Strategy Building and Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Introduction:

Why do some companies appear to have little difficulty in growing and changing whilst other companies decline and even collapse? Why do companies fail in markets that are showing considerable growth? Why is it that in many businesses 80% of the total available profits are earned by just the top 3 or 4 companies?

The answer is simple and straightforward - but it is not easy. Companies that grow and change are companies that know how to build robust strategies that secure and sustain competitive advantage. The concepts of strategy and competitive advantage are at the very heart of business success. This has always been the case. The big challenge in the 21st century is that almost all businesses are becoming more complex, more competitive and more international

This training focuses on these two central and vital concepts – strategy and competitive advantage. The training is relevant to managers in every part of the organization because increasingly managers need to understand how their part of the business contributes to these two important issues – building a robust strategy and sustaining competitive advantage

Targeted Groups:

Experienced Operations, Marketing, and Human Resource Managers
Managers from the Public Sector tasked with Development, Regeneration, Boosting Inward Investment, Tourism and Employment Growth
Bankers, Corporate Strategists, Investment Analysts
Program Managers
Project Directors and Newly Appointed Directors seeking to gain greater / more modern perspective on Strategy and Competitive Advantage

Conference Objectives:

At the end of this conference the participants will be able to:

Understand the concepts of strategy and strategic management
Understand the main frameworks within which robust strategies people s can be created
Understand the linkage between strategy building and implementation
Understand the meaning of the concept of competitive advantage
Ensure that strategy is changed and developed to create a sustained level of high performance
Understand how their specialist parts of the organization contribute to strategy building and achieving sustainable competitive advantage
Accelerate thinking speed and problem resolution for all dilemmas
Improve understanding of the impact of operational specialization on corporate strategy
Improve team working capabilities in analyzing and solving strategic problems
Improve skills in ensuring the most effective impact of individual specializations
Greater motivation and proactivity

Targeted Competencies:

Strategic thinking
Strategic management
Risk management
Building strategies
People skills

Conference Content:
Unit 1: Business Strategy, Strategic Management, and Strategic Choice:

Generic Competitive Strategies
Structural Analysis of Industries and Companies
“Competitive Positioning” VS “Blue Ocean” approaches
How value migrates over Time
Customer Selection and the Principle of Differentiated Customer Engagement
The Integrated Supply-Demand Chain as the Basis of 21st Century Strategic Thinking
Choice and Complexity – The Fundamental Problem in Strategic Thinking and Planning

Unit 2: How to Build a Robust Strategy:

The Interface of External and Internal Analysis: Trade-Offs and Balance
The Concept of Shareholder Value and its Relationship to Strategic Planning
Financial and Non-Financial Aspects of Strategy, Objectives and Mechanisms
Advanced Application of the “Balanced Scorecard” Principles
Diagnosing Strategic Problems and Opportunities
Strategic Choice – Offensive versus Defensive Strategic Programs
How to Build and Use the “5-page Strategy Framework”

Unit 3: The Concept of Competitive Advantage and the Ways of Securing Competitive Advantage:

Review of the tools used so far
Competitive Advantage through Cost Leadership
Competitive Advantage through Product/Service Differentiation
Competitive Advantage through Differentiation of the Business Model
Combining Cost Leadership with Differentiation
Balancing Cost Leadership and Differentiation in Delivering Value to Customers

Unit 4: Strategic Risk and Global Strategic Management:

Identifying and Assessing Risk and Uncertainty
Tools and Techniques in Managing Risk and Uncertainty
The Essence of Globalization and Global Business Strategy
Globalization – Managing the Strategic shift from between National/International/Global phases
Globalization – Managing Organizational Change and the Human Resource dimension
How to Build and Manage a Strategic Planning team
Managing the Interface of Strategy and Global Operations

Unit 5: Building Tomorrow’s Organization Out of Today’s Organization:

Strategic Renewal: The Life-Cycle Principle Applied to Business Strategy
The Importance of Vision and Values in Driving Strategic Development and Organizational Change
The Senior Executive as Strategic Leader and Communicator
The Senior Executive as Coach and Mentor - Getting Strategic Thinking into all Levels of Management
Building Tomorrow’s Organisation out of Today’s organization
The Corporate and Individual Value of Strategic Thinking