The Cambridge and Financial Times Strategy Programme
Transform your strategic thinking and drive organisational success on this programme developed by Cambridge Judge Business School in collaboration with the Financial Times. This unique collaboration offers the strongest academic foundations, elevated by practical and topical insights from exclusive access to FT digital content and innovative interactive workshops led by FT editors.
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Dates:
Duration:
Fees:
Online
19 Mar-15 Apr 2025 and then 23 Apr-20 May 2025
8 weeks (4-5 hours per week)
£2,600 +VAT
Upcoming programmes
Format:
Online
Dates:
19 Mar-15 Apr 2025 and then 23 Apr-20 May 2025
Duration:
8 weeks (4-5 hours per week)
Fees:
£2,600 +VAT
Please note: There will be a one-week break between 15 April 2025 and 23 April 2025.
We are able to accept registrations for this programme up to 23 March 2025.
Overview
Developed and designed by Cambridge Judge Business School in collaboration with the Financial Times, this innovative executive education programme focuses on strategy for mid- to senior-level executives. The programme combines cutting-edge online content with topical interactive live webinars led by renowned FT editors, providing a flexible and immersive learning experience. Participants will delve into the fundamentals of strategy, learn to identify and leverage strategic assets, and master the intricacies of strategic positioning and implementation.
By engaging with world-renowned Cambridge faculty and FT journalists, executives will gain the skills and strategic insights necessary to drive organisational success in today’s dynamic business environment. The curriculum is specifically designed to help leaders develop and implement effective strategies, addressing the most pressing challenges such as translating strategic vision into action, aligning cross-functional teams, adapting to market changes, effective resource allocation, and managing organisational change. Join us to elevate your leadership capabilities, adopt a more strategic approach to your business and propel your career to new heights.
Benefits and career impact
- Enhanced strategic thinking: gain deep insights into advanced strategic concepts and frameworks, enhancing your ability to think critically and make informed decisions that drive business success.
- Practical skills and tools: acquire practical tools and methodologies for translating strategic vision into actionable plans, effectively managing resources, and leading organisational change.
- Up-to-date knowledge: stay current with the latest industry trends and developments through access to cutting-edge content and live webinars from the Financial Times, ensuring your strategies are relevant and informed by the latest insights.
- Improved strategic alignment: benefit from leaders who can align strategic objectives with operational activities, ensuring cohesive and focused efforts across the organisation.
- Increased competitive advantage: leverage the enhanced strategic capabilities of your executives to stay ahead of market trends, respond agilely to changes, and capitalise on new opportunities.
- Enhanced organisational performance: gain business leaders who are equipped to drive projects effectively, optimise resource allocation, and implement strategic initiatives that support sustainable growth and innovation.
Learn more about the programme from the FT’s Andrew Hill.
This programme will help you make robust strategic decisions in the face of complexity and uncertainty. It offers a pragmatic approach and fundamental concepts and frameworks aimed at helping you formulate and implement strategy within your organisation, be it a start-up, an established firm, or a not-for-profit.
This programme is being delivered in collaboration with the Financial Times.
Programme content
Module 1: Strategic insight and positioning
Unit 1: What is strategy and why does it matter?
- Definition and importance of strategy.
- Identifying organisational goals, purpose and values.
Unit 2: Strategic assets and competitive advantage
- Uncovering strategic assets: core resources and capabilities.
- Assessing options for strategic development.
- Webinar: FT Strategy Session: AI.
Unit 3: Ecosystems and industries
- Analysing industry attractiveness.
- Understanding the difference between industries and ecosystems.
- Driving positive network effects in multi-sided networks.
Unit 4: Strategic positioning
- Differentiating between cost leadership and strategic differentiation.
- Using trade-offs to avoid being “stuck in the middle.”
- Developing blue ocean strategies.
- Webinar: FT Strategy Session: Sustainability.
Module 2: Strategy execution and operational excellence
Unit 1: Strategy operationalisation: setting the strategic objectives
- Representing strategy in operational terms.
- Articulating the implementation path from current to future strategic positions.
Unit 2: Unpacking the ‘how’ of strategy implementation: the business model framework
- Describing business models using frameworks like the Cambridge business model canvas.
- Understanding interactions within the business model to enable value creation.
- Webinar: FT Strategy Session: Geopolitics.
Unit 3: From strategic objectives to action I: selecting and resourcing the right strategic initiatives
- Addressing the complexity of project portfolio selection and budgeting.
- Diagnosing organisational decision challenges and biases.
- Applying methods to ensure portfolio alignment with strategic goals.
Unit 4: From strategic objectives to action II: translating, cascading and aligning strategy to operations
- Identifying failure points in cascading strategic objectives.
- Aligning metrics, tasks, and targets during strategy cascading.
- Applying tools for effective alignment in strategy implementation.
How you learn: Online
Experience the best of the University of Cambridge’s faculty-developed, online learning and expert analysis and insight from the Financial Times, digitally in your home or office. Take part in breakout groups with real-time interaction between your peers and faculty. Engage in webinars hosted by Andrew Hill, Senior Business Writer at the Financial Times.
Who attends
This programme is designed for mid- to senior-level executives who are responsible for shaping and implementing strategic initiatives within their organisations. Ideal participants include:
- Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Chief Operating Officers (COOs) looking to refine their strategic vision and enhance organisational performance
- senior managers and directors responsible for strategic planning, business development, or operational excellence
- entrepreneurs and business owners seeking to scale their businesses and achieve sustainable growth through effective strategic planning
- functional leaders such as Heads of Marketing, Finance, HR or Operations, who want to align their departmental strategies with overall corporate objectives
- consultants and advisors specialising in strategic management and organisational development, aiming to deepen their expertise and offer more impactful solutions to their clients
Participants typically have significant experience in leadership roles and are looking to advance their strategic capabilities to drive their organisations forward in a competitive and rapidly changing business environment.
This programme will help leaders navigate the difficulties of defining, articulating, and eventually implementing the most effective strategy for their business division/unit, or company, independently of their purpose and size, through a set of intuitive, research-enabled and practice-proven frameworks and tools.
Faculty and speakers
Learn from our world-class faculty who bring fresh insights from their leading-edge research into all of our Executive Education programmes. The Academic Programme Directors (APD) for the Strategic Management programme are Associate Professor Allègre Hadida, Professor Stelios Kavadias and Andrew Hill from the Financial Times.
PhD (HEC Paris)
Stylianos (Stelios) Kavadias
Margaret Thatcher Professor of Enterprise Studies in Innovation and GrowthCo-Director of the Entrepreneurship Centre
PhD (INSEAD)
Andrew Hill is senior business writer at the FT and consulting editor at FT Live. He is a former management editor, City editor, financial editor and comment and analysis editor. He joined the FT in 1988 and has also worked as New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.
Why Cambridge Judge Business School and the FT?
Related programmes
The Cambridge and Financial Times Strategy programme belongs to our Strategy & Growth-topic executive education programmes. Here is a selection of other Strategy & Growth programmes:
Digital Disruption: Digital Transformation Strategies
Understand disruption and how to deal with it. Build the game-changing business models that will help your organisation to compete, to grow, and most importantly, to disrupt others.
Integrating Risk into Strategic Decision-Making
Expand your mindset beyond traditional areas of risk, learning to respond dynamically to economic volatility, change and digital disruption, and improving your ability to thrive in the face of complex threats and opportunities.
Strategic Thinking for the CXO
Formulate, evaluate and execute effective strategies for creating and maintaining competitive advantage, even in the face of uncertainty.
Speak to a programme advisor
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how this programme could benefit you or your organisation, please get in touch with the programme advisor.
