Developing Leaders

International Strategic Management Programme

The challenge

The Corporate University of this global building materials company was looking for ways to assist the corporation's directors at business unit level to identify new value creation opportunities, and to strengthen decision making and the performance of their businesses. It also wanted to build the confidence of these directors in contributing more fully as leaders of their businesses, rather than primarily as functional specialists. As a result, the University approached us as a potential partner to develop and deliver a 5 day Strategic Management Programme for this target group.

Over a number of years we had already developed a strong and trusting partnership with the Corporate University and also gained substantial ìhands onî experience of the business by working at divisional and business unit level on a variety of organisational critical consulting assignments.

The challenge this time was to design a programme that was relevant to the business. They had previously worked with a well known US business school, but they now wanted a partner who really understood the business and the corporate strategy and could develop a practical, action learning approach to strategic management.  We started by talking to the regional and business division directors who had overall responsibility for the performance of the business units. The goal was first to understand the business challenges they now faced and where the opportunities for improvement were. In the process we both learnt what would be critical to success.

The result

The programme was born during a credit crunch and gained continued investment despite difficult market conditions. Why - because individual participants rated highly the impact of what they learnt. Moreover, group executive directors and divisional heads who took part in reviewing the outcomes on the final day could clearly see the results.

For example, divisional and business heads commented on the strategic management business case presentations:

• "I could see a real difference in the way the business teams were thinking about strategy - particularly the central importance of customer value creation"
• "Frankly, I learnt a lot myself about what a good business case is and what I needed to do differently when appraising a business cases for investment in future"
• "It was difficult to work out who was the Industrial, Marketing or Finance guy - but I guess that was the point"
• "I was so convinced by their arguments and the quality of their thinking that I would have happily sent the whole team to the country to get on with it"

And the participants (business unit directors) have said of the process:

• "Challenging"
• "Well structured topics with excellent facilitation"
• "Allows individual development in team atmosphere"
• "Open the eyes to what and how strategic mapping works"
• "Teaching approach is great to drive learning"
• "Excellent design flow, with many new and challenging ideas. The balance of learning and interactivity was also good."
• "The case study was challenging but extremely well researched and presented."
• "I found the techniques realistic and I really believe that the learning will allow me to return with some fresh ideas"
• "My most powerful lesson was the realisation that business strategy is really about making tough choices, and that implementing them successfully is about people"

Ultimately, measuring the results of any investment like this is about improving business performance. The business chose to increase the level of investment in the programme because it directly supported the strategy to emerge from the recession stronger than its competitors.

How we helped

We worked in close partnership with the Corporate University and the senior business sponsors to:

• Discover and agree the key performance challenges that business unit executive teams were facing, and prioritise the capabilities critical to success
• Develop 4 comprehensive case studies, based on real business units, that provided a realistic purpose  for using  new strategic tools and thinking
• Create a practical way for business unit directors to develop broader perspectives of their roles and the confidence to make new strategic leadership contributions

• Challenge what they thought was possible
• Guide internal contributors to build a programme that both supported and challenged the way they lead the business