Strategic Management and Superior Performance Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Business Unit Directors, Senior 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-138

Before you join: Participants should have several years of management experience and current responsibility for a team, function, programme, business unit or major strategic initiative.

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

Senior managers are expected to set direction while responding to pressure from boards, regulators, competitors, customers and operational teams. Superior performance depends on more than a well-written strategy: leaders must identify the few choices that matter, test assumptions against evidence, allocate resources deliberately, align operating models and maintain disciplined execution. This course addresses the common gap between strategic intent and measurable results.

Participants examine how to formulate, select and execute strategy using established management frameworks. They assess markets, competitive forces, stakeholder expectations and internal capabilities; evaluate growth, investment and portfolio choices; build performance measures; and establish governance for delivery. The course also addresses strategic risk, scenario planning, organisational alignment, senior-team decision quality, change leadership and benefits realisation. Participants gain methods for turning strategic priorities into accountable initiatives, review routines and corrective action.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, decision simulations and structured application planning. Cases may reflect regulated banking, public services, infrastructure, international development, manufacturing and consumer-facing businesses. Participants leave with a reusable strategy execution pack, including a strategy-on-a-page, performance scorecard, strategic risk register, initiative charter and 90-day action plan. The five-day format provides approximately 32.5 contact hours, delivered in a classroom in more than 50 cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

This advanced course is designed for experienced leaders who influence enterprise, business-unit or functional strategy and need to connect strategic decisions to sustained organisational performance.

What you will be able to do

  • Formulate a clear strategy statement using objectives, scope, advantage and critical capabilities
  • Assess industry attractiveness and competitive position using PESTLE, Five Forces and competitor profiling
  • Evaluate strategic options using strategic fit, feasibility, acceptable risk and investment appraisal
  • Diagnose internal sources of advantage through VRIO, value chain and capability mapping
  • Design a Balanced Scorecard and OKRs linked to strategic priorities and performance drivers
  • Build an execution governance model using Hoshin Kanri, RACI and initiative charters
  • Apply scenario planning, risk appetite and Bow-tie analysis to strategic uncertainty
  • Produce a 90-day strategic action plan with measures, owners, milestones and review routines

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Stronger contribution to executive strategy and investment discussions
  • Clearer methods for challenging assumptions and weak strategic proposals
  • Practical framework for prioritising competing initiatives and resource requests
  • Improved ability to connect operational measures with strategic outcomes
  • Reusable 90-day plan for applying strategic leadership methods

For your organisation

  • Better alignment between strategic priorities, budgets, initiatives and accountabilities
  • Earlier identification of market threats, delivery risks and flawed assumptions
  • More disciplined investment decisions using strategic fit and financial criteria
  • Improved execution cadence through visible measures, owners and review routines
  • Stronger cross-functional coordination during strategic change and transformation

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame a strategic direction with explicit choices, assumptions and accountable decision rights.

  • Strategic ambition translated into measurable enterprise value, mission and boundaries
  • Stakeholder mapping distinguishes owners, customers, regulators, employees and communities
  • Materiality assessment ranks strategic issues by impact, urgency and uncertainty
  • Corporate, business-unit and functional strategies aligned through explicit choices
  • Strategy statements define objectives, scope, advantage and critical capabilities
  • Strategic assumptions logged with owners, evidence sources and review triggers
  • Decision rights allocated using RAPID for major strategic commitments

Participants can assess external forces, competitor behaviour and alternative future market conditions.

  • PESTLE separates structural trends, policy shifts and short-term market signals
  • Porter's Five Forces tests industry profit pools and bargaining positions
  • Scenario planning develops plausible futures from predetermined elements and critical uncertainties
  • Competitor profiles compare goals, assumptions, capabilities and likely responses
  • Market segmentation identifies attractive customer needs, willingness to pay and access
  • Early-warning indicators convert scenarios into monitored strategic signposts
  • Implications matrix links external developments to choices, risks and investments

Participants can identify defensible sources of advantage and the capabilities required to sustain them.

  • VRIO analysis distinguishes valuable resources from defensible sources of advantage
  • Capability maps expose performance-critical activities, bottlenecks, skills and technology dependencies
  • Value chain analysis locates cost drivers, differentiation opportunities and control points
  • Activity-system maps test fit among choices, capabilities and operating policies
  • Benchmarking separates transferable practices from context-dependent performance differences
  • Make-buy-partner decisions assess strategic control, economics and learning value
  • Core capability investment cases specify benefits, constraints and capability owners

Participants can compare strategic options and select coherent growth, portfolio and market choices.

  • Generic strategy choices test cost leadership, differentiation and focus trade-offs
  • Business Model Canvas clarifies customer value, revenue logic and key partners
  • Ansoff Matrix compares market penetration, development, product development and diversification
  • Portfolio matrices assess growth, cash generation, strategic fit and parenting advantage
  • Vertical integration decisions weigh transaction costs, control and supply resilience
  • Growth options evaluated through strategic fit, feasibility and acceptable risk
  • Strategic choice cascade records where-to-play and how-to-win decisions

Participants can design measures and investment cases that connect strategic priorities to value creation.

  • Strategy maps connect strategic themes to customer, process and capability outcomes
  • Balanced Scorecard measures financial, customer, internal process and learning perspectives
  • OKRs translate strategic priorities into time-bound objectives and key results
  • Driver trees trace revenue, margin, capital and service outcomes
  • Investment appraisal applies NPV, IRR, payback and sensitivity analysis
  • Benefits realisation plans assign baselines, targets, owners and review dates
  • Leading indicators distinguish controllable drivers from lagging outcome measures

Participants can establish an operating model, delivery governance and resource allocation process for execution.

  • Operating model design aligns structure, processes, governance, people and technology
  • McKinsey 7S diagnoses misalignment between strategy and organisational arrangements
  • Strategy deployment uses Hoshin Kanri catchball to align annual priorities
  • Initiative charters define scope, milestones, dependencies, resources and accountable sponsors
  • RACI matrices clarify delivery accountability, consultation and decision escalation
  • Resource allocation reviews redirect funding from low-value to priority work
  • Execution cadence combines weekly delivery reviews with quarterly strategy reviews

Participants can lead strategic conversations, build commitment and manage disagreement among critical stakeholders.

  • Adaptive leadership distinguishes technical problems from complex adaptive challenges
  • Stakeholder salience analysis prioritises power, legitimacy and urgency
  • Influence maps identify sponsors, blockers, allies and critical conversations
  • Strategic narratives link evidence, choices, consequences and a credible call-to-action
  • Psychological safety supports dissent, escalation and learning from adverse information
  • Senior-team protocols improve debate quality, commitment and decision follow-through
  • Conflict resolution applies interest-based negotiation to contested strategic priorities

Participants can identify strategic risks, set exposure boundaries and prepare contingent responses.

  • Risk appetite statements define acceptable exposure, limits and escalation thresholds
  • Strategic risk registers connect uncertainties to objectives, controls and owners
  • Bow-tie analysis maps threats, preventive controls, consequences and recovery measures
  • Monte Carlo simulation estimates outcome ranges for uncertain investment assumptions
  • Real options reasoning stages commitments under uncertainty and preserves flexibility
  • Premortem reviews expose failure modes before irreversible strategic commitments
  • Contingency triggers specify decisions, authority and actions for adverse scenarios

Participants can lead strategic change while tracking adoption, benefits and performance improvement.

  • Change impact assessments identify affected roles, processes, systems and behaviours
  • ADKAR plans address awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement
  • Transition roadmaps sequence pilots, scale-up, communications and capability building
  • Resistance diagnosis separates legitimate concerns from political opposition and misinformation
  • Benefits tracking links adoption measures to operational and financial outcomes
  • Change sponsor routines reinforce priorities through visible decisions and role modelling
  • Post-implementation reviews capture lessons, adjust controls and sustain performance gains

Participants can establish a strategic review cycle and apply course methods to a current priority.

  • Integrated strategic review synthesises external evidence, capabilities, choices and performance
  • Strategy-on-a-page communicates ambition, priorities, measures, risks and accountabilities
  • Quarterly business reviews test assumptions, performance gaps and corrective decisions
  • Strategic dashboards present trends, thresholds, commentary and decision requests
  • Learning loops convert results into revised hypotheses, priorities and resource shifts
  • Personal leadership commitments specify behavioural changes, sponsors and review dates
  • 90-day action plans sequence decisions, stakeholder conversations and early milestones

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategy statement template
  2. Strategic choice cascade
  3. Balanced Scorecard and OKR template
  4. Strategic risk register
  5. Initiative charter and RACI matrix
  6. 90-day strategic action plan

Who should attend

  • Business Unit Directors — responsible for translating enterprise direction into commercial and operational results
  • Senior Managers — preparing to lead cross-functional priorities, investment choices and execution reviews
  • Functional Heads — aligning functional plans, capabilities and measures with strategic objectives
  • Country Managers — balancing local market choices with corporate direction and governance requirements
  • Programme Directors — managing strategic initiatives, dependencies, benefits and senior stakeholders
  • Public Sector Executives — converting policy objectives into accountable delivery priorities and measurable outcomes

Skills and tools covered

Strategic option appraisalCompetitive analysisPerformance managementExecution governanceStrategic risk managementChange leadership

Tools and standards

Porter's Five Forces, Balanced Scorecard, OKRs, Hoshin Kanri

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, decision simulations and structured peer challenge. Participants assess strategic situations, compare options, interpret performance data and address trade-offs involving growth, risk, resources and stakeholder interests. Cases are adapted to the cohort’s sectors and seniority. Individual application planning connects the methods to a live organisational priority, supported by instructor feedback and practical templates for post-course use.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of management experience and current responsibility for a team, function, programme, business unit or major strategic initiative. They should be familiar with basic business planning, budgets, performance measures and organisational decision-making. Experience contributing to annual plans, investment cases, transformation programmes or executive reporting is useful. The course does not require an MBA, formal strategy qualification, advanced finance training or prior use of the frameworks taught. Participants should bring a current strategic challenge they can use for application planning.

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

Participants should have management experience and involvement in planning, performance management, transformation or strategic initiatives. Formal strategy qualifications and advanced finance expertise are not required.

Participants should bring a current strategic issue, such as a growth decision, transformation programme, operating model problem or underperforming priority. Non-confidential information on objectives, measures, stakeholders and constraints will support application planning.

The course suits senior managers, functional heads, business-unit leaders, country managers and programme directors. It is particularly relevant to people who must turn strategic direction into coordinated delivery and measurable results.

General management courses commonly focus on people management, communication and daily operational control. This course concentrates on strategic analysis, competitive choices, investment decisions, execution governance, performance measures and strategic risk.

Participants leave with practical templates that can be used in strategy reviews, annual planning, investment proposals and transformation governance. The 90-day action plan identifies immediate decisions, stakeholder conversations, measures and review dates.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The programme progresses from strategic diagnosis and choice through performance management, execution, risk, change and personal application, with methods reinforced through cases and group work.

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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