Business Management Training from CBT Direct

Moving From an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker Curriculum Outline

Thinking Strategically

Overview/Description
As business success becomes more difficult to achieve, companies are discovering the importance of strategic thinking. Being lean and mean and process efficient is no good if you dont have the correct business strategy. But what is strategic thinking and what does it look like in the context of your business? This course is focused on discovering and using the key elements of successful strategic thinking.

Target Audience

Those in management who are engaged in or preparing for a more strategic role in their business. This includes senior executives, operation managers, consultants, and business people looking to add a more strategic edge to their business activities.

Expected Duration

2.0 hours

Objectives :

Lesson Overview

Recognize the importance of understanding strategic management

Defining Strategy

Match the key elements in business strategy to their strategic steps

Match corporate and competitive strategies to their examples

When Operational Effectiveness Fails

Identify the reasons why operational effectiveness alone is insufficient for organizational success

Match strategic positioning types to their examples

The Evolution of Strategy

Match the five phases in the evolution of strategy development to their examples

Match each strategic management school of thought to its distinct characteristics

Strategic Principles in Context

Identify examples of the steps of strategy formulation

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of strategic thinking

Strategic Thinking Approaches and Competencies

Recognize the insight-based approaches to strategic thinking

Match the five strategic thinking competencies to their examples

Acting as a Strategic Thinker

Match the competencies for transforming strategic thinking into action to their examples

Dynamic Strategy

Identify examples of questions used to define a strategic position

Identify examples of the steps used to prepare for strategic innovation

Course Number: stgy_01_a01_bs_enus

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Sustaining Competitive Advantage

Overview/Description

Target Audience

Those in management who are engaged in or preparing for a more strategic role in business. This includes senior executives, operations managers, consultants, and businesspeople looking to add a more strategic edge to their business activities. This course is also aimed at business students and professionals who want to gain knowledge of how strategy can be applied in a business context.

Expected Duration

3.0 hours

Objectives :

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of understanding Porters competitive positioning model

Five Forces of Competitive Positioning

Determine which forces are undermining a companys position in a given scenario

Match Porters five competitive forces to the considerations associated with each

Generic Strategies

Determine the most appropriate generic strategy to use in a given scenario

The Value Chain

Match primary value chain activities to examples

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of taking a competence-based strategic management approach

The Core Competencies Model

Determine whether a companys competencies can be considered core in a given scenario

Building Around Core Competence

Identify examples of the five key competence management tasks

Lesson Overview

Recognize the importance of the strategic development of talent

The Value Disciplines

Identify examples of the value disciplines that drive successful organizations

The Need for Talent Strategies

Identify the strategies employers should consider adopting to attract top talent in todays workplace

Developing a Talent Strategy

Identify examples of the six interlocking strategies used to build a talented workforce

Determine the appropriate strategies for engaging senior leaders in the talent management processes in a given scenario

Course Number: stgy_01_a02_bs_enus

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The Imperatives of Innovation and Leadership in Strategy

Overview/Description

Target Audience

This path is for those in management who are engaging in or preparing for a more strategic role within their organization. This includes senior executives, operational managers, consultants, and business people looking to add a more strategic edge to their business activities. This path is also of benefit to business students and professionals wanting to gain knowledge of strategy as it is applied in a business context.

Expected Duration

2.5 hours

Objectives :

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits to organizations that develop capabilities for strategic innovation

What Is Strategic Innovation?

Recognize examples of the characteristics of successful strategic innovation

Sustaining versus Disruptive Innovation

Differentiate between sustaining and disruptive innovations

Blue Ocean Strategy

Determine whether a company is pursuing a blue ocean strategy based on its value curve

Recognize examples of the tools and analytic frameworks used to create a blue ocean

The Strategic Innovation Process

Match the five phases of the strategic innovation process to their descriptions

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of applying strategic leadership

The Difference between Managers and Leaders

Differentiate between examples of leadership and management as methods of organizing people toward a goal

Distinguish between skills associated with management or leadership

Becoming a Leader

Recognize the skills associated with leaders

Level 5 Leadership

Identify actions that demonstrate a Level 5 leaders operational style

Match leadership levels to their descriptions

Course Number: stgy_01_a03_bs_enus

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Planning and Implementing a Business Strategy

Overview/Description

Target Audience

Those in management who are engaged in or preparing for a more strategic role in the business. This includes senior executives, operations managers, consultants, and business people looking to add a more strategic edge to their business activities. Business students and professionals wanting to gain knowledge of how strategy is applied in a business context.

Expected Duration

2.5 hours

Objectives :

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of having a formal strategy formulation process in place across the organization

Strategic Planning

Match each step in a strategic planning process to its end product

Recognize examples of the characteristics of core strategic planning processes

The Importance of Vision

Recognize examples of the ways strategic vision sparks successful product strategy

Take a leadership role in communicating a strategic vision throughout an organization

Resource Alignment Using the Balanced Scorecard

Recognize how to apply each of the five principles of the balanced scorecard approach

Match each perspective in the balanced scorecard approach to its description

Lesson Overview

Recognize the benefits of rising to the challenge of strategy implementation

Planning for Strategic Implementation

Recognize examples of organizational and strategic plan characteristics that can impact a strategy deployment

Successful Deployment of Strategic Initiatives

Take the appropriate actions to ensure the successful implementation of a strategic plan

Monitoring Strategy

Recognize examples of the common pitfalls that can negatively impact strategic implementation

Identify examples of the questions to ask in monitoring strategic plans

Course Number: stgy_01_a04_bs_enus

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Moving from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker Simulation

Overview/Description
Once thought to be the ideal means of running a business, operational effectiveness is no longer considered a guaranteed avenue to success. Growth requires greater strategy. Strategy requires new modes of thought. To this end, many organizations are changing how they manage their people and how they position their products. Having recognized the need for transformation, their leaders are increasingly turning to strategic thinking to complement their operational effectiveness. The simulation Moving from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to practice strategic thinking skills in a secure, virtual environment before facing the challenge of an actual, real-world project. Over the course of the simulation, participants will be tested on the objectives of acting as a strategic thinker, sustaining competitive advantage, capitalizing on core competencies, becoming a strategic leader, deploying a strategic vision, and developing a talent strategy. The simulation Moving from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker comprises three scenarios and is based on the SkillSoft Series Moving from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker. Links are provided throughout the simulation to the following SkillSoft courses: STGY_01_a01, STGY_01_a02, STGY_01_a03, and STGY_01_a04.

Target Audience
Managers seeking to assume a more strategic role in their businesses

Expected Duration (hours)
0.5

Lesson Objectives

Moving from an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker Simulation

acting as a strategic thinker.
sustaining competitive advantage.
capitalizing on core competencies.
becoming a strategic leader.
deploying a strategic vision.
developing a talent strategy.

Course Number: STGY001A

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Moving From an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker

Corporate business management professionals have to be able to form competitive strategies to gain a formidable edge on the competition. They can do this by developing tactical skills and applications through competency, talent and an aggressive stance on their plans and policies. While some companies maintain steady and more gradual advances, others are pushing the envelope by starting new and challenging markets for their services or merchandise. This strength in business management is devised from solid leadership and strategic thinking, and without these important mainstays, company potential frequently goes unrealized.

CBT Direct’s online training is intended for professionals looking to focus in on their business management skills and hopefully develop a powerful proficiency in strategy and strategic thinking operations in order to stay competitive and increase their chances of corporate profitability. It will cover the first step where the business manager must establish a plan, create a strategy and then correspond it properly in order to receive the materials necessary to achieve a successful outcome. Then our career training will explain the second phase where the team is brought in on the plan to assist in making the vision a realization.

Getting trained in business management has become increasingly important in recent times. It is becoming more difficult to get by with talent alone, and management training in strategy and administration skills is a strong way to achieve a sharper edge. CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training focuses on helping the learner understand the essentials of using tactical planning in the competitive world of business to be able to move forward from an operational manager to a strategic thinker.

Benefits of CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training

CBT Direct boasts the most beneficial online training on the market. With CBT Direct’s online training, you have the flexibility to study on your schedule, and with the speed and reliability of the internet, CBT Direct’s business management training course is accessible anywhere you have an internet connection. Convenience finally costs less with CBT Direct - the most affordable online training solution today.

The unique design of CBT Direct’s business management course emphasizes learner initiative, self-management and experiential learning. CBT Direct’s online course design begins with the definition of user-focused performance objectives and then proceeds to the selection and implementation of instructional strategies and learning activities appropriate for those objectives. This effective instruction model for CBT Direct’s business management training course ensures the greatest level of comprehension and retention.

Who Benefits from CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training?

Senior executives, consultants, management, and business people who want to increase the productivity of there business actions and add a more tactical approach to their career. This course is also appropriate for professionals and students training in business who want to learn more about strategy and business applications.

What Professionals Will Learn from CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training

Professionals will use our management training to learn the importance involved in comprehending and applying business management strategies. They will be able to compare these devices and their core elements and match them to examples. This includes learning how to recognize why an operation simply being successful is sometimes inefficient, and the evolutionary stages of development and business management and their strategic considerations. Through CBT Direct’s Online Training in Business Management and Career Development, the learner will also be able to identify the multiple professional benefits that come from being a strong tactical planner.

Our online management training also explains the many ways to approach strategy and the five competencies involved in its proper application. Professionals will achieve a grasp on how to take their strategies and turn them into meaningful actions. Additionally, they will learn to question strategic positioning and prepare to take their stratagem to new heights and possibilities. Click here to see a detailed curriculum outline.

Students will learn about utilizing the “Porters Five Forces of Positioning” model to recognize the sublevel powers that deflate corporate positions. They will also learn how to match up generic strategies and value chains with the appropriate scenarios. CBT Direct’s online training will also cover the five managerial tasks that were established to help business management competency and be able to rationalize which competencies are key.

CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training will explain the importance of recognizing talent development and the rules of value that push organizations to success. Employers will learn important strategies to implement in order to recruit the best possible talent and to build an accomplished workforce. The learner will be able to recognize the benefits and capabilities that these teams will provide to a companies innovative goals and plans. Additionally, our online career training will show the distinctive qualities of both sustaining innovations and disruptive innovations.

The course will also include strategic management training and leadership methods and the differences between the two. It will show how these skills will strengthen staff organization and go over the different types of tactics, including Blue Ocean. In addition, it will explain what actions identify the operational style that identifies a leader as a level five.

In general, CBT Direct’s Online Business Management and Career Training will show a professional how to strengthen a company’s ability to plan strategic movements in order to potentially increase profits and corporate mobility. It will cover how to build, reinforce and lead a strategic team, utilize company knowledge to enforce these strategies and apply them in order to achieve optimal results with successful business management.

Moving From an Operational Manager to a Strategic Thinker