News/Events

Business leadership today requires strategic thinking – finding and developing opportunities to create value for combinations of customers, associates, suppliers, and communities. In response to this trend, WDI’s Education Initiative will debut a new program on Strategic Thinking in November at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga, Latvia (SSE-Riga). Register here.

The program joins three other annual executive programs offered in partnership by SSE-Riga and WDI –  Supply Chain Management, Advanced Negotiations, and the flagship Strategic Management Program. Amy Gillett, vice president of WDI’s Education Initiative, said strategy has been one of the most popular topics within the 10-day, “mini MBA” Strategic Management Program.

“This program will offer participants the opportunity to learn new strategic tools and thinking, and explore how this can be applied to drive growth at their businesses,” she said.

The two-day course on Nov. 3-4 will be taught by Doug Bosse, a WDI faculty affiliate who teaches strategic management at the Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond (Va.). Bosse said participants will discuss and practice strategic thinking using concepts, models, and tips “that will enhance their strategic thinking as they strive to create and deliver value to their organizational stakeholders.

“This session is designed from the perspective that while frameworks help us understand why certain behaviors work better than others, strategic thinking is most powerful when it goes beyond to leverage your own insights about a diverse set of considerations,” he said. “This session teaches you how to identify which considerations are most important to the situation and to compare your conclusions with other strategic thinkers.”

Participants will discuss strategic thinking after reading case studies on The Walt Disney Company and motorcycle manufacturer Ducati. Then they will apply the same strategic thinking skills to one key initiative in their own organization, and use internal and external analyses to build a case that justifies the initiative. Finally, participants will think through how their organization should address their strategic initiative and consider plans  to ensure its approval.

Eligible participants can attend the program free of charge as a WDI Teeter Scholar, named in memory of the late Robert M. Teeter, an advisor to U.S. presidents from 1968-1992 and a WDI board member. Through the scholarship program, WDI awards 20 full-tuition scholarships annually to managers from small- and medium-sized enterprises and NGOs in emerging markets to attend WDI professional education programs.