IMD Business School

Strategic Thinking

IMD Business School

Strategy

About Programme

In today’s dynamic business landscape, long-term planning no longer holds the key to success. The ever-accelerating pace of change demands a new strategic mindset from decision makers – one that embraces agility, flexibility, and adaptability.

On IMD’s Strategic Thinking program, you’ll develop the strategic capabilities to tackle today’s most pressing business challenges – whether staying ahead of new competitors, rethinking your business model, or making AI work for your organization.

You will start by exploring your most significant challenges. Then, you will learn how to evaluate trade-offs, and how to pin-point the best strategy for success. And finally, you will explore how to implement strategy through strategic initiatives and how to align your efforts with your organizational culture.

The process of designing and implementing a successful strategy is not linear. At every step of the way, we are learning, and these new insights allow us to update and improve our strategy. You will work systematically through this process with feedback and interaction from your coach and discussions with your peers to help you to become a better, more reflective, and confident strategist.

Strategize with precision

Master the art of strategic thinking, guided by your Program Director, who will challenge you to ask, “What the heck is going on?”. Sharpen your ability to forge, compare, and implement alternative strategies and models, elevating your strategic acumen.

Leverage insights for decision-making

Enhance your skills for navigating from analysis to diagnosis and identify opportunities for competitive advantage.

Design and communicate winning strategies

Discover how to employ the Business Model Canvas to craft a winning value proposition and revenue growth model.

Prioritize and align your strategy within your organization

Learn how to focus on the must-win battles for strategic success – because organizations with too many priorities have no priorities.

Always stay one step ahead

Explore the importance of continuous learning and competitive landscaping in helping your organization become – and remain – agile and resilient.

Programme Content

Unit 1: Setting the stage for strategic thinking
Understand how the main program themes – diagnosis of the business environment, strategic choices, and alignment of the actions to create a focused effort – help you to become a better strategist.
Choose a real strategic challenge you need to resolve during the program
Meet your program coach and the participants.
Unit 2: Assess the external environment
Conduct an external analysis, considering sustainability and technological disruptions such as AI.
Draw a value constellation to better understand how customers and other stakeholders will co-create value with your firm.
Define future markets strategically.
Engage with the case study to challenge your thinking about a world-famous company’s strategic choices over nearly 25 years (units 2 to 8).
Unit 3: Assess capabilities and resources
Identify your organization’s resources and capabilities.
Thoroughly investigate how customer-centric your company is.
Assess your current and potential future competitive advantage.
Unit 4: The strategic moves
Learn about bottom-line and top-line agile strategic moves, such as economies of scope and scale, customer-centric strategies, core extensions, digital, solution, and platform strategies.
Look into the past performance and assess a set of agile strategic moves to positively impact your future top- and bottom-line performance.
Unit 5: The business model design
Use the Business Model Canvas to design business models that address your strategic challenge and leverage resources and capabilities.
Create a clear value proposition based on customer insights.
Innovate your revenue model.
Unlock the ‘magic triangles’ by finding meaningful matches between the value proposition, segments of customers, and revenue streams.
Unit 6: Develop strategic initiatives
Define your must-win battles.
Define the set of the strategic initiatives to bring your strategic choices into reality.
Learn how strategic innovation helps organizations outpace competitors.
Defend and grow your core, expand your activities and create strategic options to respond to disruptive opportunities.
Unit 7: Ensure aligned actions
Use the 7S model to investigate all dimensions of your organization and align them for the successful implementation of the chosen strategy.
Learn when empowerment works well to mobilize the teams and when it does not.
Create a concise and clear elevator pitch to explain your chosen strategy within just two minutes.
Unit 8: Moving the organization forward
Learn how to run business while changing it.
Re-evaluate and redefine your role as a strategist as a lifelong learner.

Programme Benefits

Designed for impact and delivered for you, IMD’s online programs help you achieve your aspirations wherever you are in your career or the world. Here’s what makes the IMD online program experience exceptional.

Access to thought leadership

Tap into the expertise of IMD’s faculty – globally recognized experts in their fields – wherever you are.

Personalized coaching

Benefit from one-on-one support from an experienced executive coach who helps you apply new insights to your own context.

Global peer interaction

Collaborate with participants from around the world through group and pair work that challenges your thinking and broadens your perspective.

Flexible format

Engage in a structured yet flexible learning experience that enables you to progress at your own pace and complete weekly assignments around your busy schedule.

Applied learning for real impact

Apply what you learn right away through practical assignments designed to make a direct impact on your work.

Testimonials

"The program was truly outstanding, both in its structure and in the depth of knowledge imparted. It not only equipped me with valuable tools and frameworks to enhance my decision-making processes, but also provided actionable insights that I am confident will have a significant impact on my professional growth. The practical applications of the concepts will be instrumental in redefining strategic approaches within my role."

Pedro Martins

Strategy Senior Manager, Super Bock Group, Portugal

"Expertly designed, executed, and with a high challenge mark, this was one of the most impactful skills programs I have undertaken in recent years. The program’s promise to ‘become a better strategist’ was fully realized, as I now find myself incorporating new tools and insights into my work. Interesting, engaging, and highly applicable."

Helena Kovacs

Project Manager, EPFL, Switzerland

"IMD’s Strategic Thinking was a game-changer for my work in route-to-consumer and channel distribution. After years of challenging strategies, this program provided practical tools and framework that transformed my approach. It even led me to train our finance team on strategic thinking for their 2025-2030 business strategy. Truly impactful!"

Elysée Uvoya

Senior Customer Marketeer Morocco & MENA, The Heineken Company, The Netherlands

"The Strategic Thinking program was an exceptional learning experience. Through practical case studies and weekly assignments, I was introduced to tools and concepts for analyzing, diagnosing, and designing business models. The personalized coaching and interactive approach helped me to apply complex frameworks to my own professional context."

Eike Hufnagl

Transaction Manager, HIAG Immobilien Schweiz AG, Switzerland

"The Strategic Thinking program enabled me to analyze my business and develop my strategic moves step by step. The intense eight weeks empowered me to think about how to conduct an external strategic analysis, how to outpace my competitors, which disruptive innovations are needed, and which strategic initiatives should be pursued."

Regis Combalbert

International Regional Director EMEA, Zest Dental Solutions, Switzerland

"The program follows a very practical and structured approach, which helped me analyze my business problem and develop my strategic concept step by step. I acquired a new tool set. For executives, who look for learning opportunities to complement their skills, while staying full speed on their jobs, this program may have the answer."

Susann Bhatti

Business Manager/Chief of Staff, Wealth Management Europe International, UBS AG

"The course is very well structured, with a lot of practical examples to reflect the theory. Communication with my coach was great, and I liked the flexibility."

Valentina Tesic

Business Analyst, International Committee of the Red Cross, Serbia

Testimonial Source

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Prashansa Uttam

Programme Advisor

+91 9403890085[email protected]Mon – Fri, 9am – 5pm IST

IMD Business School

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https://www.imd.org
Lausanne, Switzerland

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Strategic Thinking | IMD Business School