About

Linking Strategy to Corporate Success provides today’s hard-pressed managers with a new, effective way to learn about strategy. Built around real-life examples from New Zealand and abroad, classic frameworks and the latest thinking and research, this programme helps managers engage with the strategic problems they will confront, or are confronting, in their working lives.

This premium series seminar offers experienced and potential executives alike an instant guide to the concepts and frameworks they need to know, providing them with a toolkit with which to structure strategic problems and discuss and communicate appropriate pathways to success. The Strategy Pathfinder helps managers create and communicate a sense of order and focus in an increasingly turbulent business environment.

PLUS! Every delegate will receive a complimentary copy of Stephen’s book - “The Strategy Pathfinder”

Key Learning Objectives
• Gain an innovative introduction to what good strategy has come to be about
• Understand essential pathways through the strategy jungle
• Experience real-life case illustrations drawn from Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania to bring out key strategy themes
• Understand classic frameworks and the latest thinking combined into a toolkit with which to approach and structure any strategic scenario
• Gain an understanding of the language and theories often used by consultants and recent business graduates to enable you to better manage and constructively critique their recommendations
• Develop a focus not just on designing strategy but on communicating strategy and involving others in the process of developing clear strategies in your organisation
• Discover the ability to become an active ‘producer’ of your own unique strategies, rather than a passive consumer of others’ ideas

Who should attend?
This seminar will benefit all of today’s senior managers and executives who are operating in an environment where strategic direction and forward planning is essential.

Whether you are looking to improve on your organisation’s strategic directon or improve your own strategic management skills then don’t miss out on the opportunity to attend this fantastic training experience.

The book on which the programme is based:
THE STRATEGY PATHFINDER
DUNCAN ANGWIN (Warwick Business School), STEPHEN CUMMINGS (Victoria University of Wellington) and CHRIS SMITH (University of Adelaide) Blackwell, Oxford 2007

Praise for the book:
“Do we really need another book on strategy? Well ‘The Strategy Pathfinder’ is one with an attitude! Its effective use of an impressively broad range of micro-cases that cover the main concepts of business strategy give a succinct and very practical approach to the subject.”
- Peter Hagström, Stockholm School of Economics.

“The Strategy Pathfinder offers a delightfully innovative, systematic and refreshing new approach to developing strategic management skills.”
- Robert M. Grant, University of Georgetown, Washington

“A unique and innovative approach to developing knowledge and capabilities in strategic management.”
- Michael A. Hitt, Texas A&M University

“A lively, dynamic, and open text that brings people into strategy making in a way that should encourage readers to pursue the ideas further for themselves.”
- David Collis, Harvard Business School

Agenda

Introduction
• Understanding strategy
• Why the best plans are often bad strategy
• The art of communicating strategy
• Pathways to strategic advantage

Reading the environment
Organisations are subject to a wide range of influences from the outside environment.  This session will investigate macro shocks outside of the influence of the organisation and their impact on your corporate strategy, their consequences, prediction tools and how you can plan for the future.
• PEST analysis
• Scenario planning
• Fast failing
• Icarus paradox
• Corporate agility
• Punctuated equilibrium
• Case Study: Strategy at War - British v French 15thC; British v Maori 19thC

Stakeholders: Who are we trying to please?
This session will look at who the influences, movers and shakers are when it comes to your organisations strategy.  Gain an understanding of who runs the organisation and for whom is it run and what it means for your strategic decision making.
• Stakeholder analysis
   - Who influences strategy?
   - How can different interests be managed?
• Power/interest matrix
• Public vs private ownership
• Role of the CEO
• Corporate social responsibility
• When to use consultants
• Case Study: Live Aid and the Lions and ticket scalping

Surveying the Industry Terrain
This session will give you an understanding of the industry you operate in, what are its strategic drivers, where is it in its life cycle, who are you competing with and its influences on your strategy.
• Industry margins
• Industry Structure: Perfect & imperfect competition
• Industry Forces/Porters 5 Forces
• Understanding Industry Life Cycles
• Value nets
• Co-optition/complementors
• Case Study: From gooseberries to kiwis to Zespri

Corporate strategy: The big picture
Take a look at the big picture of your organisations strategy, why does your organisation exist?  What business should it be in? and how can you add value to the organisation?
• Mergers and Acquisitions
• Why does the Multibusiness (M-form) structure exist?
• Portfolio management strategies
• Parenting advantage
• BCG matrix
• Diversification matrix
• Case Study: BMW’s hits and misses

Strategic positioning
Why do some firms in the same industry continually outperform others performing a similar role?  The answer can often lie in the organisations competitive advantage and strategy.  This session will give you the tools you need to determine your position relative to your competition.
• Value chain
• Generic strategy matrix
• Competitive advantage
• Strategy clock
• Resource-based view of the firm
• VRIO analysis
• Case Study: Stella Artois and friends

Living strategy
This session will explain how orgainsational strategy is shaped as much by relationships as it is economics, and the social capital that they create.  Gain an insight into the strengths and pitfalls of your organisations relationships with the outside world.
• Using Systems Thinking in your organisation
• The Knowledge Society and Learning Organisation
• Making the most of your social capital
• Using storytelling as a strategic tool
• Emergent strategies
• The Balanced scorecard approach
• Case Study: Honda motorcycles in the USA

Corporate character
What makes your organisation stand out from a market of organisations offering similar products or services?  This session will look at the importance of national culture, context and the drivers of your organisations culture – and the impact that they have on your strategic decision making processes.
• National culture & context
• Porter diamond
• Seven-S framework
• Cultural web
• Vision, mission & core values
• Case Study: Prudential and H.O.P.E

Crossing borders: Exploring new markets
This session will examine the impact of internationalisation and globalisation on organisations and their strategy.  Explore why organisations move across international boundaries, why some countries have advantages over others, methods of entry and suitable structures for internationalised organisations.
• Localization/Globalization
• Absolute advantage
• Comparative advantage
• Strategic arbitrage
• International product life-cycle
• International business structures
• Case Study: Italians, cell-phones, Ikea

Guiding change
Levels of change can sometimes go beyond an organisations ability to cope.  This session will give insights into how we can measure, react to and influence change in and organisation, and its impacts on your strategy.
• Kotter’s 8 steps & Conventional Models
• Other less conventional change models
• Change management needs & styles
• Understanding the instigators of change - Leadership locus
• Managing the modes of resistance to change
• Blending strategic change and continuity
• Case Study: Pringle knitwear

Sustaining advantage
Sustainable advantage is about more than sustaining your competitive advantage in the market place, but also about how should a firm act as a good corporate citizen.  Are your responsibilities just to share holders – or all of your stakeholders?
• Sustainable competitive advantage
• Understanding the triple bottom-line of economic,  environmental and social performance
• How can your organisation be a socially responsible corporate citizen?
• Business and sustainable development
• Business ethics
• Case Study: Handi Ghandi Curries

The maverick: Recreating strategy
“You don’t want merely to be the best of the best – you want to be considered the only ones who do what you do”  Jerry Garcia – The Grateful Dead
There is no formula to follow to become a maverick organisation, redefining the industry you operate in, but there are ways to foster a strategic maverick culture.
• S-curves
• Value innovation
• Creativity & diversity management
• Next practice
• Unique moments
• Organigraphs and value chimera
• Case Study: From best practice to next practice

Facilitator

Stephen Cummings, Professor, Victoria University

Stephen Cummings is Professor of Strategy at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand, and Distinguished Visiting Professor at Trinity College Dublin. He is also a regular lecturer on MBA and executive programmes at a number of other universities and institutes, including Warwick Business School, UK; Vlerick Management School, Belgium; Ecole Nationale des Pont et Chaussees, Paris; Chinese University Hong Kong; and, Ecole Hassania, Morocco.

Stephen is the author of Recreating Strategy (London, 2002), Images of Strategy (Oxford, 2003), and The Strategy Pathfinder (Oxford, 2007) and has developed and taught on executive programmes for corporations such as HSBC, GKN Westland, Philips, The Financial Times, Corus, Wellington City Council and Prudential.

Stephen Cummings is also facilitating:

• Lean Finance Forum

In-house Training