Learn to be a More Strategic Manager
- Develop better Strategies to Optimise Future Performance.
- Avoid unforeseen disasters in the management of businesses or other organisations
- Bullet proof organisations by preparing for problems before they arise
Who can benefit from this course?
- Anyone who needs to plan ahead for a smoother future
- Managers, business owners, decision makers, coaches (business, life, sports), leaders
- Students, consultants, teachers - anyone wanting to refresh or sharpen their management skills
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
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Nature and Scope of Strategic Management
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What is the Difference between Strategy & Strategic Management?
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The Importance Of Strategic Planning
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Mintzberg’s Five P’s
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How can you Use Mintzberg’s Approach?
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What Strategies Are There?
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Views of Strategy
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Levels of Decisions
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Strategic (Corporate) Level Decisions
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Tactical (Business) Level Decisions
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Operational (Functional) Level Decisions
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Where Do You Start?
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Analysis of your external environment and resource capabilities.
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Identify your mission statement.
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Identify a vision for the future.
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What are your core values and guiding principles?
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What are your long term goals and SMART objectives?
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An action plan with timelines.
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Develop a communication plan.
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Develop and implementation and monitoring plan.
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The External Environment
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Introduction
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Why Analyse the External Environment?
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Tools of Analysis – Macro Environment
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Pestle Analysis
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Political
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Economic
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Socio-Cultural
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Technological
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Legal
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Environmental
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Porter’s Five Forces
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Bargaining Power of Suppliers
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Bargaining Power of Buyers
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Threat Of Potential New Entrants
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Threat Of Substitutes
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Extent Of Competitive Rivalry
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Competitors Review
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Competitor Profiling
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Tools of Analysis – Micro Environment
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SWOT Analysis
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The Internal Environment
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Purpose of Analysing the Internal Environment
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Internal Analysis Tools
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VRIO
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McKinsey 7S Framework
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Using and Applying McKinsey’s Model
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Value Chain
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Portfolio Analysis
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Competitive Advantage
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Strategic Management of Human Resources
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Human Resources
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Staff and Strategic Planning
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What is an HR Audit?
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Components of an HR audit
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Organisational Structure & Strategy
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Hierarchal
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Functional
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Horizontal (also known as Flat)
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Divisional
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Matrix
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Team Based
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Network
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Process
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Succession Planning
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Organisational Culture
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Adhocracy
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Clan
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Hierarchy
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Market
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Developing a Strategic Plan
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Business Level Versus Corporate Level Strategy
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Developing a Strategy
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What Focus are you Wanting to Achieve?
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Strategy Mapping
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Finances
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Customers
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Processes
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Learning/Growth
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Choosing the Right Strategy
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Consistency
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Suitability
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Validity
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Feasibility
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Business Risk
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Attractiveness to Stakeholders
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Strategic Plan Document
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Foundation
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Competitive Advantages
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Vision
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Strategic Objectives and Organisational Goals
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Key Performance Indicators
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Resource Implications
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Implementation
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Strategy Timeline
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Evaluation before implementation
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Some Initial Checks
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Resource Allocation
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Who Allocates Resources?
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Gaps In Resources
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Balanced Scorecard & Strategy Implementation
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The four perspectives
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Implementing the BSC
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Communicating the Implementation
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Evaluation
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Who Evaluates?
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What Are You Evaluating?
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What Happens After Evaluation?
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Strategy Monitoring & Control
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Creating A Control System
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Types of Control
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Green Strategy and Sustainability
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Sustainability
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What is a Green Strategy?
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What do Companies Need to Consider?
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Creating a more Sustainable Business Strategy
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Assess the problem and define the objectives
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What is the organisation’s mission?
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Identify the available options
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Implementation
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Sustainability and Strategy - Areas for Concern
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Management Buy-In
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Stakeholder Engagement
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Goal Type
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Poor Monitoring
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Lack Of Investment
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Not Aligning Strategies
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Loss Of Innovation
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Missed Cost Savings
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Negative Perception
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Managing Strategic Change
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What is Strategic Change?
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Why do we need Strategic Change?
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Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and Change
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Impacts of Strategic Change
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What Causes the Need for Strategic Change?
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Approaches To Managing Strategic Change – Emergent and Prescriptive Tools
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Developing A Strategic Change Plan
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Sustainable Change
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Pillars of Sustainable Change
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Leadership
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Strategy
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Culture
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Structure
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Systems
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A Model for Sustainable Change
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The Prerequisite Approach
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Building Awareness
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Levels Of Motivation and Desire
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Assess Abilities
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Creating Opportunities
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Feedback
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Leading Strategic Change
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Leading Strategic Change
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What is Strategic Leadership?
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Leadership and Management
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Leadership Styles
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Situational Leadership Theory
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Life Cycle of Leadership
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Contingency Theories
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Fielder
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Style Theories
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The Blake and Mouton Managerial Grid
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Informal Leadership
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Inspirational Theories
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Path Goal Theory
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Instrumental Theories
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Four Framework Leadership Model
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Limitations of Leadership Theories
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Leading Strategic Planning and Change
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Tools
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Discuss the nature and scope of Strategic Management in organisations.
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Analyse the external environment that affects an organisation’s operations
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Determine potential applications of strategic management to human resources in an organisation.
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Determine how to develop a strategic plan.
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Recommend the implementation of components of a strategic plan
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Develop socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable approaches within a strategic plan
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Explain how to manage strategic change.
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Explain how to lead or facilitate strategic change
Developing strategy is all about thinking ahead
- by being aware of tools and resources that are and will become available,
- then making appropriate decisions that are focussed on achieving the long-term goals of a business or organisation.
Three key parts to strategy:
- Long term goals/objectives – what is wanted to be achieved long term (3-5 years)
- Courses of action – the ways in which the objectives will be achieved
- Resources – what will be needed in order to successfully carry out those courses of action
Approach Strategic Planning Systematically
Throughout this course you will learn a variety of techniques that enable a well considered and systematic approach to strategic management. Strategic planning starts with an analysis of your external environment and your resources available to deal with external factors. Next you should identify your mission statement; and based on that, recognise a vision for the future.
Once you know where you are heading and your strengths and weaknesses, ask yourself "What are your Core values and guiding principles?" These are guidelines that help determine how people act, prioritise, made decisions and so on at work – you might see them referred to as values statements. These are written in order to support the meeting of your mission statement. As with the mission and vision, they need to align with the focus of your business and the strategy that is being developed. Therefore they may also be adapted over time.
Finally, ask yourself what are your long term objectives? (ie. specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely objectives).
The SMART acronym is a pattern to follow for most goals which enhances the likelihood of realising them. By asking probing questions of yourself (or colleagues) it is possible to determine the necessary elements to achieve a goal. Stating “we want to increase sales” is quite a vague goal but adopting a SMART approach it is possible to determine what this would look like. For example:
- Specific – We want to increase sales by providing a more comprehensive and user-friendly website.
- Measurable – We want to have 25,000 views and a sales conversion rate of 2% by the end of the new financial year.
- Achievable – We will need contributors from IT, marketing and sales and someone managing the project.
- Realistic – The resources are available within the organization and improving the website is a desired objective for the next year.
- Timely – To allow enough time to hit the targets relating to the website it should be fully functional in its new iteration by the end of the second financial quarter.
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