Customer-Centric Strategy

Closing the Six Gaps Between Your Strategy and Your Results

Upcoming Dates and Tuition:

April 27-29, 2027
8:30 am to 4:30 pm
Tuition: $4,875
Early Bird Tuition: $4,387.50 (Deadline is December 31. Discount Code: EARLYBIRD10)

Overview

Most strategies do not fail in the boardroom; they fail in the gaps between the plan, the people who execute it, and the customers it is meant to serve. In this intensive three-day program, you will benchmark your organization on six research-identified strategy gaps, build your company’s customer value equation, and leave with a plan to close the gaps that matter most. The frameworks come from Professor Vikas Mittal’s work with more than 200 companies on customer-based strategy.

Request More Information

Who Should Attend

Designed for senior leaders who own strategy and its execution: C-suite executives, business unit heads, and chief strategy officers.
Also valuable for strategic planning and corporate development professionals, HR leaders aligning performance with strategy, managers moving into senior leadership roles, and entrepreneurs scaling their businesses.
Bring your leadership team. Strategy gaps are closed by teams, not individuals. Groups of 3 and more participants save 10–20% on tuition

Outcome

Your organization’s score on the six strategy gaps
Your company’s customer value equation, and a way to use it to prioritize initiatives
A strategy positioning statement and a resonant value proposition that set you apart from competitors and grow sales
A practical approach to leading implementation and engaging employees through accountability partnerships
Clear view of your own growth areas as a strategy-leading executive, from the simulation rerun and peer self-evaluation

Program Schedule

AM Session

PM Session

DAY ONE

Gap 1 - Strategy Focus Simulation: Experiencing the Six Gaps

In a team of six, participate in a series of strategic retreats to experience strategy planning firsthand
Explore and revise myths about legacy strategy planning
Understand and measure strategy gaps using your simulation experience

Gaps 1 & 2 - Strategy Thinking and Alignment Gaps: From Thinking Inhibitors to Enablers

The five most critical strategy thinking mistakes and solutions (salience, intuitive leaps, mythical numbers, staying put, and more-is-better fallacy)
Distinguish among problem solving, strategy planning, and strategy implementation
Differences between actual and perceived alignment
How legacy planning increases the strategy alignment gap

DAY TWO

Gaps 3 & 5 - Strategy Formulation & Strategy Monetization Gaps: Mastering Customer Focus

Customer focus versus customer appeasement
The downside of customer listening (yes, you’ve read it right)
Developing your company’s customer value equation and using it to prioritize initiatives
Developing your strategy positioning statement
Crafting resonant value propositions based on your customer value equation
Communicating excellence based on achievement (not on promise)
Common pitfalls in becoming customer focused

Gaps 4 & 6 -Strategy Implementation & Embedding Gaps: Mastering Employee Excellence

Leading implementation and enhancing employee satisfaction with accountability partnerships
Pitfalls of communication, persuasion and motivation as employee management tools
Linking customer value and employee engagement to drive sales growth
Developing strategy systems with permanence and lasting impact