Vistage Executive Leadership Program

Vistage is collaborating with Stanford Graduate School of Business to provideMBA-level courses delivered online and then applied through a Vistage groupexperience.

Executive Leadership Program

Courses

Course 1: Strategic Leadership

Learn how to create and apply strategic frameworks for innovation.

Clearly articulate your organization's strategy, identify when the strategy needs to be updated, and implement successful strategic changes.
Evaluate the logic of your organization's strategy
Apply frameworks to analyze your organization's capabilities & positional advantages
Create a plan to increase innovation within your organization

"The Strategic Leadership course was timely for the development of my new company. The framework made it very easy to articulate vision and test ideas. I was able to apply strategy and innovation to come up with a complete game plan to take to market during the course."

George Chao

CEO Reclaim Arbor

Course 2: Organizational Design

Design an organizational structure to facilitate innovation and growth.

Learn a framework for thinking about the organizational ecosystem
Learn how to use a human-centered design process to effectively diagnose the causes of very common organizational problems.
Understand the interplay between formal structure, routines, informal networks and culture in shaping organizational performance.

"The Organizational Design course challenged me to clearly define and live my values to the point that an employee said, 'I came here for the job, but I am staying because of family.' The best part is that I was able to implement most of these lessons in my business before even turning in my...

Mike Mahon

CEO Zia Consulting

a group of people sitting at a table using a laptop computer

Course 3: Innovation Playbook

Inspire and mobilize your community through the power of storytelling.

Analyze how leaders use personal stories to build high-performing teams, build global brands, and lead companies
Examine behavioral research and the design thinking process to glean insights for defining your personal and business stories
Apply skills to build and tell stories related to yourself and your own organization to align stakeholders and drive innovation

"I discovered through the Innovation Playbook course that we have a unique competitive advantage that isn't getting across in our messaging. The course illustrated significant shortcomings and we have since developed a PR campaign . We have been too shy to tell people why we are the best. and...

Sharon Bloodworth

CEO White Oaks Wealth Advisors, Inc.

Meet the Professors

Jesper B. Sorenson

Strategic Leadership

The Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor, and Professor of Organizational Behavior

William P. Barnett

Strategic Leadership

The Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations

Sarah Soule

Organizational Design

The Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior, Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs

Jennifer Aaker

Innovation Playbook

The General Atlantic Partners Professor of Marketing

Enrollment open for the February 2021 Cohort

Enroll Today

Program addresses core member questions

Do we have a strategy or do we have a plan? Why does it matter?
How relevant is our current strategy? How well does it respond to the current and future environment?
How do we know if our organization is designed to carry out our strategy? How do we know how to design it to be more effective?
How clear is our strategy to the Executive Team? To the rest of the staff? To our other stakeholders?
How quickly can I apply what I am learning to my organization? How relevant is this?

Designed to fit within a CEO’s busy schedule

Timeframe: A series of three 8-week courses, averaging 5-7 hours of high-impact learning per week.
Anytime Anywhere Access: Stanford courses are provided through a flexible online platform, providing access whenever most convenient.
Vistage Workshops: Unlike other executive education programs that are "learning in theory" and leave implementation at risk, this program has weekly workshops with a group of other Vistage members, and facilitated by and expert Vistage Chair, to drive real change in your business.
Expert Insight: Each course includes 3 live webinars as well as written feedback on assignments by Stanford's teaching team.

Prior participants’ motivations for enrolling

Lifelong Learning

Lifelong Learning: They had always made it a goal to learn & apply sound strategic frameworks, and the Vistage-Stanford program lined up perfectly with these goals.

Formal Education

Formal Education: They had started their businesses without much formal education, but felt that now was the right time to fulfill this promise to themselves.

At Just the Right Time

At Just the Right Time: They were working on a specific innovation or new strategy, and vetting it through this program seemed like a great way to fine-tune their plans.

Need for Sustainable Innovation

Need for Sustainable Innovation: They wanted to build an organizational culture where everyone was pursuing the goal of sustainable innovation, and the Vistage-Stanford program would equip them to do so.

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome: They were learning the CEO role and felt insecure or ill-equipped to make large strategic decisions.

Stuck in a Rut

Stuck in a Rut: They realized they weren't spending enough time building a coherent strategy, and knew they needed to sharpen their skill-set to make significant progress.

February 2021 Cohort

Next Cohort: Begins February 2021
Cost: $16,800 for 3-course series*
Certification: Joint Stanford GSB/Vistage Certificate of Completion for each course

Dates	Course
Feb 10 - Apr 6	Strategic Leadership
May 5 - Jun 29	Organizational Design
Aug 4 - Sep 28	Innovation Playbook

*Reflects 20% savings vs. single-course option, priced at $7,000 each.

Enrollment open for the February 2021 Cohort

Enroll Today

At the end of the program, participants will...

have optimized (or even radically upgraded) their business strategy.
have their own playbook of strategic frameworks and innovation tools that they're implementing in the real world.
have a better-shaped organization to deliver innovation and growth.
be able to tell stories that capture the imagination of customers, employees and investors, with a potency that is contagious.
have a globally-recognized Stanford certificate of completion for each course.

Member Results

CEO of a countertops company discovers new opportunities for transforming his commodity business into a technology platform
Second generation restaurateur redefines sustainable competitive advantage and launches a catering subsidiary
Consultant repositions his value proposition and has the most successful year in history
Non-profit with a vision to end homelessness redefines its strategy, rewrites their story, and wins a $10M grant

"I am learning how having a defined strategy can help my team get behind our goals and implement, allowing us to scale quickly."

"The concept of value creation vs. value capture has allowed me to understand why different firms in my industry make radically different profit margins."

"We simplified our strategic planning, going from 34 strategic initiatives to focusing on 5, in order to truly accomplish our strategy and increase our profitability and market share."

"What surprised me is just how little time I had devoted to strategic thinking - just how little I actually knew about true, corporate strategic thinking."