Learn to craft, communicate, and execute strategy that survives contact with reality — from environmental analysis through to performance measurement and adaptive planning.
Strategy is easy to talk about and difficult to do well. Research consistently shows that the majority of strategic plans fail not because the strategy itself was flawed, but because organisations struggle to translate intent into disciplined execution. This course addresses both sides of that equation — the thinking and the doing.
Across ten modules, you will build a complete strategic planning and execution capability: scanning the external environment for threats and opportunities, analysing your competitive position, formulating clear strategic choices, setting measurable objectives, allocating resources, building execution disciplines, and establishing the feedback loops that allow your strategy to adapt as conditions change.
A strategy that cannot be executed is merely a wish. This course teaches you to build strategies that survive the transition from boardroom to frontline.
The course features three immersive strategy simulations where you step into the role of a senior leader facing realistic competitive scenarios. These simulations force you to apply frameworks under time pressure and with incomplete information — mirroring the conditions under which real strategic decisions are made.
This course is designed for professionals who contribute to or lead strategic planning processes within their organisations.
Strategic thinking is a discipline, not an innate talent. This module establishes the mental models that underpin effective strategy work: systems thinking, second-order effects, opportunity cost, and the distinction between strategy and planning. You will examine how cognitive biases — anchoring, confirmation bias, sunk-cost fallacy — routinely derail strategic decisions and learn techniques for mitigating them. The module concludes with a self-assessment that helps you identify your own strategic thinking strengths and development areas.
No organisation operates in a vacuum. This module teaches you to systematically scan the external environment using the PESTEL framework — Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Environmental, and Legal factors. You will learn how to identify the macro-trends most likely to affect your industry over the next three to five years, assess their potential impact, and distinguish between signals and noise. A guided workshop walks you through conducting a PESTEL analysis for your own organisation, complete with prioritisation and implications mapping.
Understanding your competitive environment is essential for making strategic choices about where and how to compete. This module covers Michael Porter's Five Forces framework in depth — rivalry among existing competitors, threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, bargaining power of suppliers, and the threat of substitutes. You will apply the framework to real industry scenarios and learn to identify the structural factors that determine profitability in any market. The module also introduces complementary tools including competitor profiling, strategic group mapping, and value chain analysis.
Strategy requires a clear sense of direction. This module examines the role of vision, mission, and values statements — not as corporate wallpaper, but as practical tools that guide decision-making, attract talent, and shape organisational culture. You will learn how to craft statements that are specific enough to be useful and aspirational enough to inspire, and more importantly, how to ensure they are genuinely embedded in day-to-day operations rather than existing only in annual reports. Case studies contrast organisations where these statements drive behaviour with those where they remain purely performative.
Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) have become the goal-setting framework of choice for organisations seeking to align effort with strategy across large, complex teams. This module covers the OKR methodology in full: writing effective objectives, defining measurable key results, cascading OKRs across organisational levels, and running the cadences — check-ins, scoring, and retrospectives — that keep them alive. You will practise writing OKRs for realistic scenarios and learn the common mistakes that cause OKR implementations to fail, including setting too many objectives, confusing key results with tasks, and treating OKRs as performance evaluation tools.
With a thorough understanding of the external environment, competitive landscape, and organisational identity, you are now ready to formulate strategy. This module covers the core strategic choices: where to play (markets, segments, geographies) and how to win (differentiation, cost leadership, focus). You will learn to use tools including the Ansoff Matrix, Blue Ocean Strategy canvas, and scenario planning to generate and evaluate strategic options. The first strategy simulation places you in the role of a CEO facing a market disruption, requiring you to formulate a coherent response under time pressure.
Strategy without resource commitment is aspiration. This module focuses on the critical — and often politically charged — process of allocating capital, talent, and attention across strategic priorities. You will learn portfolio management techniques for evaluating and balancing investments, including the GE-McKinsey Matrix and real options analysis. The module addresses the common dysfunctions in resource allocation — spreading resources too thin, funding legacy initiatives at the expense of growth, and the inability to kill underperforming projects — and provides practical governance mechanisms for overcoming them.
Execution is where most strategies break down. This module introduces the disciplines and systems that bridge the gap between strategic intent and operational reality. You will study the Balanced Scorecard, the 4 Disciplines of Execution (4DX), and Hoshin Kanri — understanding the strengths and trade-offs of each approach. The second strategy simulation tasks you with designing an execution system for a mid-size organisation launching a new market entry initiative. You will assign accountability, define milestones, and establish the rhythm of review meetings that keep execution on track.
What gets measured gets managed — but only if you are measuring the right things. This module covers the art and science of selecting Key Performance Indicators that genuinely reflect strategic progress rather than merely tracking activity. You will learn the characteristics of effective KPIs — specific, measurable, attributable, relevant, and timely — and how to construct a measurement framework that balances leading and lagging indicators. The module also addresses dashboard design for strategic reviews and the behavioural dynamics that can cause metrics to become counterproductive when poorly designed.
The best strategies are living documents that evolve as the organisation learns and conditions change. This final module covers the processes and mindsets required for adaptive strategy: conducting effective quarterly strategy reviews, distinguishing between execution problems and strategy problems, knowing when to pivot versus when to persist, and building organisational capacity for strategic agility. The third and final simulation presents a scenario where initial strategic assumptions have proven wrong, requiring you to diagnose the situation and recommend an adaptive response. The module concludes with guidance on embedding continuous strategic learning into your organisation's operating rhythm.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
This is an intermediate-level course that assumes some prior exposure to business strategy concepts. Ideal preparation includes:
No specific software or technical skills are required. All simulation materials and templates are provided within the course platform.