Strategic Planning for Senior Executives Training Course

Course overview

Senior executives are expected to set direction amid volatile markets, competing investment demands, regulatory pressure and stakeholder scrutiny. Yet many strategic plans fail because they are built from disconnected functional priorities, unsupported assumptions or broad ambitions that cannot be translated into capital allocation, operating targets and accountable action. This course helps leaders create a defensible strategic agenda that aligns enterprise choices with measurable business outcomes.

Participants examine how to diagnose strategic position, define the few choices that matter, test alternative futures and convert strategic intent into an execution architecture. They use tools including PESTLE analysis, Porter’s Five Forces, value-chain analysis, scenario planning, stakeholder mapping, strategic risk assessment and the Balanced Scorecard. The course develops practical skills in setting strategic priorities, evaluating strategic options, defining strategic objectives, selecting leading and lagging indicators, and linking initiatives to budgets, governance and executive decision rights.

Teaching combines instructor-led briefings with executive case discussions, facilitated strategy workshops and structured peer challenge. Participants work on a realistic enterprise scenario and progressively build a strategy-on-a-page, strategic objective map, scenario assumptions, risk register, KPI dashboard specification and 90-day mobilisation plan. They leave with an integrated strategic planning pack that can be adapted for their own business unit, function or organisation and used to lead planning conversations with boards, executive teams and senior stakeholders.

The course is designed for experienced leaders who influence enterprise, divisional or functional direction and need a disciplined method for moving from analysis to strategic choices and accountable delivery.

Course objectives

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

• Diagnose an organisation’s strategic position using PESTLE, Five Forces, value-chain and capability analysis
• Formulate strategic choices using a clear where-to-play and how-to-win decision framework
• Construct scenario narratives and identify the critical assumptions, signposts and contingent actions for each future
• Prioritise strategic initiatives using impact, feasibility, risk and resource-allocation criteria
• Develop a strategy map linking strategic objectives, value drivers, initiatives and accountable executive owners
• Design a Balanced Scorecard with leading indicators, lagging indicators, targets and review cadences
• Create a strategic risk register using ISO 31000 risk assessment principles and defined treatment actions
• Produce a 90-day strategic mobilisation plan covering governance, communications, milestones and decision gates

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Chief Executives and Managing Directors — who must set enterprise direction and secure alignment across competing business priorities
• Executive Directors — who translate board expectations into strategic choices, investment decisions and delivery accountability
• Business Unit Heads — who need to build defensible growth, turnaround or market-positioning plans
• Functional Directors — who must connect functional roadmaps, capabilities and budgets to corporate strategy
• Strategy and Corporate Development Leaders — who facilitate strategic planning cycles and assess strategic options
• Senior Transformation Leaders — who need to convert strategic intent into governed portfolios of change initiatives

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of management or senior leadership experience and be familiar with their organisation’s operating model, annual planning process, budget cycle and key performance measures. They should be able to interpret basic financial information such as revenue, operating costs, margin, capital expenditure and return on investment. Familiarity with SWOT analysis, KPIs and business-case discussions is useful, but advanced finance, data science or prior strategy-consulting experience is not required. Participants do not need specialist software expertise; basic confidence using spreadsheets and presentation materials is sufficient.

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor-led inputs to establish each planning method, followed by executive-level case analysis and facilitated application. Participants assess a simulated organisation’s market position, debate strategic trade-offs, build scenarios, rank initiatives and design a strategy map in small working groups. Microsoft Excel is used for prioritisation and KPI logic, while Miro supports visual strategy mapping and stakeholder work. Each day includes peer review and instructor challenge. The final session converts learning into an individual application plan for a current organisational priority.

Course outline

Day 1: Strategic context and enterprise diagnosis

• Strategic planning as a cycle of diagnosis, choice, execution and learning
• Defining enterprise purpose, strategic intent and planning horizons
• PESTLE analysis for political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental forces
• Porter’s Five Forces analysis for industry attractiveness and competitive pressure
• Value-chain analysis for sources of cost advantage and differentiation
• Capability assessment using core competencies, gaps and strategic assets
• Stakeholder mapping for board, customer, regulator, investor and workforce expectations

Workshop: Participants complete a strategic diagnosis of a case organisation and produce a one-page external, internal and stakeholder assessment.

Day 2: Making strategic choices under uncertainty

• Separating strategic choices from operational improvement activities
• Where-to-play and how-to-win choice architecture
• Business model analysis using customer value proposition, revenue logic and cost structure
• Scenario planning with driving forces, critical uncertainties and scenario narratives
• Assumption mapping to distinguish known facts, uncertainties and management beliefs
• Strategic option generation across growth, efficiency, partnership, digital and portfolio moves
• Option evaluation using strategic fit, value, feasibility, risk and timing criteria

Workshop: Participants build three plausible future scenarios and recommend a preferred strategic option with explicit assumptions and signposts.

Day 3: Priorities, investment and strategic risk

• Translating strategic choices into strategic themes and objectives
• Initiative portfolio design and dependency mapping
• Impact-effort matrices and weighted prioritisation scoring in Microsoft Excel
• Capital allocation principles for strategic initiatives and capability investments
• Strategic business cases using benefits, costs, risks and sensitivity analysis
• ISO 31000 strategic risk identification, assessment and treatment planning
• Decision rights and escalation routes for executive portfolio governance

Workshop: Participants score a portfolio of competing initiatives, allocate constrained resources and produce a prioritised investment recommendation.

Day 4: From strategy to measurable execution

• Strategy maps and cause-and-effect relationships between objectives
• Balanced Scorecard perspectives and objective design
• Leading indicators, lagging indicators and KPI quality tests
• Target setting, thresholds and performance baseline selection
• Dashboard requirements and executive reporting design in Microsoft Power BI
• Operating rhythm design for quarterly reviews, monthly performance forums and annual refreshes
• Strategic communications planning for leadership teams, employees and external stakeholders

Workshop: Participants create a strategy map and Balanced Scorecard specification with objectives, KPIs, targets, owners and review cadence.

Day 5: Mobilising the plan and leading strategic alignment

• Converting strategic objectives into a 90-day mobilisation roadmap
• Milestone planning, decision gates and benefits-realisation checkpoints
• Executive governance structures, sponsorship roles and accountability mechanisms
• Cross-functional alignment techniques for resolving priority conflicts
• Strategic narrative development for board and executive presentations
• Challenge sessions for testing strategic coherence, evidence and implementation readiness
• Personal application planning for a live organisational strategic priority

Workshop: Participants present an integrated strategic planning pack and produce a 90-day action plan for applying the method in their own organisation.

Tools & standards covered

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI, Miro, ISO 31000

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