The Oxford Advanced Management & Leadership Programme

Module 1

Strategy and Strategic Planning

DAY 1

Strategic Thinking and Business Analysis

• What are strategy and strategic planning?

• Why are strategy and strategic planning important?

• What are the main conceptual frameworks?

• External analysis - understanding and analyzing business attractiveness - macroenvironmental factors, growth drivers, competitive forces, market dynamics

• Benchmarking your own strategic position/competitor analysis

• Analyzing customers

• “Thinking backward from the customer”

• Mini-case on importance of external analysis

DAY 2

Internal Analysis and fusion of analyses into strategic options

• The interface of external and internal analysis

• Internal analysis: financial

• Internal analysis; non-financial

• The concept and practicalities of the “balanced scorecard”

• Diagnosing strategic problems and opportunities

• A fusion of analyses into strategic choices - SWOT and the strategy matrix

• Case examples of strategic choice

• Mini-case on importance of internal analysis

DAY 3

Strategic plans and the relevance of alliances and joint ventures

• Review of the tools used so far

• The content of a strategy: avoiding “paralysis by analysis”

• Putting a strategic plan together – the 5-page framework

• A real-life example of a business strategy/strategic plan

• Strategies for alliances and joint ventures

• Example of best practice in alliances and joint ventures

• Introduction and briefing for the main case study

• First-phase group work on the main case study

DAY 4

Global strategy, teambuilding and the management of internal communication

• The essence of globalization and global strategy

• Globalization – the strategic dimension

• Globalization – the organizational dimension

• Globalization – the human dimension

• How to build and manage a strategic planning team

• Communicating strategy through the organization

• Gaining your team’s commitment and buy-in to the strategy

• Second-phase work on the main case study

DAY 5

Strategic implementation and getting the value out of strategy

• Final-phase work on the main case study

• Group presentations of the main case study

• Effective execution - converting strategic analysis and planning into action

• Linking strategy with operational objectives

• Implementation – getting practical things done

• Strategic planning of your own career

• Creating tomorrow’s organization out of today’s organization

• Conclusion - the corporate and individual value of strategic thinking

Module 2

Leading High Performing Teams

DAY 6

Teams and their Leaders

• Teams, leaders, and managers

• Key leadership tasks

• Influence, authority, and power

• Leadership styles and style flexibility

• Self-awareness

• Emotional intelligence and rapport

DAY 7

Vision, Direction & Alignment

• Creating a shared vision

• Aims, objectives and goal alignment

• Developing meaningful objectives and indicators

• Divergent approaches to problem-solving

• Communicating a compelling vision

• Delivering challenging messages

DAY 8

Team Dynamics

• Team development

• The sociology of the team

• Characteristics of high-performing teams

• Balancing team roles

• Non-traditional team structures

• Delegation and empowerment

DAY 9

Developing the Team

• Learning and competence building a coherent team

• Self-managing teams and their challenges

• Coaching, mentoring and self-directed learning

• Feedback and appraisal

• Leveraging team strengths for peak performance

DAY 10

Performance & Conflict Management

• Defining performance

• Approaches to measuring team and individual performance

• Performance through the eyes of the customer

• Performance management: science or art?

• Conflict as a catalyst for team development

• Dealing with challenging interpersonal relations