MINI-COURSES ON BUSINESS MODELING AND STRATEGY
Short classes on strategic issues and activities
The Strategy Dynamics method and its digital-twin business models can deal with a very wide range of "strategy" needs.
Each short course in this list:
... summarises the topic or function it deals with, and issues that arise
... outlines how the dynamic structures and models of our method contribute to the topic or function
... explains how to leverage digital-twin models for better plans and outcomes
Some include free worksheets and working models.
Continuing professional development/education (CPD/CPE)
Professionals in many fields are expected - even required - to show they spend time on "Continuing Professional Development" (CPD) or "Continuing Professional Education" (CPE) - whether to extend their skills, or to add new skills related to their work. E.g. an accountant may study advanced accounting methods, or learn about strategy or marketing. See the CPD/CPE hours of learning input for each mini-course in the details below. You may also be able to claim further hours that you spend applying the course content to your own situation.
Your professional association may allow you to 'self-certify' any CPD/CPE time you spend, or may only recognise accredited learning content. If you would like us to apply for accreditation, please email contact@strategydynamics.com with details of the institution/association and links to its CPD/CPE program.
The courses (jump to summaries below)
1. Planning and managing performance improvement programs
2. Enabling truly "strategic" management accounting
3. Understanding and managing competition
4. Dynamic business models for Enterprise Architecture and IS planning
5. Managing and exploiting intangible factors
6. Environmental and social impacts - and 'Integrated Reporting'
Coming soon:
7. Strategic human-resource planning
8. Dynamic models for Systems Engineering
9. Developing critical resources
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1: Planning and managing performance improvement programs
0.5 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
Many kinds of program aim to improve specific performance issues - from data-security to health and safety to energy use and carbon emissions - and many more.
But many such programs stall or fail. This course shows how managing a simple structure of some key factors can ensure progress and success.
2: Dynamic business models for truly strategic management accounting
1.5 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
All institutions and associations serving accounting professionals urge their members to move beyond just the reporting of business performance, and provide their leaders with truly "strategic" management accounting support.
But - whether looking at whole-business plans or specific issues - fulfilling that need requires:
... defining and quantifying business factors in their own terms, not as financial proxies
... capturing and quantifying the interdependencies between those factors
... playing out how the business system or issue develops over time, both historically and into the future
Current accounting methods and strategy frameworks cannot get close to fulfilling those needs - but this short course shows how dynamic business models can do just that, and more!
3: Understanding and managing competition
1.2 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
Businesses face competitive pressures in all aspects of their strategy, from launching new products, to fighting off aggressive rivals, to achieving their overall business plans.
It turns out that just three standard mechanisms - working together - determine how competition operates to determine growth of customers and sales:
Type 1 competition - racing to capture new customers, dominates early industry growth, but continues as markets mature. E.g. electric vehicles, non-meat alternative foods.
Type 2 competition - trying to steal existing customers - and hold on to our own! - dominates competition in mature markets, but can start building quite soon as new industries emerge. E.g. home insurance, business delivery services.
Type 3 competition - fighting for share of sales to disloyal customers - arises when customers can freely choose to buy from more than one provider. E.g. cleaning products, gasoline.
This short class explains with a real-world case how these mechanisms play out and interact, and how digital-twin models can handle the complexities. The class also offers Worksheets to apply the framework to your own case.
4. Dynamic business models for Enterprise Architecture (EA) and IS planning
1.5 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
Creating “Enterprise Architectures” (EAs) has long been a solid basis for developing organizations’ IT strategies and plans, e.g. through the Open Group's TOGAF standard.
But an EA's value depends critically on the quality of that business architecture (or "business model"). And most EA business models are descriptive word-and-arrow diagrams.
In contrast, a dynamic business model is effectively a "digital twin", that mimics, visually, how the real-world business actually works, with numbers.
This mini-course:
... explains Enterprise Architectures in more detail
... demonstrates a complete dynamic business model for an engineering business
... shows where the processes that EAs need are located in that model
... explains that the DBM actually is the data capturing how the business works
... explains how the DBM highlights where applications are needed to enable the business processes
... summarises the value that DBMs could bring to the whole EA effort
5. Managing and exploiting intangible business factors
1.75 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
A partner in a top strategy consulting firm once told me … "We don't bother with intangibles in our client work – they are undetectable, unmeasurable, and unmanageable". All 3 assertions are untrue!
We all know that intangibles matter, so we try to measure them, and do our best to keep them in good shape. But those efforts will be much easier if we have rigorous specifications of how intangibles actually function.
This mini-course:
... explains how intangibles impact on all of the wide scope of strategic tasks that need to be done
... shows how intangibles must work through the tangible elements of the business system
... sets out how state-of-mind factors affect results, and how those factors themselves are changed and can be managed
... shows intangible information can determine performance - from simple data up to complex knowledge
... explains the behaviour and management of quality-related factors - good characteristics we want to build, and poor characteristics we work to reduce over time
... shows how rising levels of some intangible factors can cause tipping points if they cross some threshold
6. Environmental and social impacts - and 'Integrated Reporting'
1.0 hours of learning content for CPD/CPE
Every organisation has impacts on the wider society and on the environment in which they operate, and most want to act responsibly. Large companies must report on those impacts through "Integrated Reporting".
This course shows just how a business system actually works, and exactly how it impacts on social and environmental factors. A working model of a manufacturing business shows how this can be done.
Companies often claim that staff are “their most important asset”, so need rigorous and powerful means to plan and manage the development of that asset. This class explores some core dynamic structures that drive the staffing system, and shows how DBMs can enhance workforce planning, talent management, and the optimization of human capital.
Systems Engineering professionals develop, test and guide implementation of solutions to many business challenges, and have a strong body-of-knowledge for that work. This mini-course explores how dynamic business models can add to that capability and thus enhance its impact. It will focus on utilizing DBMs for designing, analyzing, and managing business systems, ensuring they align with business objectives and adapt to changing environments.
CEOs and other leaders understand the critical role that key resources play in driving business development and performance - staff and their skills, strong products and services, valuable and loyal customers. But they also know that developing and sustaining these factors is tough! This class explores how dynamic business models (DBMs) can capture resource pipelines in marketing, staffing, product development, and other staged business processes. It shows how DBMs can be used to plan, analyze, and manage these processes, for stronger business development and performance.
Strategy Dynamics, as adopted by ...
Using these models in both Sun Microsystems and Microsoft, the results speak for themselves. It is a key tool for senior managers.
John Kapson
Now: Sr. Director, Analytics & Data Science, Toyota Motors N America
This class fundamentally changed how I think about our company’s future, so I will use what I have learned for the challenges we face.
Mark Holman
Manager Regional Coordination, PJM Interconnection
These business models provided just what we need to explore scenarios for competition in the global tax-technology sector and test our strategies.
Kevin Boettcher
Director, Emerging Business; Vertex, Inc
Start making stronger plans and better decisions with Strategy Dynamics. Starting today.
- Understand the system that drives changing business performance
- Make better plans and decisions to get strong, sustained results
- Get examples of working models based on real-world scenarios
- Access the course in the next five minutes
These courses from Strategy Dynamics are fantastic. They are so good that we are looking to hire people with these skills. Thanks!
Bob Lamb
Founder and CEO, Foundation for Inclusion
The approach exceeded my expectations. The material is very powerful and provides rich and deep concepts and insights for the future.
Ahmad Waleed
Strategy Director, ELM Saudi Arabia
You lay out the material so well that we can easily internalize the approach. The model almost had a mind of its own, totally changing my understanding of our challenge.
Stephen Green
Director, Continental Mills
As used by ...
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