Managing Director Development Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Newly appointed Managing Directors, Country Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-135

Before you join: Participants should have substantial management experience, normally leading a function, business unit, country operation or major programme.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Managing directors are accountable for enterprise performance, board confidence, cash generation, strategic execution and organisational conduct. The role requires more than functional expertise: it demands sound judgement across competing priorities, clear authority arrangements, timely intervention and the ability to convert board direction into operational results. Failure in any one area can affect liquidity, customer confidence, regulatory standing or workforce stability.

This course examines the managing director’s role as the senior executive responsible for integrating strategy, governance, financial management, commercial performance, people leadership and risk oversight. Participants learn to establish an effective operating rhythm, interpret management information, lead executive teams, manage board relationships, make high-stakes decisions and communicate credibly during periods of change or pressure. Attention is given to the practical distinction between board governance and executive management.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings, sector-based cases, boardroom simulations, financial and operational data analysis, peer discussion and structured application planning. Cases reflect conditions familiar to banks, public bodies, NGOs, regulated firms and multinational businesses. Participants leave with a Managing Director Operating Plan containing their priorities, stakeholder map, governance calendar, performance measures, decision authorities and first-100-days actions.

The course is suited to newly appointed managing directors, country managers, general managers and senior functional leaders preparing for enterprise-wide accountability. It is also valuable for executives taking charge of a subsidiary, business unit or mission-critical operating division.

What you will be able to do

  • Define managing director accountabilities using board, shareholder and executive management boundaries
  • Translate strategic direction into a measurable enterprise operating plan
  • Interpret financial and operational indicators to identify performance risks early
  • Build a governance calendar covering board reporting, risk review and executive decisions
  • Lead an executive team through clear roles, decision rights and performance expectations
  • Apply stakeholder mapping and communication planning to protect organisational confidence
  • Use structured decision methods for high-consequence commercial and operational choices
  • Produce a first-100-days managing director action plan with measurable priorities

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Clarify the authority, accountabilities and boundaries of the managing director role
  • Present performance issues and strategic choices credibly to boards and shareholders
  • Diagnose enterprise risks before they become cash, customer or reputational failures
  • Run a disciplined executive operating rhythm with fewer unresolved decisions
  • Prepare a practical transition plan for a new or expanded leadership mandate

For your organisation

  • Stronger translation of board strategy into accountable operational priorities
  • Earlier identification of liquidity, delivery, conduct and stakeholder risks
  • More consistent executive decisions through defined authority and escalation routes
  • Improved quality of board reporting, forecasting and performance intervention
  • Greater continuity when appointing managing directors to new businesses or territories

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can define the managing director’s mandate, authority boundaries and core accountabilities.

  • Managing director accountabilities across strategy, performance, governance and organisational culture
  • Board, chair and chief executive relationships defined through delegated authority
  • Distinguishing governance responsibilities from executive management and operational control
  • Shareholder expectations, fiduciary duties and stewardship responsibilities examined
  • RACI analysis for decisions spanning board, executive committee and business units
  • Mandate letter developed from strategic objectives, constraints and success measures

Participants can convert strategic direction into an integrated enterprise execution plan.

  • Strategy map linking strategic themes, objectives, measures and initiatives
  • Balanced Scorecard measures selected for financial, customer, process and people outcomes
  • Annual operating plan translated into quarterly enterprise priorities and milestones
  • OKRs aligned with business-unit commitments and executive accountability
  • Resource allocation tested against strategic value, capacity and delivery risk
  • Strategy refresh triggers identified from market shifts and performance evidence

Participants can use financial information to direct performance and protect organisational sustainability.

  • Income statement drivers analysed through volume, price, mix and cost variance
  • Cash conversion cycle monitored through receivables, inventory and payables indicators
  • 13-week rolling cash forecast built from receipts, payroll and supplier data
  • Capital expenditure cases assessed using NPV, IRR and payback period
  • Management accounts challenged through forecast accuracy and material variance analysis
  • Performance interventions prioritised using margin, cash and service-level evidence

Participants can establish governance routines that support informed oversight and timely escalation.

  • Three Lines Model applied to management accountability and independent assurance
  • Risk appetite statements translated into operational thresholds and escalation triggers
  • Board calendar structured around strategy, performance, risk and assurance decisions
  • Enterprise risk register assessed using likelihood, impact, controls and owners
  • Internal control failures investigated through root-cause analysis and remediation tracking
  • Delegated authority matrix aligned with financial limits and risk exposure

Participants can lead an executive team with clear roles, constructive challenge and shared accountability.

  • Executive team charter establishes purpose, membership, behaviours and decision rules
  • Role clarity tested through RAPID decision-rights mapping
  • Meeting cadence separates operational reviews, strategic choices and talent discussions
  • Constructive challenge practised through inquiry, advocacy and evidence testing
  • Cross-functional conflicts resolved using interests, options and agreed decision criteria
  • Executive performance conversations connect enterprise outcomes with individual accountability

Participants can direct commercial choices using market evidence, customer economics and strategic positioning.

  • Porter's Five Forces applied to competitive pressure and profit pools
  • Customer profitability assessed through revenue, service cost and retention data
  • Value proposition tested against customer needs, alternatives and willingness to pay
  • Pricing decisions examined through margin floors, elasticity and competitive response
  • Commercial pipeline reviewed using conversion rates, deal value and cycle time
  • Strategic partnerships assessed for revenue potential, dependency and control risks

Participants can shape organisational capacity and culture to support strategic delivery.

  • Organisation design assessed through spans, layers, interfaces and accountability
  • Workforce plan links strategic demand, critical roles and talent supply
  • Succession planning identifies readiness, development actions and contingency coverage
  • Culture diagnostic examines stated values, observed behaviours and reinforcing systems
  • Employee listening data converted into leadership actions and communication priorities
  • Change sponsorship roles assigned through stakeholder influence and implementation accountability

Participants can manage critical stakeholders through disciplined communication and relationship planning.

  • Stakeholder mapping ranks influence, interest, expectations and relationship health
  • Board papers structured around decision required, evidence, options and recommendation
  • Chair briefings distinguish emerging issues, decisions and confidential sensitivities
  • Regulator engagement prepared through factual disclosures, commitments and follow-up ownership
  • Investor and shareholder messages connect performance results with credible forward actions
  • Media holding statements prepared for material incidents and uncertain facts

Participants can make and communicate defensible decisions under uncertainty, urgency and scrutiny.

  • Decision framing separates symptoms, underlying problems, constraints and objectives
  • Cynefin framework distinguishes clear, complicated, complex and chaotic conditions
  • Scenario planning tests strategic choices against plausible external developments
  • Pre-mortem analysis identifies failure modes before committing resources
  • Red-team challenge exposes assumptions, weak evidence and unintended consequences
  • Crisis decision logs record facts, authorities, actions and review points

Participants can create a personal operating system for their first 100 days and beyond.

  • First-100-days plan sequences listening, diagnosis, decisions and early delivery
  • Managing director calendar protects time for strategy, people and external relationships
  • Weekly dashboard combines cash, customers, operations, people and risk indicators
  • Executive meeting agenda links decisions, commitments, blockers and follow-up actions
  • Personal stakeholder plan schedules purposeful engagement with critical relationships
  • Application priorities converted into accountable actions, deadlines and review measures

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Managing Director Mandate Template
  2. First-100-Days Action Plan
  3. Board and Executive Governance Calendar
  4. Enterprise Performance Dashboard Model
  5. Delegated Authority Matrix
  6. Stakeholder Engagement Plan

Who should attend

  • Newly appointed Managing Directors — establish control of a full enterprise mandate
  • Country Managers — align local performance with group strategy and governance
  • General Managers — prepare for broader profit, people and board accountability
  • Business Unit Directors — manage cross-functional delivery under enterprise-level scrutiny
  • Senior Functional Directors — transition from specialist leadership to general management
  • Deputy Chief Executives — prepare for appointment to a top operational role

Skills and tools covered

Executive decision-makingBoard relationship managementEnterprise performance managementStrategic executionFinancial stewardshipStakeholder communication

Tools and standards

Balanced Scorecard, RACI Matrix, RAPID Decision Framework, Three Lines Model

How the course runs

Training methodology

Instructor-led sessions combine short briefings with case work based on managing director decisions: declining margins, regulatory findings, leadership conflict, acquisitions and operational disruption. Participants analyse board papers, management accounts, risk reports and stakeholder scenarios. Group exercises test decision rights, executive-team dynamics and crisis communication. Simulations place participants in board and executive committee discussions requiring clear recommendations under time pressure. Individual application planning converts course methods into priorities, routines and actions for each participant’s own mandate.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have substantial management experience, normally leading a function, business unit, country operation or major programme. They should be familiar with budgets, performance reporting, organisational structures and senior stakeholder communication. Experience attending executive committee or board meetings is useful but not required. This is not an introductory management course and does not teach basic accounting, project management or people-management fundamentals. Participants do not need prior managing director experience, an MBA, legal qualifications or responsibility for a listed company.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have substantial management responsibility and familiarity with budgets, performance reporting and senior stakeholders. Prior managing director experience is not required, but the course assumes you already understand core management practices.

Bring a current strategic plan, organisation chart, performance dashboard or board-reporting format if confidentiality rules allow. These materials help you apply the methods to your own role, though no organisational documents are mandatory.

It is designed for newly appointed managing directors, country managers, general managers and senior leaders moving into enterprise-wide roles. It also suits deputy chief executives and business unit directors with full profit and delivery responsibility.

The course focuses on the specific accountabilities of the managing director: board relationships, enterprise performance, governance, cash, executive-team leadership and stakeholder confidence. General leadership courses usually give less attention to the operating mechanisms of a top executive role.

Participants use their own mandate and current priorities to build an operating plan, governance calendar and stakeholder actions. The templates can be adapted immediately for executive meetings, board reporting and transition planning.

The five-day programme provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, normally from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided across ten modules covering mandate, strategy, finance, governance, executive leadership, commercial direction, people, stakeholders, decisions and operating rhythm.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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