Strategy in Practice
A program for operating managers
Flattened organizational hierarchies have shifted strategic responsibility from the C-suite to the front line. Consequently, operating managers are increasingly tasked with thinking and acting strategically across a broad range of disciplines, from R&D, innovation, manufacturing, service functions, marketing and sales, and finance to controlling, IT, and HR.
The reason for this can be found in today’s global market developments as well as in diversified,
performance-driven organizations, where the simple execution of a given strategy is no longer enough. Managers must now fully understand the strategic context, detect environmental shifts, and constantly adjust their management decisions. To survive and thrive, they must think beyond daily deliverables on almost every level.
Strategy in Practice (SIP) brings a practical perspective to the dynamics of strategy. It introduces participants to best practices and the latest thinking of sustained performance. Participants will gain valuable insights into the basic concepts and the most current developments of strategic planning. They will learn how to apply this knowledge directly in their company in order to align current business performance, increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
Target Audience
Executives with direct line responsibility for growth and profitability who contribute to strategy as a member of the management team, or corporate executives with strategic oversight.Key Topics
- Analyzing strategy beyond the five forces
- Understanding the link between corporate strategy and value management
- Identifying strategic patterns of global market developments and discontinuities in business environments
- Analyzing resources and relationships regarding strategic moves
- Aligning strategies and operations, organizational structures, processes, and people to make strategy happen
Take-Home Value
Participants will learn how to get a head start on key strategic shifts within their organizations, gaining deeper, strategic insight into businesses through guidance, frameworks, and state-of-the-art tools. In addition, class participants will be expected to keep a session-by-session journal to apply what they have learned back on the job.Meet the Faculty
Olaf Plötner (Program Director)Full biography
Professor Olaf Plötner is the dean of ESMT executive education. He joined ESMT as one of the first faculty members and managing director of ESMT Customized Solutions GmbH in 2002. Olaf’s current research and teaching focus on strategic management, industrial market management, and sales management in global B2B markets. His work is reflected in his most recent book Counter Strategies in Global Markets, published by Palgrave Macmillan, Springer, and SDX Shanghai. His research has been portrayed in journals such as Industrial Marketing Management and Journal of Business and Industrial Marking as well as in leading international media such as Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, China Daily Europe, and Financial Times.
Olaf is a visiting professor at Darden School of Business and a regular guest lecturer at Freie Universität Berlin and ESCP Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris.
Olaf also worked as a consultant at the Boston Consulting Group in Frankfurt and as a director at Siemens AG in Boston.
Matthew S. Bothner
Full biography
Matt Bothner joined ESMT European School of Management and Technology in 2011 as a full professor and the first holder of the Deutsche Telekom Chair in Leadership and HR Development. Before joining ESMT, Matt was a visiting associate professor of sociology at Cornell University as well as a fellow at the Center for the Study of Economy and Society at Cornell.
Urs Müller
Full biography
Urs Müller's areas of expertise include strategy, change management, ethics and intercultural management. Before coming to ESMT, he was a consultant for A.T. Kearney and taught at the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany, at the Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika in Torun, Poland, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.
Paul Strebel
Full biography
Paul Strebel works with boards of directors and top management teams on strategic vision and the resolution of boardroom conflicts. His work on the anticipation and management of breakpoints, change and governance has influenced many managers and organizations. He has consulted and led seminars for more than 50 multinationals in Europe, U.S., South Africa, the Middle East and S.E. Asia.
ESMT European School of
