Course Preview: Strategic Thinking for the CXO from Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education

26 October 2022

[Video Transcript] Strategic Thinking for the CXO from Cambridge Judge Business School Executive Education"

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Welcome to the programme. The Covid 19 pandemic has created unprecedented volatility and posed enormous challenges for organisations around the world. Effective and quickly adaptive strategies, more than ever, have become crucial for surviving and thriving in the post-pandemic environment. A very warm welcome to the programme. We have designed this programme to help you and your organisations develop, evaluate and execute strategies to overcome challenges in this extremely difficult time and sustain competitive advantages in the long term.

My name is Kamal Munir and I'm a Reader in Strategy and Policy at the Cambridge Judge Business School and a fellow of Homerton College. I have deep expertise in Strategy in turbulent and disruptive environments. Beyond academia, I have served as a consultant and continue to serve as a consultant in both the public and private sectors. In the public sector, I have consulted with several multilateral agencies, such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank, and also with the governments of various countries. In the private sector, I've served as a consultant for several blue chip leading organisations.

I'm Shahzad Ansari. I'm a Professor of Strategy and Innovation at the Cambridge Judge Business School and a Professorial fellow of St. Edmund's College. As you know in Cambridge you're always part of the department as well as a college. My research focuses on strategy and innovation, and how organisations deal with disruption, change, and decision-making in a volatile environment. Throughout my career, I have had the opportunity to work with organisations all around the world. In Europe, I have worked with Shell and Airbus. In China, I worked with Tencent, JD.com, and ICBC. In America, I've worked with UNICEF.

I've also worked with organisations of different business sectors and industries, including consulting firms like McKinsey, banks like Barclays and ABN AMRO, and pharmaceutical organisations like Roche. Businesses around the world are constantly facing new challenges and disruptions. The Covid 19 pandemic has foregrounded the importance of good strategies. Organisations with forward-looking and successful strategies like Amazon, and Apple have not only survived disruptions but also strengthened themselves considerably for long-term success.

To help you tailor strategies in the post-pandemic environment, we'll discuss how to grow and thrive in a challenging environment through alliances, partnerships, Mergers, and Acquisitions. And we'll also talk about how to build powerful, strong, and resilient organisations that are responsive, agile, and adaptive to what we call the VUCA environment, which is basically Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity. Moreover, we'll discuss how to adapt, repurpose and pivot your strategies to always be prepared for emergencies and crises, and this particularly applies to turbulent environments. Through this programme, you will develop a robust understanding and acquire advanced techniques to formulate, evaluate and execute winning strategies.

You will also learn a variety of frameworks to examine the competitive environment, and your ecosystem and assess the relative strategic position of your organization. These tools will help you detect early signs of change in your external environment, ways to pivot, and discover opportunities to create new value while maintaining your competitive advantage.

Over the course of the programme, you will learn from videos based on insights from research and professional experiences. You will also hear from industry leaders who will share their experience and expertise on strategy in the real world. Apart from the pre-recorded videos, we will also host live webinars to elaborate on the programme content and address your questions.

You will also participate in a variety of learning activities to help enhance your knowledge and skills and translate your learning into actions. Your programme leaders and the programme technical support team will be with you through your entire journey to ensure a smooth and productive learning experience. We are very excited to have you here with us. We hope you enjoy your learning experience. This is for you guys and we have to make this work together as a team.

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