Instructor
Jonathan El-Calouhi
Instructor
Experienced Big 4 and investment banking professional with nearly 20 years of expertise driving strategic initiatives and operational improvements across financial services, capital markets, corporate banking, manufacturing, and energy sectors. A proven leader in managing finance transformation programs, including mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and system implementations. Adept at full life-cycle project leadership, influencing cross-functional teams, and aligning stakeholders to achieve organizational goals. Known for exceptional business acumen, political savviness, and a results-driven approach that consistently delivers value creation and sustainable growth.
This four-hour session equips finance and business leaders with a pragmatic and structured approach to strategy and strategic planning in environments defined by volatility, shifting economic conditions, and incomplete information. The goal is to enhance your ability to craft a viable strategy, align stakeholders, make informed choices, and position the future state of your organization to outperform. Grounded in real-world executive decision-making, this course blends strategic thinking with operational discipline. You will learn how to frame strategic questions, assess options with confidence, mobilize teams, and execute with clarity. The focus is on providing tools and frameworks that better support decision making, prioritization, and enable you to create long-term value in a fast-changing business environment.
▪Define strategy in clear, actionable terms and apply it to your organizational context.
▪Structure and facilitate effective strategic planning sessions that generate alignment and insight.
▪Identify and navigate organizational inflection points and paramount challenges.
▪Conduct a rigorous situational analysis using proven frameworks and diagnostic tools.
▪Evaluate strategic alternatives through financial, operational, and risk-based decision making.
▪Apply decision-making techniques designed for environments of uncertainty and ambiguity.
▪Assess organizational capabilities and translate them into an effective target operating model.
▪Lead change efforts that support strategic execution and organizational transformation.
▪Develop performance measurement systems that reinforce accountability and desired outcomes.
▪What strategy is—and what it is not
▪Setting the stage for strategic planning: conditions, expectations, and executive alignment
▪Paramount challenges and inflection points shaping organizational direction
▪Situational analysis: applying tools and frameworks to diagnose the environment
▪Assessing and prioritizing strategic alternatives
▪Decision-making models for uncertainty, volatility, and complexity
▪Evaluating capabilities and designing an effective target operating model
▪Leading change and translating strategy into effective execution
▪Building performance measurement systems that drive behavior and results
CFOs, CEOs, general managers, finance professionals, and executives responsible for strategy development, enterprise decision-making, and organizational performance.