Which concepts, laws and best practices for corporate management are suitable for managing a business successfully in the long term? And how can such cumulative experience be utilized in one's own business life? These questions, which are essential for current and future managing directors and managers with comprehensive responsibility for results, are addressed by top-class lecturers during the St. Gallen SME Managing Director Program. They show which models, methods, instruments and concepts modern management theory has to offer and where these are successfully applied. Above all, however, they will show how these management theory offerings can be tested for their suitability and - if found to be good - implemented in your own area of responsibility. This is an intensive program on the essential issues: it brings you up to date with the latest developments in corporate management and leadership. It is therefore ideal for top performers who want to "recharge their batteries" after several years of successful commitment.

Structure

Part 1:
Holistic corporate management. Aligning the owners' strategy and the company's strategy. 4 days.

Part 2:
Building the business of the future: Business Development. 4 days.

Part 3:
Leadership and management. 4 days.

Topics

Less is more

One management theory follows another. One project follows the next, as soon as the first has begun and is far from being implemented.

• Aren't we doing too much of a good thing?
• Isn't less "more"?

Constant adaptation is needed

Of course: adaptation is a survival principle and the right response to change. Where changes take place, action must be taken. Standing still is a step backwards.

• No survival without change.

Finding the optimum change

However, these principles of evolution do not justify a project rush. They in no way legitimize an overdose of programs; no permanent restructuring; no constantly changing strategy.

Where is the optimum between renewal and preservation?

How much change can an organization be expected to accept?

What change must an organization endure in order to be successful today and tomorrow?

Practical experience

It is therefore about the right dose of change and transformation. From the multitude of possible programs, initiatives and projects, managers must determine those that are really worthwhile from the perspective of successful corporate management:

• New strategic approaches
• Structural innovation
• Long-term vision or fast-acting focus
• New customer segmentation and new business area structure
• Growth and cost cutting
• Centralization and decentralization
• Self-organization with agility or increased control
• Economies of scale and experience effects
• Differentiation and uniqueness
• In- and outsourcing
• Customer loyalty and new customer acquisition

Science and management practice offer many programs for this. We show what these are and how they prove themselves in practice.

Setting the strategic course

Only those who escape the hectic pace of day-to-day business and manage to view their own business from a "helicopter perspective" can separate the wheat from the chaff; can recognize the need for action in good time. They can determine which strategic decisions need to be made effectively and then concentrate precisely on those issues that are really essential in order to optimize profitability, productivity, market position and company value in the short and long term. This requires the right programs at the right time:

• Defending existing market shares
• Optimizing the core business in terms of quality, productivity and customer satisfaction
• Successful positioning in the competitive environment
• The further development of the core business in the direction of digitalization
• Recognizing disruption and displacement potential
• Exploiting the opportunities offered by new technologies for new business opportunities and new business
• Developing capabilities that cannot be imitated

Good leadership as a management task

However, successful corporate management requires more than good concepts and innovative strategies. It needs good management, it needs leadership. Whatever role managers take on: Leadership must be authentic. It must also be situational, because different situations require different leadership styles and individual employees require individually adapted forms of leadership.

• What characterizes real leaders?
• What personal qualities are needed to achieve first-class management results thanks to leadership?
• What ways are there to fully meet your own requirements in terms of measurement criteria such as motivation, working atmosphere, trust, performance and results orientation?

Your own role as a manager

Once the strategic thrusts have been identified and the annual and multi-year targets have been defined, the - usually laborious - process of implementation begins. What role do managers play in this? No role is generally right or wrong. And every manager plays different roles. As a rule, however, a few patterns of behavior dominate. Are they the most effective or is there a need for correction?

• Change management: the art of implementing major changes
• Your own leadership role as a managing director
• Which of the possible leadership roles suits you and your leadership personality?
• Which leadership roles do you play perfectly, which too intensively and which too little?

Leadership and resource management

Modern leadership theory accepts people as they are. It does not attempt to demand major changes in behavior, which usually take much longer than the time available to the individual manager in a particular role.

• Developing leadership means starting from existing personal strengths.
• Recognizing these first and then continuously building on them. And, above all, to use them consistently.

This topic plays a major role in this program. You will learn about your strengths and learn how to use them even better.

1. Managing Directors from SMEs and family businesses
2. Senior managers from SMEs and medium-sized companies who want to prepare for a later role as managing director
3. Entrepreneurs who are themselves operationally active as managing directors