What
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 Cooperates with WU Vienna
MBD and MPG (Master off Public Governance) has a cooperation agreement with the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna). This means that, as an MBD and MPG student, you have the opportunity to take a course at a foreign university that can count as an elective in your study. CBS is responsible for the formal aspects of the exchange agreement as well as the practical administration related to registration. You are responsible for arranging accommodation and transportation yourself.
Grading
The examination must be completed at the Vienna University of Economics and Business (WU Vienna) in order for the result to count as part of your MBD programme. In practice, you will receive credit transfer for the course taken in Vienna, and it will appear on your final diploma as a transferred credit with the assessment “Pass/Fail.”
