollout Strategy 

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

Module Seven – Ensuring Long Term Success

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

Module Eight – Benefits Moving Forward

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