Strategy Director Excellence Programme: The Many Modes of a Strategy Director
A New Training Course for Strategy Directors in 5 Masterclasses
Starts 12th June 2025, Online
This is a brand new APG course for Strategy Directors. You may have been promoted relatively recently or you’re about to take the step up. Either way you’re a highly capable strategist with plenty of experience but you now need to embrace a different mindset and start leading the business and the team.
This means learning new ways of working and handling yourself as a Director who is leading the work, people, relationships and conditions. It’s a whole new set of skills and expectations. This course is designed to help you master them with confidence and build the foundations of strategic leadership.
The course has been designed by Simon Gregory, formerly Joint CSO of BBH and Sarah Newman, with input from the faculty of strategy leaders who will be talking on the course. It’s practitioner-led so it’s highly practical, useful and completely up to date.
It is based on the idea that as a Strategy Director you wear a lot of hats! We’ve called them modes and they are the various ways of thinking and behaving that you need to adopt and perfect as a successful Strategy Director.
We will teach you what is required in each mode, how you can rise to the challenges you face, and how to grow your own confidence and gain the confidence of your clients, teams, creatives and managers.
Simon Gregory
Omar El-Gammal
Jim Carroll
Genevieve Gransden
Selma Ahmed
Lola Neves
Sam Williams
Charlotte Flook
The many Modes of Strategy Director
MODE 1: Being an inspiring leader
Shifting your mindset to motivate, delegate and lead (with Omar El-Gammal, Mother)
MODE 2: Finding Your Confident Self
Finding the confidence to do it your way (with Jim Carroll)
MODE 3: Embracing Your Inner Creative Salesman
Leading the way to better work and getting it sold in (with Genevieve Gransden & Selma Ahmed, BBH)
MODE 4: Being a Client Therapist
Becoming a trusted advisor to the senior client (speaker TBC)
MODE 5: Setting the Strategic Vision
Thinking 5 years ahead and plotting a path to it (with Lola Neves, Neverland)
How it Will Work
Simon is the course leader and convenor. He will introduce each session with frameworks, ideas and examples from his own experience as a strategic leader and set tasks that bring to life the modes that are being discussed. He and Sam Williams will be your main mentors and guides through the programme.
Each mode will come with a task or challenge to help embed the learning and some reading/homework.
Courses like this are a brilliant way to build a network in the strategy community and learn from expert practitioners who really know what they are talking about.
The kind of questions that the course will answer include:
What do I do when I’m stuck doing it all on my own?
How do I manage the different expectations of me?
How do I sustain my confidence when I’m doing things for the first time?
How do I change my relationship with my clients to reflect my new responsibilities?
How do I get better at negotiating?
How do I inspire people directly and indirectly?
How do I steer the team towards doing stronger work?
How do I set the vision for the business so that the team is working together strategically?
How do I get better at influencing my clients? And get into their business more?
How do I manage people now that I’m their boss?
Course Details
Dates and Times:
Thursday: 12th June, Time: 9.30am-1pm BST
Tuesdays: 17th & 24th June, 1st & 8th July 2025, Time: 9.30am - 12.30pm BST
Format:
5 x Half-days
Platform:
Zoom
Please note, the sessions will not be recorded/filmed and we can’t offer catch-up sessions on future courses, if for any reason you can’t attend.
Cost
£1,140+VAT (APG Membership required)
The Intent
To help Strategy Directors (or those close to it) step into the new responsibilities of the role with confidence and excitement.
The Shift
From learning and honing their discipline, to expanding their role as a ‘director’. Directing work, people, relationships, and conditions. It’s a whole new set of skills and expectations. This course is designed to help you master them with confidence and build the foundations of strategic leadership.
Course Tutors
Simon Gregory
Non-Exec Strategy Officer at Meanwhile
Omar El-Gammal
Head of Cultural Insight at Mother
Jim Carroll
Brand and Communication Consultant, Carroll Jones LLP and Former UK Chairman at BBH
Genevieve Gransden
Creative Director at BBH London
Selma Ahmed
Creative Director at BBH London
Lola Neves
CSO at Neverland
Sam Williams
Head of Strategy at AMV BBDO
Charlotte Flook
Head of Marketing at Suntory Beverage & Food GB&I
Course Enquiries
If you are interested in attending this Training Course, please e-mail Sarah Newman - Sarahnewman@apg.org.uk
APG Training Course Cancellation Policy
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Should you cancel your booking for an APG training course, the following cancellation policy will apply: For a cancellation made more than 30 calendar days in advance of the training course, a full rebate will be applied. For a cancellation more than ten calendar days in advance of the training course, a rebate of 50% will be applied. For a cancellation less than ten days in advance of the training course no rebate will be applied.
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Training sessions will not be recorded/filmed and we can’t offer catch-up sessions on future courses, if for any reason you can’t attend.
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On occasion we may need to re-schedule training sessions - we reserve the right to do this at any time although we will aim to give you as much notice as possible.
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Attendance on Training Courses is entirely at the discretion of APG. There is no automatic right to attendance.
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