Dubai - Grand Cosmopolitan Hotel

From 03-07/08/2025

Course Introduction:

While an organization chart of a business shows its functional and hierarchical structure – who does what and who has authority – the process perspective on the way that businesses actually work, survive and prosper, reveals a different truth about value-chains where power, and importance-to-survival, look very different.

The process perspective on a business is a different paradigm in which to examine, understand and, most importantly, to improve a business in order to make it better able to compete and survive.

The process view, captured by the work of Stafford Beer and his intellectual heirs, is challenging and sometimes difficult to follow, but is worth perseverance since it offers a very powerful tool set for anyone seeking to understand and improve business performance.

This Strategic Operational Excellence: Aligning Business Goals and Processes training course will feature:

• What does the term mean and why is this a different paradigm?
• What is the practical payoff for the organization of adopting this perspective?
• When is the perspective more or less appropriate?
• Demonstration of the application of the perspective
• Where in the organization and by whom should the perspective be used?

Course Objectives:

By the end of This Strategic Operational Excellence: Aligning Business Goals and Processes training course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the distinctive process perspective and its links to TQM and “Lean”
• Analyze their own and other businesses with a process perspective
• Use the technique to diagnose problems and identify improvement opportunities
• Explain the process to colleagues so as to improve the “meta-management” of their businesses
• Take a strategic “value-chain analysis” view of their business and the challenges that it must overcome to survive and prosper

Target Audience:

This Strategic Operational Excellence: Aligning Business Goals and Processes training course in London will utilise a variety of proven adult learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes senior and middle managers who are aspiring to general management positions and individuals seeking an understanding of this key element of the top manager’s tool kit. It is also relevant to C-level leaders looking to expand their business.

This Strategic Operational Excellence: Aligning Business Goals and Processes training course is suitable to a wide range of professionals but will greatly benefit:

• Headquarters staff in complex organizations across all business sectors and public administration
• Senior leaders in Marketing, Finance, Operations and HR functions
• Senior Programme and Project Management staff
• Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) leaders aiming to grow their businesses
• Junior managers seeking to develop a coherent view of business organization and improvement and acquire a toolkit of lasting value

Training Methodology:

This Strategic Operational Excellence: Aligning Business Goals and Processes training course will use a variety of proven adult-learning techniques to ensure maximum understanding, comprehension and retention of the information presented. This includes classroom-based learning and discussion with a competitive practical team element. Case studies and practical simulations of the process analytics approach and methodology. Critical examination of major companies’ business processes. Production of a process “atlas” for an imaginary company with role-play exercises using the proven methodology.

Course Outline:

Day One: Introduction and Background

• Introduction – The Process Perspective – what is it?
• The intellectual roots and linkages of the perspective to TQM and “Lean”
• Historical cases of its application
• Relationship to other strategic business management processes
• Resources and facilities required to implement the approach
• Practical effect of adopting the process perspective

Day Two: A Process Analytic Workshop

• Using the approach to understand and analyze the business of an imaginary client described in student case study material
• Process Effectiveness explained and examined
• Process Efficiency explained and examined
• Creation of a process “atlas”
• Formulation of the desired end-state
• Analysis of the corporate “terrain” in which process improvements must operate

Day Three:  Business Transformation through the Process Perspective

• The “horizontal” view of businesses as distinct from the vertical silo view
• “Swimlane” analysis of business value chains
• Engaging and motivating the organization’s resources
• Business Process analysis as part of Total Quality Management and “Lean”
• Measurement and Display as an aid to understanding
• Building a process-thinking culture

Day Four:  The Process Perspective Linked to Common Analytic Tools

• Porter’s Five Forces analysis
• SWOT and Force-field analysis
• The Boston Matrix
• The Ansoff Matrix
• The Communications Matrix^©
• The Balanced Scorecard

Day Five:  From Concept to Practical Reality

• Communicating the approach to stakeholders in the business
• Building the process approach into the business plan
• Stepping stones, trip-ups and milestones
• Designing “breakthrough projects” to transform key processes
• Continuous improvement of the process
• The “proof of the pudding”