Strategy Dynamics for Leaders
Build better strategic plans and tackle critical issues with frameworks that match reality.
Use living business models to transform performance
Developed and proved with top strategy consultants and corporations over 20 years
Planning and decision-making with "Digital Twin" business models that match reality
Proven, rigorous frameworks to tackle any one-time issue or continuing plan
Replaces complex reporting systems with a simple, system-wide picture
Learn how to use working, quantified models for much better decisions.
Why do we need a better strategy tool?
Standard strategy tools are limited. The tools taught at business schools for decades are OK as far as they go - but they don't go very far! Yes, you can figure out your strategic "positioning" - what customers to serve, with what products and services, and how in principle to do that. But those answers don't change (leading firms have the same basic 'strategy' for decades!) - What you need to know is what to do, when, how much, across all parts of the business, while your business environment, competition and your own performance is constantly changing.
Strategy Dynamics in a totally different league:
- Its frameworks rigorously match every element of the business and the relationships between them.
- Those frameworks are supported by models that match - quantitatively - exactly how the business, function or issue has played out over time, and how it will likely perform in future.
- You, and everyone else, can see a visual movie of what is happening to every element of the business or issue.
Reviews for our courses
"I have applied these models in business units at Sun Microsystems and Microsoft. The resulting performance speaks for itself - it is a key tool for senior managers" John Kapson, Managing Consultant, Oracle
"We can so easily internalize these ideas - the model almost had a mind of its own, changing my understanding of our challenge completely." Stephen Green: Director - Continental Mills
"The course really exceeded my expectation, the material is very powerful, and provides rich and deep concepts."
Ahmad Waleed: Strategy Director - ELM, Saudi Arabia
"This great course provided just what we need to explore scenarios for competition in our sector and test our strategies." Kevin Boettcher: Director, Emerging Business - Vertex, Inc
How can these frameworks be so powerful?
Standard strategy approaches rely on simplistic assumptions about what causes better business performance. The "business models" they produce are more like statues, set in stone. Strategy Dynamics is built on rock-solid principles of how the business system actually works and changes over time.
Any enterprise is a "machine", made up of well-understood parts - customers drive sales; strong products and marketing win and retain those customers; costly staff and capacity make it possible to fulfil those sales. And building those resources depends on what is already in place.
If your business is a working system, we can model it. If we know what all these business parts are, and can measure them, and can work out how they depend on each other to grow, then we can build working models that replicate how that system actually functions and performs.
If we can model it, we can test it. If our model works just like the real world, we can play out how it will likely perform in future, across any range of uncertainties and any alternative strategies we want to test.
“But I'm to senior, and busy, to start building models” Of course, but you don't build the spreadsheet models you use to inform your decisions either - you have people to do that for you. That's why we offer the Dynamic Business Modelling course to show your support staff how to do this. And it's not technical or complex - any skilled analyst can learn to do it.
A strategy dynamics model can be a "digital twin" of your enterprise, your plan or your issue - mimicking with uncanny realism how the real world plays out.
Choose your level
Essentials
Selected lessons from the Core classes summarise how a business works and performs. If you then go on to the full CORE course, we refund the cost of this course.
Core classes
Four classes that explain and demonstrate underlying principles and frameworks of a standard strategic architect that plays out how any business system works and performs.
Extension classes
These six classes offer further powerful frameworks to tackle common challenges, that also add substantially to the insight you can get from wider business models.
Resources for Teachers and trainers
We make our courses available free of charge for academic faculty and at a discount for corporate trainers - more information here
Who is this course for?
Business leaders CEOs, general managers and functional heads who feel there must be more to "strategy" than checklists and 2x2 boxes. They want to know what exactly to do, all the time, as conditions change.
Top consultants. Strategy dynamics frameworks and models offer your clients so much more than standard consulting tools can achieve. And the method provides the foundation for a sustainably strong business.
Business students (and teachers*) The frameworks in this course show how any business actually works! So you will have a much stronger grasp of how all your MBA skills fit together.
* Teachers - we can provide materials from our courses for you to use in your classes - contact us for information. Please do let us know where you teach and approximate student numbers in addition to any questions or comments you have.
How long does it take?
In total, these courses comprise a comprehensive reference for how any business works and how any challenge or opportunity plays out - so the classes are substantial. But you do not need to slog through everything from start to end. We suggest key lessons to focus on first in each class, which may take a half-day per class.
You can then come back to fill in important extra principles and skills. That could be another ½ to 1 day, depending on how deeply you want to get into each lesson and practice it on your own cases – all time that you can claim as self-directed CPD (continuous professional development).
Then, of course, you can spend any time you want on consolidating your skills and following our detailed guidance on how to apply the modelling to your own case and issues.
Some comments on our courses
"I’ve completed the entire Strategy Dynamics course and started the Business Modelling course. These are fantastic - so great that we are looking to hire people with these skills. Thanks!"
Bob Lamb: Founder & CEO, Foundation for Inclusion
"I want to personally thank you for this great course. It has been the most exciting I have taken. I will definitely do this type of work for my clients at the agency."
Esteban Ribero: VP Strategy - Leo Burnett/Lapiz
"I really enjoyed this class - it has fundamentally changed the way I think about analyzing issues concerning our company’s future. I see the power of the approach and plan to use the technique on issues we are facing."
Mark Holman: Manager, Regional Coordination at PJM Interconnection
Video: Former CEO Rod Brown explains how a dynamic business model helped test, finance and manage "Opun" an ambitious new business which was subsequently purchased by the John Lewis Partnership.
Teaching method
Video slide-shows explain each principle and framework.
Explore how each structure works with working models.
Real-world examples demonstrate how each framework plays out in practice, and the implications for strategy and performance.
All models are available to you to adapt to your own case - or pass to your support staff to work on.
All courses include
- Comprehensive video lectures with PDF handouts
- Easily accessible models; save to your own account
- Discussion board for specific class help
- Community discussion board
- Instant access, no expiry
Your instructor: Kim Warren
Developer of the Strategy Dynamics approach
Kim is author of the prize-winning Competitive Strategy Dynamics (Wiley, 2002), a major strategy textbook Strategic Management Dynamics (Wiley, 2008), and a summary e-book now widely used in MBA and executive teaching – Strategy Dynamics Essentials (Kindle, 2011). He is also co-founder of Strategy Dynamics Ltd, which publishes "serious games" and online courses exploiting the user-friendly modelling application, Silico.