Certificate in Strategic Business Planning

Certificate in Strategic Thinking & Planning

Boost your strategic edge with our Certificate in Strategic Thinking & Planning. Master essential frameworks, make smarter decisions, and drive your organization’s success—ideal for leaders and professionals at all levels.

Program Overview

Empowering Leaders to Think Strategically and Achieve Results

Strategy is about identifying where you are, where you want to be, and determining the best way to get there. It involves not only deciding what to do but also what not to do—that is, making strategic trade-offs—as well as choosing where to go, why, when, and how.

This intensive workshop focuses on practical strategy in action. Throughout the course, we will examine a wide range of strategic thinking and analysis models and assess their relevance to today’s business climate. We will explore various approaches to strategic thinking, including sustainability, tensions, psychology, behavioral strategy, and how to blend creativity with entrepreneurship.

By identifying the critical link between a business’s overall vision and the operational decisions needed to implement and support the strategy, this workshop will cover numerous strategic models and frameworks. It will also provide the language and concepts necessary to give delegates the confidence to apply these models within their own organizations. Attending this workshop will boost your confidence in bridging the gap between strategy creation and implementation, thereby increasing the likelihood of success in your organization.

The course is highly interactive, combining theory with practical sessions. You will have the opportunity to share your experiences, learn from others through group discussions, and enhance your skills through a series of individual and group exercises.

Brought to you in partnership with Informa Connect Academy

This course is delivered in collaboration with BSI Global partner, Informa Connect Academy, a global leader in professional training and education. Together, we provide access to expert-led, industry-relevant learning experiences that help professionals like you stay ahead.

Earn the Informa Learning Certificate (ILC)

Upon completion, you will receive the Informa Learning Certificate (ILC)—a credential recognized for its rigorous standards and real-world impact. Each ILC-accredited course is independently validated to ensure you gain practical skills and knowledge that are relevant, actionable, and aligned with global workforce needs.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you’ll gain the knowledge and practical skills to transform your approach to strategy. These learning outcomes are designed to empower you to think critically, act decisively, and lead your organization confidently through today’s complex business landscape. Here’s what you’ll achieve:

• Understand the concept of ‘Strategic Thinking’ and the principles involved in setting the direction of your organization or business unit
• Leverage the tools and frameworks that you can apply to the process of strategic thinking
• Translate strategic intentions into operational plans against which the progress of your organization can be planned
• Identify the need for flexibility in strategic plans and how to respond to external circumstances – avoiding the danger of strategic rigidity
• Create your own ‘strategist’s check list’ to ensure that you are thinking and planning strategically

Who Should Attend Training?

This course is designed for Executives, Senior Managers, Business Unit Leaders, Regional Heads, professionals working in Strategic Planning departments, and anyone seeking a solid understanding of the frameworks and tools that shape strategic thinking.

It is also ideal for individuals who are already familiar with strategic concepts but would benefit from an intensive refresher on the latest thinking. Covering strategic thinking from a foundational “101” level through to more advanced concepts, the course is suitable for both those with no prior experience and those with some background in strategic thinking.

Certification Requirements

Learners must meet two criteria to be eligible for the Informa Learning Certificate (ILC), issued in collaboration with The Balanced Scorecard Institute (BSI):

Assessment

Learners are required to complete the end-of-course assessment with a pass mark of 70%

Attendance

Eligibility for the end-of-course assessment is linked to full attendance
Unavoidable absence of up to 2 hours of the total course duration may be considered upon prior written approval to Informa Connect Academy

Learners who do not qualify for the ILC/BSI certificate will receive a Certificate of Attendance from Informa Connect Academy, indicating the number of hours attended.

Course Outline

Outlining the Direction

• The necessity for strategic business planning and sensible thinking in the 21st century
• The need for complete involvement and planned input from managers and teams
• Discover why strategic business planning, and the appropriate analysis is essential for organisations
• Generative AI has the ability to impact the entire value chain and drive productivity and growth

Strategic Business Planning With a Customer-Centric Mindset

• Implement the right mindset towards improvement, renewal, change, and the customer
• Core values and beliefs influence the right mind set
• Consider the important significance of ‘frames of reference’ on your business
• High-level view on the way you think about business and the concept of the ‘big picture’
• The important place for creativity and innovation in strategic business planning

Strategic Business Focus, Attention to Detail, and Why It Matters

• Awareness of the balance between operational business issues and strategic objectives
• Understanding how to connect the tangible aspects, like finances and operations, with the intangible ones, like company culture and employee motivation
• Current elements of corporate strategy development towards business planning and implementation
• Operational and scalable leadership, an approach to corporate strategy and planning
• Start to link strategies and involve them with the business plan using a strategic activity tree

What Is Strategy and How Does It Link Through to the Planning Process?

• What is strategy and where does it come from?
• Understand the corporate and marketing impact of inspiring visions on your business
• Explore why strategy comes first—before tactics and business planning— and how it brings change
• The concept and format of the new strategy cycle toward analysis and planning
• The ‘7 questions sequence’ from vision to goals, producing the planning frameworks
• The ‘strategic management lifecycle’—analysis to business planning approach explained

Strategic Planning, Strategic Thinking, and Understanding Competition

• Strategic thinking and its impact versus traditional strategic planning formats
• Understanding why strategic business planning should consider competition in detail
• Exercise: How to support your strategy and actively focus your management
• Exercise: Strategic schools of thought — prescriptive, descriptive, and the configuration

Core Ideas Behind Strategic Thinking

• Decide on the governing criteria for your organisation – defining three to be prioritised
• Digital strategy and analytics, the impact of social media and the influence on thinking
• The 5Ps of strategic business planning and the initial questions to be considered
• Achieve reinvention through generative AI by developing end-to-end business capabilities
• Further work on competitive advantage and a discussion on its sources and the strategies
• How to prepare operational management for competitive advantage including action plan
• The critical difference between corporate and business level strategic planning

Strategic Visioning to Assess the Future – Analysing Scenarios

• Future based thinking styles in strategic business planning, linking corporate to team value
• The ‘product life cycle’ to plan for products and brands, understand what customer sees
• Brand and focus applying the Boston Matrix, supporting the importance of strategic planning

Strategy Maps and Their Impact

• A review of strategy maps and how they help your strategic business planning process
• Corporate value – A concept to support your strategic decision making
• Consider how corporate value affects your duties as a senior manager

Improving Business Performance

• Understanding the characteristics of successful companies
• Discover the relationship between market segmentation and competitive assessment
• Stakeholder analysis, acceptability, and approach, and understanding their impact
• Diagnosis of your business performance, using a competitively focused SWOT analysis
• Strategy scenarios, a logical process to manage strategies for change

Identifying and Managing Factors Influencing Implementation

• Identifying and prioritising influencers using Balanced Scorecard and four perspectives
• How to link benchmarking and critical success factors to strategy and tactics
• Linking strategy and tactics to budgets and then to KPIs, to complete the value chain
• Strategies based on stakeholder agenda analysis

From Strategy to Operational Goals

• What to include in your strategic business plan and how to meet your objectives
• An approach for establishing and maintaining structured planning processes, including budgets and forecasts
• Tips and tricks for a successful business plan structure

Making It Happen – Leveraging Innovation

• Diagnosing strategic business change and understanding the dynamics
• Consider the factors and balance of organisational forces
• Create your own ‘strategic business plan’ for your business within the standard frameworks (Include all the values and items we have discussed over the days as required)

Assessment Exercise and Personal Action Plan

Schedule and Registration