Strategic Planning and Leadership Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Senior Managers, Directors and Heads of Function and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-SP-048

Before you join: Participants should have management experience and familiarity with their organisation's objectives, performance measures, budget cycle or major change priorities.

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 leaders are expected to set direction amid uncertain demand, regulatory change, funding constraints, technology shifts and competing stakeholder priorities. Yet many planning processes produce long wish lists, disconnected initiatives and measures that report activity rather than results. Strategic planning leadership requires disciplined choices: where to compete, which capabilities to build, what to stop, how to fund priorities and when to revise assumptions.

This advanced course develops the judgement and practical methods needed to lead a creative, evidence-based strategy process. Participants analyse external forces, market economics, stakeholder expectations and internal capabilities; construct scenarios; generate and test strategic options; and make defensible choices. They translate selected choices into strategic objectives, initiative portfolios, measures, governance arrangements and communication plans. The course also addresses strategic leadership: gaining alignment, handling disagreement, setting decision rights and maintaining momentum through review cycles.

Teaching combines concise faculty briefings with realistic cases from public services, financial institutions, infrastructure, NGOs and commercial organisations. Participants work with planning evidence, competing stakeholder demands, financial constraints and uncertainty to develop clear strategic responses. They leave with a reusable strategic planning toolkit, including a strategy-on-a-page format, option assessment criteria, scenario templates, governance structures and a personal application plan. The course is delivered over five instructor-led days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classroom venues across 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

The course suits experienced managers and leaders who contribute to enterprise, business-unit, functional or programme strategy and need to turn strategic intent into funded, measurable action.

What you will be able to do

  • Diagnose strategic issues using PESTLE, Five Forces, stakeholder and capability analysis
  • Construct plausible scenarios and test strategic options against uncertainty
  • Generate differentiated strategic options using design thinking and Business Model Canvas
  • Evaluate strategic choices using TOWS, weighted criteria and portfolio analysis
  • Develop a strategy map, Balanced Scorecard and OKR structure
  • Build initiative charters, benefits maps and resource allocation cases
  • Establish strategic governance, decision rights and review cadences
  • Produce a strategy-on-a-page and stakeholder communication plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Lead planning discussions with clearer strategic questions and decision criteria
  • Present strategic choices credibly to executives, boards and governance groups
  • Challenge unsupported assumptions before resources are committed
  • Translate broad priorities into measurable objectives and funded initiatives
  • Build a practical portfolio of strategy templates for future planning cycles

For your organisation

  • Clearer choices about priorities, trade-offs and investment allocation
  • Earlier identification of external threats, opportunities and assumption failures
  • Better alignment between strategy, budgets, initiatives and performance measures
  • Stronger executive accountability through explicit decision rights and review forums
  • More consistent communication of strategic direction across functions and teams

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame a strategic planning process around clear choices, roles and review rhythms.

  • Strategy as choices: winning aspiration, where to play, how to win
  • Distinguishing corporate, business-unit, functional and operating strategy decisions
  • Strategic intent translated into explicit trade-offs and boundary conditions
  • Diagnosing planning failure modes: false certainty, activity bias, weak ownership
  • Governance roles for sponsors, strategy office, executives and business-unit leaders
  • Planning cadence linking annual choices, quarterly reviews and monthly signals

Participants can identify material external drivers and convert evidence into decision-ready strategic issues.

  • PESTLE analysis separating material external drivers from background noise
  • Porter's Five Forces testing industry profit pools and bargaining positions
  • Market-system maps tracing customers, channels, suppliers, regulators and complementors
  • Stakeholder salience assessed through power, legitimacy and urgency
  • Trend impact matrices ranking uncertainty, magnitude, timing and reversibility
  • Early-warning indicators assigned to strategic assumptions and trigger thresholds

Participants can assess customer demand, competitive position and capabilities that support strategic advantage.

  • Segmentation based on needs, economics, behaviour and service requirements
  • Jobs to Be Done interviews identifying functional, social and emotional demand
  • Value-chain analysis locating cost drivers, differentiation points and control positions
  • VRIO assessment testing valuable, rare, inimitable and organised capabilities
  • Benchmarking competitors without copying incompatible business models or economics
  • Strategic issue statements linking evidence, implications, choices and decision owners

Participants can develop scenarios, test options and define responses to material uncertainty.

  • Scenario planning distinguishes predetermined elements from critical uncertainties
  • Two-axis scenario logics produce plausible, contrasting futures
  • Wind-tunnelling strategic options against each scenario's operating conditions
  • Assumption testing identifies evidence needed before irreversible commitments
  • Real-options logic stages investments, pilots, exit points and scale decisions
  • Contingency playbooks define triggers, actions, owners and resource releases

Participants can create differentiated strategic options rather than refining existing activities.

  • Design thinking reframes strategic problems through stakeholder needs and constraints
  • Divergent ideation uses SCAMPER, analogy and forced connections
  • Convergent selection applies strategic fit, feasibility, economics and risk criteria
  • Blue Ocean Strategy maps buyer utility, price, cost and adoption hurdles
  • Business Model Canvas tests value propositions, revenue logic and key partners
  • Pre-mortem reviews expose failure assumptions before option approval

Participants can compare options transparently and make choices supported by explicit criteria.

  • SWOT-to-TOWS converts internal and external evidence into strategic options
  • Decision criteria weight mission, returns, risk, timing and implementability
  • Weighted decision matrices make competing options and assumptions visible
  • Portfolio matrices allocate investment across core, adjacent and transformational initiatives
  • Strategic choice narratives state rationale, sacrifices, dependencies and expected outcomes
  • Executive decision records capture approvals, dissent, conditions and review dates

Participants can translate strategic choices into objectives, measures, benefits and delivery initiatives.

  • Strategy maps connect mission, outcomes, capabilities, processes and resources
  • Balanced Scorecard objectives establish financial, customer, process and learning measures
  • OKRs distinguish outcome objectives from measurable key results
  • Benefits maps link initiatives, capabilities, behaviour changes and realised value
  • Initiative charters specify scope, sponsor, milestones, resources and dependencies
  • Strategy-on-a-page formats communicate choices, priorities, measures and governance

Participants can connect strategic priorities to funding decisions, risk appetite and delivery sequencing.

  • Driver-based financial models test volume, price, cost and capital assumptions
  • Resource reallocation compares strategic value, capacity constraints and opportunity cost
  • Capital allocation cases calculate NPV, IRR, payback and sensitivity
  • Enterprise risk registers connect strategic threats, controls, owners and indicators
  • Risk appetite statements set tolerance boundaries for strategic commitments
  • Strategic initiatives sequenced through dependencies, critical paths and funding gates

Participants can build leadership alignment and communicate strategy through accountable decision processes.

  • Stakeholder mapping identifies influence, interests, likely resistance and engagement needs
  • Change impact assessments trace role, process, technology and behaviour shifts
  • Leadership alignment sessions surface unresolved choices and conflicting incentives
  • RAPID decision rights clarify recommend, agree, perform, input and decide roles
  • Strategic narratives link evidence, choices, consequences and employee contribution
  • Communication architectures coordinate executive messages, manager briefings and feedback loops

Participants can establish a disciplined review system and plan their first strategic leadership actions.

  • Quarterly strategy reviews test assumptions, progress, risks and resource shifts
  • Leading and lagging indicators distinguish future signals from achieved results
  • After-action reviews capture decisions, evidence, outcomes and course corrections
  • Strategy dashboards combine objectives, measures, thresholds, owners and commentary
  • Escalation protocols define decision thresholds, forums and response times
  • Personal application plans schedule stakeholder conversations, first decisions and review dates

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic issue diagnosis template
  2. Scenario planning and wind-tunnelling model
  3. Weighted strategic option assessment matrix
  4. Strategy-on-a-page template
  5. Initiative charter and benefits map
  6. Strategic governance and review checklist

Who should attend

  • Senior Managers — need to convert organisational priorities into coordinated business-unit action
  • Directors and Heads of Function — need to shape choices, investment cases and delivery priorities
  • Strategy and Planning Managers — need repeatable methods for leading planning cycles
  • Programme Directors — need to align strategic initiatives, benefits and governance
  • Public Sector Leaders — need to balance policy outcomes, stakeholder demands and constrained resources
  • Transformation Leaders — need to connect change portfolios to clear strategic choices

Skills and tools covered

Strategic issue diagnosisScenario planningOption evaluationStrategic execution designLeadership alignmentStrategy governance

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces, Balanced Scorecard, Business Model Canvas

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short faculty briefings to introduce planning methods, followed by case analysis, facilitated group work, decision simulations and structured peer review. Participants assess evidence, frame strategic issues, create scenarios, compare options and translate choices into execution plans. Cases reflect the political, financial and operational constraints faced by large employers, public bodies and mission-led organisations. Individual application planning helps participants adapt the methods to an active planning challenge after the course.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have management experience and familiarity with their organisation's objectives, performance measures, budget cycle or major change priorities. They should be comfortable discussing business, public-sector or programme decisions with peers and interpreting basic financial or operational information. Previous formal strategy training is not required. Advanced finance, economics, data science or consulting experience is not required. Participants will gain more from the course if they bring a current strategic issue, planning document or initiative portfolio they can use as a reference.

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 management experience and some exposure to organisational planning, budgets, performance reporting or major initiatives. You do not need previous strategy training, advanced finance knowledge or consulting experience.

Bring a current strategic issue, planning document, initiative portfolio or business challenge if you can. It is not mandatory, but it helps you apply the templates and discussion methods to a real situation.

It is designed for senior managers, directors, heads of function, strategy professionals, programme leaders and transformation leaders. It is particularly relevant for people who must influence choices beyond their own team.

This course focuses on strategic choices, external uncertainty, competitive or stakeholder positioning, investment priorities and organisational direction. Operational planning and project management focus more on scheduling, process control and delivery of agreed work.

You can use the issue diagnosis, scenario, option assessment, strategy map and governance formats in planning meetings immediately. The final application plan identifies stakeholder conversations, decisions and review points for your own context.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours, with breaks. The five days progress from diagnosis and scenario work through option selection, execution design, leadership alignment and strategy review.

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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