Strategic Planning for Operations Directors Training Course

Course overview

Operations directors are expected to convert corporate ambition into reliable capacity, service performance, cost control and risk resilience. The difficulty is rarely a lack of operational data; it is deciding which constraints matter, aligning site or functional plans to enterprise priorities, and making trade-offs visible before they become missed targets. This course equips operations leaders to build a strategic plan that connects demand, workforce, assets, suppliers, technology and process improvement to measurable business results.

Participants learn a practical planning cycle: analysing the operating environment, defining strategic choices, translating goals into operational objectives, setting balanced measures, modelling capacity and resource requirements, and managing delivery through governance and review routines. They work with tools including SWOT and PESTLE analysis, stakeholder mapping, value-stream analysis, strategy maps, Balanced Scorecard measures, risk registers, RACI matrices and milestone roadmaps. The emphasis is on decisions an operations director must defend: where to invest, what to standardise, which risks to mitigate, and how to sequence change without disrupting service.

Instructor-led workshops use an operational case involving competing growth, efficiency and service requirements. Participants interpret performance data, facilitate planning discussions, test initiatives against resource constraints and build a complete strategic operations plan. They leave with a board-ready planning pack containing a strategic intent statement, priority portfolio, KPI dashboard, risk and dependency register, governance model and 12-month implementation roadmap that can be adapted for their own function or site.

The course is suited to established operational managers moving into director-level planning responsibilities, as well as current operations directors seeking a more disciplined, evidence-based approach to annual and multi-year planning.

Course objectives

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

• Diagnose operational strategic issues using SWOT, PESTLE and value-stream analysis
• Translate corporate objectives into a strategy map with operational outcomes and measures
• Construct Balanced Scorecard KPIs with definitions, targets, owners and data sources
• Model demand, capacity, workforce and asset implications for strategic growth scenarios
• Prioritise improvement and investment initiatives using weighted criteria and benefits-risk scoring
• Develop an operational risk register with mitigations, triggers and escalation routes
• Design governance structures using RACI matrices, review cadences and decision rights
• Produce a 12-month strategic operations plan with milestones, dependencies and accountable owners

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Operations Directors — who must turn business strategy into coordinated operational priorities and investment decisions
• Heads of Operations — who lead multi-site, regional or functional delivery plans
• Senior Operations Managers — who are preparing to assume director-level planning responsibilities
• Plant Managers — who need to align capacity, reliability and continuous improvement plans with business goals
• Service Delivery Directors — who must balance customer commitments, cost-to-serve and workforce capability
• Transformation and Operational Excellence Leaders — who need to connect change portfolios to measurable strategic outcomes

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience managing an operational function, site, service line or major improvement programme, including responsibility for KPIs, budgets, staffing, capacity or supplier performance. Familiarity with basic operational measures such as cost, quality, delivery, productivity, utilisation and service level is assumed. Participants should be able to read a simple spreadsheet and interpret performance trends; Microsoft Excel is used in exercises. No prior strategic planning qualification, finance specialism, Power BI expertise or formal project-management certification is required. Complete beginners to operations leadership should expect a demanding course and may benefit from first gaining frontline or supervisory operations experience.

Training methodology

The programme combines instructor-led planning frameworks with operational case analysis, spreadsheet-based modelling and facilitated peer review. Participants work through a realistic director-level scenario in which growth targets, service commitments, asset constraints and cost pressure conflict. They build each component of a strategic operations plan in sequence: diagnostic, strategic choices, measures, initiative portfolio, risks and implementation governance. Small-group challenge sessions test assumptions and trade-offs, while individual application time enables participants to adapt the final planning pack to their own operational context.

Course outline

Day 1: Establishing the strategic operations baseline

• The operations director's role in enterprise strategy execution
• Operating-model components: process, people, technology, assets and suppliers
• SWOT analysis for operational capability and performance gaps
• PESTLE analysis of external demand, regulation and market pressures
• Stakeholder mapping across customers, executives, workforce and partners
• Value-stream analysis for end-to-end service and production constraints
• Problem statements and strategic planning assumptions

Workshop: Participants analyse a multi-site operations case and produce a prioritised strategic issue statement supported by a SWOT, stakeholder map and value-stream constraints summary.

Day 2: Making strategic choices and setting measures

• Strategic intent, mission and operational value proposition
• Strategy maps linking financial, customer, process and capability outcomes
• Balanced Scorecard design for operations functions
• Leading and lagging indicator selection
• KPI definition sheets: formula, source, frequency, owner and threshold
• Target setting using baselines, benchmarks and improvement trajectories
• Metric trade-offs between cost, quality, delivery, safety and resilience

Workshop: Participants create a strategy map and a KPI definition sheet set for an operations directorate facing service and margin pressure.

Day 3: Testing capacity, resources and initiative choices

• Demand scenario planning and assumption ranges
• Capacity modelling for labour, equipment, facilities and suppliers
• Workforce capability and succession requirements
• Asset reliability, maintenance and capital investment implications
• Benefits mapping for operational improvement initiatives
• Weighted scoring models for initiative prioritisation
• Portfolio balancing across quick wins, foundational work and strategic investments

Workshop: Participants use a spreadsheet model to test three demand scenarios and produce a ranked initiative portfolio with resource and benefits assumptions.

Day 4: Managing risk, governance and execution control

• Operational risk identification across safety, service, supply, compliance and technology
• Risk register design with likelihood, impact, control and trigger fields
• Dependency mapping across functions, suppliers and change programmes
• RACI matrices for strategic initiative accountability
• Decision rights and escalation paths for operations governance
• Monthly performance reviews and quarterly strategy refresh cycles
• ISO 9001:2015 alignment for documented processes and continual improvement

Workshop: Participants build a risk and dependency register plus a RACI-based governance model for their selected initiative portfolio.

Day 5: Building and communicating the strategic operations plan

• Twelve-month roadmap design and milestone sequencing
• Critical-path dependencies and implementation readiness checks
• Budget, resource and benefit phasing
• Power BI dashboard requirements for executive reporting
• Microsoft Project schedule structure for strategic initiatives
• Executive narrative for strategic choices and trade-offs
• Plan review, challenge and adaptation mechanisms

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a board-ready strategic operations plan containing priorities, KPIs, risks, governance and a 12-month implementation roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Project, ISO 9001:2015

A typical training day

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

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions