Online Certified in Strategy & Digitalization

This program gives you a comprehensive overview of strategy and digitalization at both company and competitive level and familiarizes you with the important functions within an enterprise.

Participants can choose four out of the six following online courses:

• Strategic Management
• Innovation in the Age of Digital Disruption
• Organizational Behavior
• Strategy Execution
• Consumer-centric Growth & Omnichannel Strategies
• Building, Pitching & Financing Startups

To receive a certification, you must participate in four courses and successfully pass each course’s examination. The certificate grants 10 ECTS credits (16% of an MBA).

Strategic Management

• Understanding the foundations of strategy
• Conducting analysis using core strategy tools to understand your competitive and organizational environment
• Doing strategic planning and decision-making

Innovation in the Age of Digital Disruption

• Introduction to academically grounded concepts and insights on digital innovation and transformation
• Get familiarized with several frameworks and templates to systematically analyze digital innovation challenges
• Learn to apply the provided insights and frameworks in practice

Organizational Behavior

• Develop a critical understanding of the key issues and concepts in organizational behavior
• Analyze patterns and bottlenecks by reflecting on your own experience
• Develop and employ better people skills
• Hone capabilities for leadership roles that require management of relationships, teams, and organizations

Strategy Execution

• Foundations for strategy execution management control systems
• How to allocate resources to customers
• Creating accountability and commitment: Diagnostic control systems, performance management, BSC, Compensation, shared responsibilities, etc.
• Strategic Risk and Change Management

Consumer-centric Growth & Omnichannel Strategies

• Understanding the challenges of the Digital Age and developing strategies for blending the physical and digital world
• Generating Omnichannel Consumer Insights (e.g., big data)
• Learn how to optimize Omnichannel Product and Category Management, Price Management, Cross-Media Communications, Relationship Management, Sales Channel Choices and Coordination, Omnichannel Fulfilment

Building, Pitching & Financing Startups

• Learn how managers can create, develop, sustain, and lead innovative new businesses or initiatives
• Understand the interface between a corporation and the innovation and the entrepreneurial ecosystems
• Learn how to adopt an open systems perspective
• Understand how to effectively tap into the external environment to initiate change, drive innovation, and build new growth platforms

Expand your professional network at one of the most renowned German business schools and become part of an active network of peers and experts at WHU.

Ideal candidate profiles include

• Participants with a first degree in engineering, law, social sciences, humanities, foreign languages
• Participants with a first degree (Bachelor) in Business Administration or International Business will benefit from this program, as it is very practice-oriented and looks at (maybe) known topics from a different perspective.
• Participants who are aiming at broadening and deepening the business/ management knowledge while fully working.
• Participants with a minimum of two years of professional experience who are moving into a leadership position.
• The participants come from diverse industry and organizational backgrounds, further enriching the learning experience, and creating a valuable network of peers.
• This program requires a high level of self-organization skills. Contents will be provided on an e-learning platform. Candidates are invited to attend live online lectures on Saturdays, and the program requires participation in self-organized virtual group work.
• The Online Certified in Program format is particularly valuable for candidates who are on maternity/ paternity leave.

Admission requirements

• Proof of a bachelor’s degree or equivalent first degree is necessary.
• Minimum of two years of post-graduate professional experience.
• Proficiency in English.
• Participants should be willing and able to engage fully during the courses, as teamwork makes up a substantial part of the programs and course gradings.

Participation in course examinations is mandatory in this program. You can find the complete certificate regulation here.

The program language is English.

The program consists of 4 courses. Each course requires, on average, 17 hours per week of self-paced learning and 1-2 hours of live-teaching sessions which take place on Saturdays with the opportunity to choose between two timeslots at 1:00 pm or 4:00 pm(CEST). All courses last 4 weeks and include a final examination.

You can download an overview of the upcoming dates here:

Dates Online Certified in Programs(PDF, 146 KB)