Teams read what their leaders tolerate on strategic supply chain leadership far more accurately than what their leaders announce. The hardest part of chain leadership is rarely deciding — it is holding the decision when it becomes unpopular. Participants apply the organisational leadership discipline to their own management team throughout, so the output is directly usable. Participants come from operational and oversight roles, and both perspectives on strategic supply chain leadership are used deliberately. The outcome is a practitioner who can hold a position on this area of organisational leadership and revise it on evidence. Improvement in chain leadership stalls when it depends on one capable individual rather than a defined method. This programme builds strategic supply chain leadership from first principles, without padding and without omitting what matters. Field experience suggests that the barrier to better chain leadership is rarely technical. Participants finish with a short, specific brief on the organisational leadership capability ready to put in front of a decision maker.
Expected Learning Outcomes
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Align the incentives of different functions so strategic supply chain leadership is not quietly sabotaged.
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Make decisions on chain leadership at the right speed for the risk involved.
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Anticipate the objections that strategic supply chain leadership will attract internally and answer them in advance.
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Set the minimum documentation for chain leadership that is genuinely necessary, and stop there.
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Set standards on strategic supply chain leadership and apply them consistently regardless of who is involved.
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Develop successors capable of running chain leadership without you.
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Set acceptance criteria for strategic supply chain leadership before work begins rather than after.
Who Should Attend
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Staff seconded into improvement work on strategic supply chain leadership.
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Team leaders responsible for daily delivery of chain leadership.
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Training and development staff building internal capability in strategic supply chain leadership.
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Public sector managers applying chain leadership within institutional constraints.
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Executives leading multi-function programmes involving strategic supply chain leadership.
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Project and programme managers whose success depends on chain leadership.
Course Modules
Open any module to see its sessions and topics.
01
Strategic supply chain leadership: setting direction people can act on
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1The hard cases in strategic supply chain leadership and how to reason about them
Build the competence framework that supports strategic supply chain leadership.
Set the review point at which chain leadership will be reconsidered.
Decide what you will delegate on strategic supply chain leadership and what you will not, and say why.
State the outcome expected from chain leadership in a single sentence anyone can repeat.
Session 2Moving chain leadership through people who do not report to you
Identify which function can quietly block strategic supply chain leadership and address it directly.
Set the decision rights on chain leadership: who decides, who is consulted, who is told.
Confirm that contractual obligations around strategic supply chain leadership are understood.
Establish the boundary of chain leadership and record what sits outside it.
02
Chain leadership: influence across functions you do not control
2 sessions · 8 points
Session 1Reviewing chain leadership when nothing has gone wrong
Record what was learned when strategic supply chain leadership did not go as planned.
Set escalation thresholds for chain leadership that work out of hours.
Name the person accountable for each part of strategic supply chain leadership, not the committee.
Write down the reasoning behind your position on chain leadership.
Session 2Deciding on chain leadership when the information will never be complete
Agree the indicators that will show whether strategic supply chain leadership is improving.
Decide the point at which you would escalate chain leadership.
Identify the conversation about strategic supply chain leadership you have been postponing, and schedule it.
Agree the standard on chain leadership and confirm it applies to everyone.
