Thinking Strategically

  • 20 Courses | 12h 3m 37s
  • 25 Books | 35h 55m
  • 9 Audiobooks | 42h 46m 45s
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Leaders need to think strategically to move the business forward. Learn how to incorporate strategic thinking into your leadership skillset.

COURSES INCLUDED

Welcome to the Skillsoft Leadership Development Program
Whether you are an aspiring, new, or experienced leader who leads people or projects, we've designed this curriculum to meet you where you are in your own leadership journey.
1 video | 4m available Badge
Leading with Strategic Thinking
Charting the future in today's business environment requires leaders to think strategically like never before. Strategic thinking requires analyzing opportunities and problems from a broad perspective, continually assessing your organization and industry, and applying your insights to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. In this course, you'll learn the characteristics that distinguish leading with strategic thinking and the competencies required to do so. You'll learn how strategic management incorporates sound business strategy into your decision making, helping you meet your team's and organization's goals.
6 videos | 49m has Assessment available Badge Certification PMI PDU
Leadership Insights on Strategic Thinking
Thinking strategically is all about the big picture, not individual brushstrokes. Leaders need to ask lots of questions to gain the new perspectives that are so vital to developing successful strategies. To get it right, get out of the box!
13 videos | 41m available Badge
Using Strategic Thinking as a Manager
Are you a strategic thinker? Do you consider what's going on around you - in your unit, company, industry, and wider business environment? Are you good at visualizing new possibilities or ways of working? Charting the future in today's business environment requires leaders to think strategically like never before. In these times of personal and organizational disruption and change, strategic thinking has become a skill of necessity that will play a key role in determining success or failure. In this course, you'll learn the characteristics of strategic thinking and what a strategic mindset looks like in action. You'll also learn the skills involved in developing two vital aspects of strategic thinking: the creative, innovative, and visionary components that allow you to have and communicate a clear strategic vision and see new possibilities; and the orderly, analytical, and logical skills that help you handle complexity and guide you toward balanced and smart decision making.
6 videos | 25m has Assessment available Badge
Viewing the Big Picture Strategically
Big-picture thinking stretches beyond the short term and considers how an organization can succeed in the long run. A big-picture perspective helps you focus on your organization's future with a long-term perspective without being bogged down by immediate daily demands. In this course, you'll explore how you can get a sense of the bigger picture by reinventing your perspective for a holistic understanding of your organization, identifying the root causes of problems when dealing with complex situations, recognizing factors that influence the big picture, and using big-picture thinking to gain competitive advantage for your organization.
6 videos | 23m has Assessment available Badge
Recognizing Organizational Risks
Risk is an inevitable aspect of any business. As a manager, it's important that you anticipate risks to effectively mitigate or avoid their potential impacts. The first step in handling a threat to your organization is to successfully identify the risks involved. In this course, you'll explore the difference between the internal and external factors that can pose a risk to your organization. You'll also learn about the use of popular risk identification tools and techniques like brainstorming, the Delphi technique for gathering expert opinions, diagram analysis, and documentation reviews.
6 videos | 22m has Assessment available Badge
Assessing Organizational Risks
Risk is a fact of life in business, and you've got to be able to assess your organization's risks to come up with strategies to avoid or reduce the negative effects of the threats you face. In this course, you'll familiarize yourself with key risk assessment concepts such as threats, opportunities, probabilities, and impacts - a necessity before assessing any risks your business may face. You will also learn about the tools and techniques of risk and opportunity assessment, recognizing that risks can either be threats to mitigate or opportunities to exploit for organizational gain.
6 videos | 23m has Assessment available Badge
Managing Organizational Risks
Once you've identified and assessed a potential risk to your organization, the next step is to manage it appropriately. Some risks may have a higher probability of becoming a reality, while others may have a more negative or more positive impact. Your ability to detect risks will vary as well. You'll need to be prepared to manage each of these risk effects accordingly. In this course, you'll learn about risk response strategies and methods you can use to minimize organizational threats and leverage opportunities. You will also learn how you can create contingency response plans.
6 videos | 22m has Assessment available Badge
Thinking Strategically as a Manager
To resolve many of the threats and challenges that your organization will likely have to face, it's essential that you develop a business strategy that incorporates a clear vision, new ideas, and innovative solutions. This course explores the characteristics of strategic thinking, as well as the traits you need to plan and implement an effective strategy. It also covers how to develop your capacity for thinking strategically through creative thinking, being prepared to deal with complexity, and being aware of what's going on inside and outside your organization.
7 videos | 22m has Assessment available Badge Certification PMI PDU
Using Strategic Thinking to Consider the Big Picture
Big-picture thinking stretches beyond the short term and considers how an organization can succeed in the long term. By thinking strategically about a problem using the bigger picture, you can elevate your perspective and get a better idea of the forces at play within your organization. This course describes how systems thinking can help you become skillful at making sense out of opposites and contradictions and better understand cause and effect while managing your department according to the business strategy. It explains actions you can take to encourage creative thinking and come up with solutions that take into account the bigger picture. You'll also learn how understanding your organizational value chain can help you connect to the organization's strategy and implement it more effectively.
7 videos | 22m has Assessment available Badge Certification PMI PDU
Horizon Scanning: Identifying Future Opportunities
The most successful organizations can spot signs of change and adapt to it - or even better - seize change as an opportunity. This capability to scan the horizon of the future is also known as environmental scanning. In this course, you'll learn what horizon scanning is and how it can benefit your business. You'll also learn to recognize key areas of change and understand the steps involved in horizon scanning. In addition, you'll learn how to analyze the data you collect and communicate it so the best decisions can be made.
6 videos | 27m has Assessment available Badge
Identifying Risks in Your Organization
Risk is an inevitable aspect of any business. As a manager, it's important that you mitigate or avoid the potential impact of a risk if it comes to pass, to ensure the long-term survival of your organization. This course focuses on the first step in managing risk, identifying risks to your organization. You'll explore the difference between internal and external risks, and how some risks may actually present a strategic opportunity. You'll also learn how to use some techniques that can help you identify risks and calculate the probability that they will occur, including root cause identification, the Delphi technique, and brainstorming sessions.
7 videos | 18m has Assessment available Badge Certification PMI PDU
MIT SMR: Achieving Supply Chain Transparency
A transparent approach to supply-chain strategy could give organizations a competitive edge. Consumers increasingly want to know more about where and how the products they purchase are being made. In many industries, this type of transparency has become a requirement, with consumers actively rewarding companies that provide visibility into their supply chains and punishing companies that do not. Importantly, creating transparency requires companies to not only determine what information to disclose to consumers, but also to gain visibility into their supply chains.
1 video | 59m
MIT SMR: Reshaping Supply Chains for a Post-Pandemic World
The COVID-19 pandemic has upended global supply chains. Civilization depends on supply chains to convert the planet's bounty into the products we need and to deliver those products to 7.8 billion human beings at a price they can afford. COVID-19 has upended supply chains around the world and has cast into doubt the future of the operations landscape. This is a presentation and conversation with MIT professor Yossi Sheffi, author of The New (Ab)Normal: Reshaping Business and Supply Chain Strategy Beyond Covid-19. Sheffi discusses the future of operations in the context of global phenomena like COVID-19, climate change, and economic uncertainty.
1 video | 59m
MIT SMR: Optimize Your Operations for Today - and Tomorrow
Consumer products leaders know they must change how their organizations operate to enable the flexibility required to meet changing consumer needs. But continuing to meet today's demands while planning for tomorrow is a complex process. In this on-demand webinar, Steve Basili of EY and Parth Raval of PepsiCo Foods North America discuss why operational transformation is imperative and offer advice for doing the job well.
1 video | 57m
MIT SMR: How to Make Sense of Irrational Competitors
To compete successfully in a dynamic market, executives must be able to see things from their competitors' point of view. But too often, business leaders view their competitors' actions as irrational. By failing to take them seriously, they are caught off guard, unable to act or react effectively. In his upcoming book, Inside the Competitors Mindset, author John Horn makes the case that by applying some relatively simple techniques, companies can better understand what their competitors are likely to do and thus be prepared when the time comes.
1 video | 58m
MIT SMR: Building a Winning Workplace Culture: Strategies for Leaders
Join us for a 60-minute webinar on building a winning organizational culture in today's workforce. New research from Donald Sull and Charlie Sull has found that toxic workplace culture has been the driving force behind the Great Resignation. Meaning: Understanding and measuring culture has never been more critical for leaders. The authors' multiyear research series demonstrates that measuring culture can also help managers identify opportunities for improvement, recognize areas where the organization is excelling, and build a culture that attracts top talent and boosts retention.
1 video | 59m
MIT SMR: Are You Ready for the Next Supply Disruption?
Supply disruptions triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic caught many companies off guard. To prepare for future "black swan" threats to supply chains, managers must think differently. M. Johnny Rungtusanatham and David A. Johnston have researched the triggers and performance consequences of supply disruption. Their ADDAPT framework can help leaders better manage disruptions and maintain product flow.
1 video | 55m
MIT SMR: Preparing Your Organization for a Generative Future
This fall, George Westerman, senior lecturer at the MIT Sloan School of Management, leads a three-part webinar series, "Generative AI in Business: Unraveling Myths, Finding Opportunities, and Preparing Your Organization." Although GenAI promises to transform many processes, companies also need to balance the long-term promise with current capabilities.
1 video | 59m
Three Lessons From Chatting About Strategy With ChatGPT, powered by MIT SMR
In this course, the authors explain how ChatGPT can support the different aspects of the strategy creation process. The authors also talk about the areas where humans still have an edge over ChatGPT.
2 videos | 10m has Assessment available Badge
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Digital badges are yours to keep, forever.

BOOKS INCLUDED

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review on Thinking Strategically
In this collection of articles from MIT Sloan Management Review, you'll discover that a rigorous process for navigating strategic decisions can mitigate errors and improve judgment. Do you have the tools you need?
book Duration 50m book Authors By MIT Sloan Management Review

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Disrupt Your Own Business First
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review discusses how planning the future for your company begins with knowing how to destroy it. How can companies strategize once they have recognized the limitations of long term planning in an unpredictable world?
book Duration 9m book Authors By Ian C. Woodward, Ram Charan, Sameer Hasija, V. “Paddy" Padmanahan

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on What Sets Breakthrough Strategies Apart
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review discusses how innovative strategies depend more on novel, well-reasoned theories than on well-crunched numbers.
book Duration 6m book Authors By Teppo Felin, Todd Zenger

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Modern Business Models Will Drive the Post-Pandemic World
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review on how companies and leaders must remain relevant and resilient by building business models using key components for growth. Digitally centric companies can leverage data and machine learning to create valuable insights, intelligence, and capabilities across the organization.
book Duration 5m book Authors By Barry Libert , Jim Curry, K.D. de Vries, Lanham Napier

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Are You Managing Your Risks From Social Media?
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review looks at how many organizations aren't fully aware of the risks posed by social media or taking enough steps to minimize them.
book Duration 8m book Authors By David Houghton, Emily S. Keenan, Leslie H. Blix, Mark Edmonds

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Who Gets What When Supply Chains Are Disrupted?
In this article from MIT Sloan Management Review, learn how when companies cannot meet the full demands of their customers, leaders need to set clear decision criteria and the mechanisms to back them up. But how?
book Duration 5m book Authors By Yossi Sheffi

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on The Age of Accelerating Strategy Breakthroughs
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review discusses how companies showing the most agility and resilience in their response to the global pandemic are pursuing four main strategies.
book Duration 6m book Authors By Greg Rung, Hanna Moukanas, John Romeo

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How to Become a Strategic Leader
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review reveals that new and experienced managers alike can become better strategic leaders by sting more time in three key activities.
book Duration 4m book Authors By Julie Zhuo

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Plotting Strategy in a Dynamic World
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review discusses how companies can no longer rely on traditional forecasting exercises to spot - and capitalize on - emerging threats and opportunities. To remain competitive over time, a company must be able to move quickly in response to major changes.
book Duration 10m book Authors By David J. Teece, David R. Cox, Paul G. Raspin

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Don't Let Your Strategy Be Hijacked
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review discusses how companies can preempt and manage consumer backlash.
book Duration 5m book Authors By Carsten Lund Pedersen, Thomas Ritter

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Why Hypotheses Beat Goals
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review talks about how companies should focus organizational energy on hypothesis generation and testing.
book Duration 4m book Authors By Jeanne Ross

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on With Goals, FAST Beats SMART
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review reveals that in order to execute strategy, leaders must set ambitious targets, translate them into specific metrics and milestones, make them transparent throughout the organization, and discuss progress frequently.
book Duration 15m book Authors By Charles Sull, Donald Sull

Book

MIT Sloan Management Review Article on How Scenario Planning Influences Strategic Decisions
This article from MIT Sloan Management Review talks about a recent study that sheds light on how the use of scenario planning affects executives' strategic choices.
book Duration 7m book Authors By Chris Caplice, Shardul Phadnis, Yossi Sheffi

BOOK SUMMARY

Strategic Thinking: A Nine Step Approach to Strategy and Leadership for Managers and Marketers, 3rd Edition
Strategic Thinking offers a nine-step approach for becoming a strategic thinker and, consequently, a strong, strategic leader. In this Summary, we discuss the salient points of the book based on our interpretation of its contents.
book Duration 10m book Authors By Simon Wootton, Terry Horne

BOOK SUMMARY

Learning to Think Strategically
Learning to Think Strategically provides a theoretical framework that links a continuous cycle of learning to strategic thinking and performance. In this Summary, we discuss the salient points of the book based on our interpretation of its contents.
book Duration 11m book Authors By Julia Sloan

Book

Strategic Thinking: A Nine Step Approach to Strategy and Leadership for Managers and Marketers, 3rd edition
Including prompt sheets, objectives, action plans and summaries, this book will enable you to gain a deeper understanding of your market, forecast where your organization is heading, think critically about proposals and write an effective strategic plan.
book Duration 2h 51m book Authors By Simon Wootton, Terry Horne

Book

The Art of Opportunity: How to Build Growth and Ventures Through Strategic Innovation and Visual Thinking
Your company's goal is to grow, and to turn non-customers into customers. The old ways are becoming less tenable and less cost-effective. This invaluable book outlines the new growth paradigm and gives you a solid framework for putting new ideas into practice.
book Duration 2h 42m book Authors By Marc Sniukas, Matt Morasky, Parker Lee

Book

Strategic Decision Making: A Discovery-Led Approach to Critical Choices in Turbulent Times
Packed with real world examples and backed up by academic research, this essential resource will allow today's leaders and the leaders of tomorrow to make successful and defensible business choices.
book Duration 4h 27m book Authors By Ben Shenoy, Simon Haslam

Book

Business Strategy (The Brian Tracy Success Library)
Incorporating examples ranging from Alexander the Great to IBM and General Electric, renowned speaker, trainer, seminar leader, and consultant Brian Tracy gives readers proven ideas for increasing their company's ROI and maximizing their strengths and opportunities.
book Duration 1h 8m book Authors By Brian Tracy

Book

Leading with Strategic Thinking: Four Ways Effective Leaders Gain Insight, Drive Change, and Get Results
Bringing together insights from cognitive psychology, systems theory, and other fields to show that the importance of strategic thought transcends planning, this book will inspire you to have a greater impact, today and into the future.
book Duration 4h 48m book Authors By Aaron K. Olson, B. Keith Simerson

Book

Demystifying Strategic Thinking: Lessons from Leading CEOs
Using unique and original interviews with six top business leaders, this book examines the key components of successful strategizing, provides a strategy system for managers and helps them develop and implement a winning strategy for their organization.
book Duration 5h 54m book Authors By Tony Grundy

Book

Strategic Doing: Ten Skills for Agile Leadership
Strategic Doing introduces you to the new disciplines of agile strategy and collaborative leadership - a set of tools specifically designed to harness the power of collaborative networks.
book Duration 3h 21m book Authors By Edward Morrison, Elizabeth Nilsen, Janyce Fadden, Nancy Franklin, Scott Hutcheson

Book

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking
Providing leaders with a framework and toolkit for developing advanced strategic thinking capabilities, this book will enable leaders to finally integrate both strategy and innovation into a strategic approach that drives their profitable growth.
book Duration 2h 41m book Authors By Rich Horwath

BOOK SUMMARY

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
Playing to Win clearly outlines the right-and wrong-approach to defining and implementing strategy in the business context by providing clear, actionable advice for establishing the framework and processes that must underpin strategic direction and choices. In this Review, we discuss the salient points of the book based on our interpretation of its contents.
book Duration 5m book Authors By A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin

Book

Scissors and Rock: Game Theory for Those Who Manage
This book introduces readers to basic game theory as a tool to deal with strategic decision problems, helping them to understand the complexity of such problems.
book Duration 5h 23m book Authors By Barbara Klose-Ullmann, Manfred J. Holler
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AUDIOBOOKS INCLUDED

AUDIOBOOK SUMMARY

Learning to Think Strategically
Learning to Think Strategically provides a theoretical framework that links a continuous cycle of learning to strategic thinking and performance. In this Summary, we discuss the salient points of the book based on our interpretation of its contents.
audiobook Duration 23m 44s audiobook Authors By Julia Sloan

Audiobook

Elevate: The Three Disciplines of Advanced Strategic Thinking
In this audio edition, author Rich Horwath provides leaders with a framework and toolkit for developing advanced strategic thinking capabilities.
audiobook Duration 6h 9m 3s audiobook Authors By Rich Horwath

Audiobook

The Strategic Leader's Roadmap: 6 Steps for Integrating Leadership and Strategy
This audio edition offers a 6-point checklist for leading strategically that will help managers strengthen their capacity to develop strategy and to lead its execution.
audiobook Duration 2h 39m 15s audiobook Authors By Harbir Singh, Michael Useem

Audiobook

Edge Strategy: A New Mindset for Profitable Growth
This audio edition will help you grow your business by getting more yield from assets already in place, relationships already established, and investments already made.
audiobook Duration 6h 56m 28s audiobook Authors By Alan Lewis, Dan McKone

Audiobook

Game-Changer: Game Theory and the Art of Transforming Strategic Situations
This audio edition will empower you with wisdom - not just to win in every strategic situation (or "game") you face but to change those games and the ecosystems in which they reside to transform your life and our lives together for the better.
audiobook Duration 6h 59m 42s audiobook Authors By David McAdams

Audiobook

Fit to Compete: Why Honest Conversations about Your Company's Capabilities Are the Key to a Winning Strategy
This audio edition provides an innovative and highly effective process for holding honest conversations with everyone in your organization.
audiobook Duration 8h 32m 3s audiobook Authors By Michael Beer

Audiobook

Building Social Business: The New Kind of Capitalism That Serves Humanity's Most Pressing Needs
This audio edition traces the development of the social business idea explaining its lessons for entrepreneurs, social activists, and policy makers, and offers practical guidance for those who want to create social businesses of their own.
audiobook Duration 8h 29m 1s audiobook Authors By Muhammad Yunus

Audiobook

Business Strategy (The Brian Tracy Success Library)
Incorporating examples ranging from Alexander the Great to IBM and General Electric, this audio edition gives listeners proven ideas for increasing their company's ROI and maximizing their strengths and opportunities. Read by the author.
audiobook Duration 2h 27m 7s audiobook Authors By Brian Tracy

AUDIOBOOK SUMMARY

Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works
Playing to Win clearly outlines the right-and wrong-approach to defining and implementing strategy in the business context by providing clear, actionable advice for establishing the framework and processes that must underpin strategic direction and choices. In this Review, we discuss the salient points of the book based on our interpretation of its contents.
audiobook Duration 10m 22s audiobook Authors By A.G. Lafley, Roger L. Martin
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SKILL BENCHMARKS INCLUDED

Leading the Business
Becoming a successful business leader means more than just directing and motivating your people. It also requires understanding the business you're in and making sure that you're making decisions that will help your company meet its goals. In this Leading the Business Unit Benchmark, you'll be able to make a frank assessment of your current skills in strategic planning and execution, identifying your strengths and recognizing areas of weaknesses that will benefit from further learning and growth. This benchmark evaluates your understanding of this topic. Being aware of potential knowledge gaps allows you to better understand your current competency and areas for improvement, so you can find suitable content and curate your own learning path. The courses recommended at the end of this benchmark can help you fill potential gaps in your knowledge.
7m    |   7 questions

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