Certificate of Strategic Management

Unit 1: Introduction to Strategic Management  

• Understanding strategic management
• Difference between strategy and strategic management
• Strategic thinking and planning
• Mintzberg’s five p’s of strategy
• Levels of strategic decision-making
• The strategic management process: from vision to execution
• Crafting a clear mission, vision, and core values
• Setting long-term goals and smart objectives
• Action planning and communication strategy
• Implementing and monitoring a strategic plan

Unit 2: External Environment Analysis    

• Why environmental analysis matters
• Pestle framework
• Real-world application of pestle analysis
• Competitive rivalry
• Market positioning: standing out from competitors
• Identifying opportunities and threats
• Swot analysis: aligning strengths and weaknesses with external opportunities and threats
• Competitor profiling: tools and techniques

Unit 3: Internal Environment and Competitive Advantage       

• Purpose of internal analysis
• Identifying organisational strengths and weaknesses
• VRIO framework – competitive advantage assessment
• McKinsey 7s model – aligning organisational elements
• Value chain analysis – improving operational efficiency
• Portfolio analysis
• Building and sustaining competitive advantage
• Building and sustaining competitive advantage

Unit 4: Strategic Human Resource Management            

• Aligning hr with business strategy
• Strategic workforce planning
• Hr audits: assessing workforce capabilities
• Organisational structure and strategic impact
• Organisational culture and strategic success
• Succession planning

Unit 5: Developing a Strategic Plan           

• Business-level vs corporate strategy
• Identifying strategic focus areas
• Strategy mapping
• Financial goals
• Customer-centric approaches
• Process improvements
• Learning and growth opportunities
• Selecting the right strategy
• Consistency, suitability and feasibility
• Risk assessment and stakeholder buy-in
• Strategic plan document

Unit 6: Implementing and Controlling Strategy 

• Preparing for strategy execution
• Resource allocation and overcoming resource gaps
• The balanced scorecard
• Effective communication
• Evaluating strategy execution
• Corrective action planning
• Strategy monitoring and control
• Organisational controls

Unit 7: Green Strategy         

• Introduction to green strategy and sustainability
• Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
• Developing a sustainable business model
• Sustainability challenges
• Sustainability and performance metrics

Unit 8: Leading and Managing Strategic Change             

• Leading and managing strategic change
• The need for strategic change
• The importance of strategic change
• Kotter’s 8-step change model
• Lewin’s change management model
• McKinsey 7-s framework for change
• Kübler-Ross change curve
• ADKAR model of change
• Managing resistance to change
• Strategic vs. Operational leadership
• Situational leadership
• Transactional vs transformational leadership
• Contingency theories of leadership
• Path goal theory
• The leadership lifecycle
• Creating sustainable change
• Evaluating change initiatives