Adaptive Strategic Thinking and Planning Masterclass |Smart

Overview

Why Attend

Aligning business activities to a company's vision and strategy is essential to ensure operational excellence. At the same time, changes in the competitive landscape will undoubtedly put pressure on the leadership to constantly adjust their strategy. How do leaders balance developing a strategic plan with continually adapting to the external environment? This two-week advanced course is designed for top-level executives who want to master that balancing act.

In the first week, participants will learn to anticipate and respond to market, industry, and competitive landscape changes using advanced strategic frameworks. The second week of the course is built around the Balanced Scorecard framework. Participants will learn how to design, implement, and monitor strategic plans aligning with the organization's vision, mission, and objectives. Participants in this course will be able to pinpoint the real reasons behind long-term strategic performance and will be able to replicate this success in their organizations.

Course Methodology

This is an advanced leadership course that is facilitated over two weeks. The course uses interactive and hands-on techniques and several case studies on strategic thinking and planning aspects.

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Recognize the importance of adaptive strategic thinking for organizational sustainability
Identify the different paths to achieving a sustainable competitive advantage
Use adaptive strategic frameworks to analyze internal and external environments
Apply the future toolkit for long-term forecasting
Identify essential elements of a corporate culture that promotes robust strategy execution
Explain the benefits and importance of a Strategy Focused Organization (SFO)
Develop a strategic plan for their organization
Apply best-in-class benchmarking techniques to set targets for each KPI
Design a balanced scorecard based on the Kaplan and Norton model
Develop, evaluate, select, and review the performance of strategic initiatives

Target Audience

Top-level leaders and executives involved in charting and supporting the execution of the company’s plans to achieve its strategic goals and objectives.

Target Competencies

Strategic thinking
Competitive analysis
Using adaptive frameworks
Innovation
Driving customer value
Strategic planning
Performance management
Goal setting
Developing KPIs
Results orientation

Course Outline

Week 1: Adaptive Strategic Thinking
The strategy-focused organization: Adaptive strategic thinking
- The 20-mile march
- Murphy’s law
- The three main strategic questions
- Strategic thinking versus strategic planning
- The blind men and the elephant
Strategy and the quest for competitive advantage
- What distinguishes excellent companies?
- Strive to be the industry’s low-cost provider
- Outcompete rivals on a key differentiating feature
- Focus on a particular market niche
- Develop capabilities not easily imitated by rivals
Using adaptive strategic frameworks
- Adaptive strategic frameworks
- Impact of Porter’s five forces
- Using the SWOT matrix
- Fundamentals of the PEDESTL framework
- Creating and capturing value
- Innovating using the strategy canvas
Future foresight
- Black swans and wild cards
- Weak signals
- The Delphi method
- Axes of uncertainty
- Policy stress-testing
- Backcasting
Building the strategy-focused organization
- The most critical asset
- Optimizing people processes
- Streamlining processes
- Optimizing information systems
- Creating metrics
Week 2: Strategic Planning Using the Balanced Scorecard
The Strategy Focused Organization (SFO): Strategic planning
- Principles of a strategy-focused organization
- Strategy elements
- Why implement the balanced scorecard
- The strategic planning model
- The importance of the balanced scorecard
- Balanced scorecard steps and timeline
Developing a strategic plan
- The purpose of a situational analysis
- Situational analysis using the SWOT matrix
- Definition of a vision statement
- Importance of a structured mission statement
- Goals, objectives, and targets
- SMART objectives
- Key performance indicators and Units of Measure (UOMs)
- Aligning KPIs to company strategy
Benchmarking as a tool to set targets for objectives
- Objectives and basics of benchmarking
- The who, what, and why of benchmarking
- Different methods of benchmarking
- Whom to benchmark against
- The benchmarking process
The balanced scorecard as a strategic management system
- Strategic alignment and goal setting
- Linking the balanced scorecard's KPIs to the strategy
- Strategy map: Specifying relationships and making them testable
- Managing initiatives
- Reporting and evaluating results
- Cascading the balanced scorecard
Developing, evaluating, and managing strategic initiatives
- Identifying, evaluating, and selecting initiatives
- Capital budgeting: Evaluating initiatives from a financial perspective
  - Accounting Rate of Return (ARR)
  - Payback Period (PP)
  - Cost of capital
  - Net Present Value (NPV)
  - Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
- Planning and scheduling initiatives
- Monitoring and measuring progress during implementation

Schedule & Fees

2026 Schedule & Fees

25 - 29 Oct, 2026

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Oct, 2026

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

6 - 10 Dec, 2026

English

Per participant USD 2,900

6 - 10 Dec, 2026

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

2027 Schedule & Fees

24 - 28 Jan, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Jan, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

7 - 11 Mar, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

7 - 11 Mar, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Apr, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Apr, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

6 - 10 Jun, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

6 - 10 Jun, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Jul, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

25 - 29 Jul, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

5 - 9 Sep, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

5 - 9 Sep, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Oct, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

24 - 28 Oct, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900

5 - 9 Dec, 2027

English

Per participant USD 2,900

5 - 9 Dec, 2027

Arabic

Per participant USD 2,900