This elective explores how strategy is actually made and implemented in organizations. The focus of the course moves from strategy as a plan to strategy as a practice — examining what leaders really do when they strategize, why strategies rarely fail on paper but often in reality, and why the work of strategizing is so much harder than planning. The course addresses the following core challenges of real-world strategy making:
- How to use models, tools and technologies for effective strategy processes
- How to organize effective collaboration across public, private, and third-sector boundaries
- How to leverage strategy for cultural change
- How to navigate the politics and power dynamics embedded in every strategy process
- How to ensure strategy gains traction and has impact
- How to account for outcomes of the strategy process and monitor success
How
The course is offered at WU Vienna in partnership with the City of Vienna Administration — a truly complex and fascinating public organizations, with nearly 70,000 employees serving a city of 2 million inhabitants. Repeatedly ranked the world's most liveable city, Vienna nonetheless faces significant challenges ahead in areas ranging from climate adaptation to urban growth and social cohesion.
Senior city officials will join the course as active participants — not just guest speakers — sharing how strategy is made under real conditions of uncertainty, political pressure, and organizational complexity. Their cases will serve as the primary material for analysis and discussion. Participants will work in small groups on a live case study, with the explicit goal of translating insights into their own organizational contexts.
Why
By the end of the course, participants will be able to:
- Recognize how strategy actually works in practice and why it often fails
- Navigate the organizational, cultural, and political dimensions of strategy making
- Develop strategy processes and practices that generate traction and impact
- Anticipate unintended consequences and strategic paradoxes
- Reflect critically on their own role as strategic leaders
Exam
Assessment will be in the form of an individual 5 to 7-page essay submitted after the course. In the essay the students present their reflections on theory and practice in the curriculum. The weighting is primarily on the discussion and argumentation.
CBS samarbejder med WU Wien
MPG har et samarbejde med Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien). Det betyder, at du som MPG-studerende har mulighed for at følge et fag på et udenlandsk universitet, der kan indgå som et valgfag på MPG uddannelsen. CBS står for den officielle del af udvekslingsaftalen og den praktiske del i forhold til tilmelding. Du skal selv sørge for overnatning og transport.
Bemærk venligst at rettidig framelding til dette fag er 4 uger før undervisningsstart.
Karakter
Eksamen skal gennemføres på Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Wien), for at resultatet kan gælde som en del af din MPG. Rent praktisk får du merit for faget i Wien og det kommer til at fremstå som meritoverført på dit endelige eksamensbevis med bedømmelsen "bestået/ikke bestået".
