Strategic Thinking Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Advanced Certificate on completion
Who attends Business Unit Leaders, Functional Directors 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-SP-071

Before you join: Participants should have several years of management, specialist leadership, programme or advisory experience and familiarity with how their organisation sets priorities and allocates resources.

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 and managers are frequently asked to make consequential choices with incomplete information, competing stakeholder demands and limited resources. Strategic thinking provides the discipline to define the real issue, test assumptions, interpret external signals and choose where to focus. Without this discipline, planning can become a list of initiatives rather than a set of coherent choices about customers, capabilities, investment and risk.

This advanced course develops the judgement and methods needed to shape, assess and communicate strategy. Participants examine strategic intent, external forces, industry economics, organisational capabilities and business models. They use PESTLE, Porter's Five Forces, VRIO, scenario planning, issue trees, decision matrices and strategy maps to turn ambiguous challenges into defensible strategic choices. The course also addresses uncertainty, strategic risk, stakeholder influence, governance and performance measures.

Teaching combines concise instructor briefings with sector-based cases, group analysis, facilitated strategic discussions, decision simulations and structured application planning. Participants work with realistic strategic problems such as market entry, service redesign, portfolio prioritisation, regulatory change and competitive response. Each participant leaves with a practical strategic thinking toolkit and a one-page strategy format that can be adapted to a current organisational priority.

The course is suited to experienced managers, functional heads, programme leaders, strategy staff and senior specialists who contribute to enterprise, business-unit or functional strategy. It is particularly relevant for professionals moving from operational management into roles requiring cross-functional judgement and long-term decision-making.

What you will be able to do

  • Frame ambiguous business challenges using issue trees, assumptions and strategic questions
  • Assess external conditions using PESTLE, Five Forces, stakeholder analysis and competitor intelligence
  • Diagnose organisational capabilities using VRIO, value chain analysis and dynamic capabilities
  • Construct plausible scenarios and identify strategic signposts, contingencies and no-regrets actions
  • Generate strategic options using business model patterns, adjacencies and customer jobs-to-be-done
  • Evaluate strategic choices using suitability, feasibility, acceptability and decision matrices
  • Design strategy maps, OKRs, governance routines and strategic risk measures
  • Communicate strategic choices through executive briefings, stakeholder narratives and one-page strategies

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Greater confidence challenging weak assumptions behind major decisions
  • A repeatable method for turning complex problems into strategic choices
  • Stronger executive communication on trade-offs, risks and recommended actions
  • Practical scenario planning skills for uncertain markets and policy conditions
  • A credible one-page strategy format for leading cross-functional discussions

For your organisation

  • Clearer prioritisation of initiatives, investments and resource commitments
  • Earlier identification of market, regulatory and competitive threats
  • Better alignment between strategic intent, operating plans and performance measures
  • More disciplined challenge of assumptions before major commitments
  • Stronger cross-functional agreement on strategic choices and accountabilities

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can frame strategic issues and distinguish strategic choices from operational improvements.

  • Strategic thinking distinguished from strategic planning, operational improvement and problem solving
  • Mintzberg's intended, emergent and realised strategy concepts contrasted
  • Systems maps reveal feedback loops, delays and unintended consequences
  • Reframing assumptions through ladder of inference and double-loop learning
  • Strategic questions framed around choices, constraints, stakeholders and time horizons
  • Distinguishing symptoms, root causes and strategic issues using issue trees

Participants can define strategic intent that provides direction for difficult choices.

  • Mission, vision and values tested for decision-making usefulness
  • Strategic intent translated into measurable long-term ambitions
  • Three Horizons separates core optimisation, emerging opportunities and future options
  • Ambition statements calibrated against mandate, resources and risk appetite
  • Strategic themes derive from material issues and stakeholder expectations
  • Choice cascade connects winning aspiration, where-to-play and how-to-win

Participants can assess external forces, stakeholders and competitive conditions affecting strategic choices.

  • PESTLE identifies political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental forces
  • Porter's Five Forces estimates industry attractiveness and profit-pool pressures
  • Stakeholder salience maps power, legitimacy, urgency and engagement priorities
  • Signals distinguish trends, uncertainties, predetermined elements and weak signals
  • Competitor intelligence profiles capabilities, likely moves and response options
  • Market boundaries tested through customer jobs, substitutes and value chains

Participants can diagnose the internal strengths and constraints that determine feasible strategy.

  • Resource-based view identifies strategic assets, capabilities and constraints
  • VRIO analysis tests value, rarity, imitability and organisational support
  • Value chain analysis locates cost drivers, differentiation sources and bottlenecks
  • Core competence tests separate strategic strengths from table stakes
  • Dynamic capabilities assess sensing, seizing and transforming capacity
  • Financial and non-financial evidence challenges management's dominant logic

Participants can create credible options and select among them using explicit evaluation criteria.

  • Strategic options generated through adjacencies, business model patterns and scenarios
  • Options evaluated using suitability, feasibility and acceptability criteria
  • Decision matrices expose trade-offs among return, risk, timing and reversibility
  • Real-options logic values staged commitments under uncertainty
  • Pre-mortem analysis identifies failure modes before resource commitments
  • Strategic choice narratives state rationale, assumptions and rejected alternatives

Participants can test strategic choices against uncertainty and prepare proportionate contingencies.

  • Scenario planning separates critical uncertainties from predictable driving forces
  • Scenario logics construct plausible, challenging and internally consistent futures
  • Wind-tunnelling tests strategic options against contrasting scenario conditions
  • Signposts specify observable indicators triggering review or contingency action
  • Contingency plans define no-regrets moves, hedges and strategic bets
  • Strategic resilience balances efficiency, redundancy, flexibility and recovery capacity

Participants can assess and redesign business models in response to changing customer and market conditions.

  • Business Model Canvas maps customer segments, value propositions and economics
  • Customer jobs-to-be-done reveals functional, social and emotional demand
  • Value proposition design links pains, gains and differentiated offers
  • Revenue architecture compares recurring, transactional, licensing and outcome-based models
  • Operating model choices align processes, governance, talent and technology
  • Business model stress tests expose dependencies, cannibalisation and regulatory exposure

Participants can connect strategic choices to objectives, initiatives, governance and performance measures.

  • Strategy maps connect outcomes, customer value, capabilities and enabling assets
  • Objectives and Key Results translate strategic themes into measurable commitments
  • Balanced Scorecard measures financial, customer, process and learning outcomes
  • Strategic initiatives sequenced through dependencies, milestones and resource envelopes
  • Governance forums assign decision rights, escalation routes and review cadence
  • Risk registers link strategic assumptions, indicators, owners and mitigations

Participants can communicate strategic choices and build support without concealing trade-offs.

  • Stakeholder narratives adapt strategic messages without diluting strategic choices
  • Power-interest mapping prioritises sponsorship, consultation, partnership and monitoring
  • Strategic dialogue surfaces dissent, tests assumptions and builds shared meaning
  • Executive briefings communicate choices, evidence, trade-offs and required decisions
  • Constructive challenge techniques counter groupthink, anchoring and confirmation bias
  • Coalition mapping identifies allies, blockers, persuaders and engagement actions

Participants can structure a current strategic priority into choices, measures, assumptions and next actions.

  • Strategic issue statements connect evidence, choices, outcomes and accountabilities
  • One-page strategy formats articulate priorities, measures, initiatives and risks
  • Assumption registers record confidence levels, owners, tests and review dates
  • Strategy review cycles combine performance data, environmental signals and decisions
  • Personal application plans specify priority decisions, stakeholders and first actions
  • Learning transfer commitments establish peer challenge and follow-through routines

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

What you take back to work

  1. Strategic issue-framing template
  2. PESTLE and Five Forces analysis worksheet
  3. VRIO and value chain diagnostic
  4. Scenario planning and signpost template
  5. Strategic option evaluation matrix
  6. One-page strategy and application plan

Who should attend

  • Business Unit Leaders — need to make clear choices on priorities, investment and market position
  • Functional Directors — need to align functional plans with enterprise strategy and resource decisions
  • Strategy Managers — need structured methods for analysis, option development and executive recommendations
  • Programme Directors — need to connect major change programmes to strategic outcomes and measures
  • Senior Project Managers — need to assess strategic implications beyond delivery scope and milestones
  • Public Sector Managers — need to balance mandate, stakeholder expectations, public value and constrained resources

Skills and tools covered

Strategic issue framingEnvironmental analysisScenario planningStrategic option evaluationBusiness model designStrategy execution alignment

Tools and standards

PESTLE analysis, Porter's Five Forces, VRIO framework, Scenario planning

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to introduce methods, followed by case analysis, group exercises, decision simulations and facilitated peer challenge. Cases reflect strategic issues common in financial services, public institutions, infrastructure, international business and mission-driven organisations. Participants analyse evidence, compare options, test choices against uncertainty and present concise executive recommendations. Application planning links each method to a current workplace priority. Instructor feedback focuses on the quality of strategic questions, assumptions, trade-offs, evidence and communication.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have several years of management, specialist leadership, programme or advisory experience and familiarity with how their organisation sets priorities and allocates resources. They should be comfortable discussing financial, operational and stakeholder information, although advanced finance expertise is not required. Experience contributing to annual planning, transformation, market analysis or major investment decisions is useful. This course does not require prior strategy qualifications, formal consulting experience, MBA study or advanced statistical analysis. Participants will gain most value by bringing a current strategic issue from their own role.

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, specialist leadership, programme or advisory experience and exposure to organisational planning or priority-setting. No formal strategy qualification, MBA or consulting background is required.

Bring a current strategic issue, such as a growth decision, service redesign, market entry, major investment, policy change or transformation programme. You do not need to share confidential data; a sufficiently realistic version of the issue is enough.

It is designed for experienced managers and senior specialists who influence enterprise, business-unit, functional or programme strategy. It is less suited to participants seeking an introductory planning course or a purely operational management course.

Strategic planning often focuses on producing plans, targets, budgets and implementation schedules. This course concentrates first on the quality of thinking behind the plan: framing issues, testing assumptions, assessing choices and handling uncertainty.

The methods can be used to prepare decision papers, assess investment proposals, challenge project assumptions, structure leadership discussions and review strategic initiatives. Participants develop an application plan linked to a current workplace priority.

The five days contain approximately 32.5 contact hours, usually delivered from 08:30 to 16:30 each day. Time is divided among instructor input, case work, group analysis, simulations, peer discussion and application planning.

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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