Ten executive-level programmes for management committees and boards of banks, insurers and large industrial groups. Short formats, decision-oriented.
Strategic Leadership in Banking & Financial Organizations
Holding regulatory pressure, digital disruption and market volatility together
Description
Running a financial institution now means holding three fronts at once: regulatory pressure that never lets up, digital disruption that redistributes established positions, and market volatility that shortens the decision horizon. This three-day seminar gives executives the leadership frameworks needed to hold those three fronts together rather than separately. It alternates executive case studies, executive committee simulations and work on real strategic trade-offs.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Locate the structural tensions between prudential constraint, commercial ambition and the transformation agenda
- Build a general management position that stands up before an executive committee and before a board
- Arbitrate a resource allocation under constraint and own the communication that follows
- Identify weak signals of competitive disruption in the financial sector
- Align an executive committee behind a contested strategic decision
- Treat supervisory dialogue as part of strategy rather than as an imposed obligation
Teaching methods and resources
Structured input illustrated by real management situations. Case studies on European institutions, executive committee simulations, trade-off exercises in subgroups. Strategic tension reading grid and resource allocation matrix. Peer exchange between participants holding comparable positions.
Course programme
1. Reading the strategic environment of a financial institution
- Map the forces shaping the sector: regulation, technology, non-bank competition, societal expectations
- Distinguish lasting disruptions from cyclical movements
- Locate the institution’s competitive position in its markets
- Identify critical dependencies: funding, systems, providers, talent
Practical work: guided analysis of a European institution’s trajectory over five years. Participants identify the decisions that made the difference and those that were imposed.
2. Arbitrating between prudential constraint and commercial ambition
- Translate a capital or liquidity requirement into an allocation constraint
- Assess the true cost of growth in a capital-intensive segment
- Build a trade-off between short-term profitability and long-term position
- Formalise the decision and its rationale for the board
Practical work: allocation case on a capital-intensive portfolio. Each subgroup defends an option before a simulated executive committee.
3. Driving transformation without disorganising the business
- Sequence a transformation programme against the teams’ absorption capacity
- Identify where transformation conflicts with continuity requirements
- Steer by intermediate results rather than by the plan
- Address resistance from middle management
Practical work: building an eighteen-month transformation sequence, with exit milestones and stop criteria.
4. Leading an executive committee and reporting to the board
- Structure a collective decision where interests diverge
- Prepare a board pack: what belongs in it, what must be said in the room
- Answer a director’s challenge without weakening management’s position
- Manage the relationship between management, chair and specialised committees
Practical work: simulation of a board meeting on a sensitive matter. Debrief on argument construction and objection handling.
5. Holding the course under pressure
- Decide on incomplete information and against the clock
- Organise information flow during a crisis
- Arbitrate between transparency and control of the communication timetable
- Preserve cohesion within the management team over time
Practical work: time-constrained decision exercise based on a market stress scenario. Collective analysis of the trade-offs made.
Participants
CEOs, managing directors and executive committee members of banks and insurers.
Prerequisites
A general management or executive committee role in a financial institution. No academic prerequisite.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Insurance Transformation & Risk Governance
Turning risk governance into an instrument for steering transformation
Description
Insurance groups are simultaneously transforming their distribution model, rebuilding their systems and adapting continuously to a demanding solvency framework. This three-day seminar treats these workstreams as one: it shows how a well-designed risk governance framework becomes an instrument for steering transformation rather than a parallel constraint. The cases are drawn from recent market situations.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Design a risk governance framework consistent with solvency requirements
- Connect risk appetite, capital allocation and commercial priorities
- Steer a transformation programme across an insurance group
- Locate the respective responsibilities of management, key functions and the board
- Judge the quality of an internal control framework from operating indicators
- Conduct supervisory dialogue on a transformation matter
Teaching methods and resources
Theoretical input illustrated by European insurance group cases. Case studies on real governance frameworks, risk committee simulations, subgroup analysis. Governance assessment grid and appetite-allocation matrix. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Locating the solvency framework and its strategic effects
- Review the architecture of the insurance prudential framework and its three pillars
- Translate a capital requirement into an underwriting and investment constraint
- Identify the balance sheet items most sensitive to market parameters
- Locate the role of key functions in the overall governance
Practical work: guided reading of an insurance group’s governance framework. Identification of weak points.
2. Building a usable risk appetite
- Express risk appetite in terms the business can actually use
- Translate appetite into operating limits and alert thresholds
- Organise the escalation and treatment of breaches
- Revise appetite in the light of experience
Practical work: drafting a risk appetite statement for a given perimeter, then comparison between subgroups.
3. Steering the transformation of an insurance group
- Sequence a redesign of distribution, systems or organisation
- Identify the risks introduced by the transformation itself
- Reconcile transformation with business continuity requirements
- Measure progress by something other than budget consumption
Practical work: building a transformation roadmap with induced risks and control points identified.
4. Making risk governance work in practice
- Organise the risk committee’s work and its link to the board
- Define what a risk report to governing bodies should usefully contain
- Handle disagreements between the risk function and business lines
- Document decisions to guarantee traceability
Practical work: simulation of a risk committee where the risk function and the business are opposed. Debrief on how the arbitration was conducted.
5. Conducting supervisory dialogue
- Prepare a supervisory exchange on a transformation matter
- Document a contested decision defensibly
- Anticipate recurring requests and organise the associated data collection
- Use supervisory feedback to improve the framework
Practical work: collective preparation of a response file to a supervisory request, followed by a reasoned presentation.
Participants
Insurance CEOs, chief risk officers and board members.
Prerequisites
A management, risk or board role in an insurance group. General familiarity with the Solvency II framework is useful.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Executive Decision-Making for Global Industrial Groups
Deciding on long, hard-to-reverse commitments
Description
Running an international industrial group means deciding on partial information about long, hard-to-reverse commitments. This five-day seminar works the three families of decisions that shape a group’s trajectory: capital allocation across activities, external growth operations, and geopolitical exposure. The cases cover documented cross-border transactions.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Structure a capital allocation decision across activities with different return profiles
- Conduct the preliminary analysis of an external growth operation
- Factor geopolitical exposure into a location or sourcing decision
- Assess the group’s funding constraints and their effect on the range of possible decisions
- Organise the decision process between headquarters, regions and subsidiaries
- Document a major decision so that it can be revisited
Teaching methods and resources
Methodological input illustrated by documented transactions. External growth case studies, investment committee simulations, exposure analysis in subgroups. Country risk analysis grid and capital allocation matrix. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Structuring capital allocation
- Compare activities with different return horizons and capital intensities
- Distinguish accounting profitability from economic value creation
- Handle declining activities and exit trade-offs
- Organise the periodic review of the activity portfolio
Practical work: allocation trade-off across a portfolio of four activities. Each subgroup defends its split before a simulated committee.
2. Conducting an external growth operation
- Formulate the acquisition thesis before examining targets
- Identify value sources and the conditions for realising them
- Spot the deal-breakers in a due diligence
- Prepare integration from the analysis phase onwards
Practical work: analysis of an acquisition file, formulation of a recommendation and identification of conditions precedent.
3. Factoring geopolitical risk into decisions
- Map exposures: sourcing, production, markets, funding
- Assess the effects of export control measures and sanctions
- Build disruption scenarios and their response plans
- Arbitrate between market proximity and industrial concentration
Practical work: building a geopolitical exposure map for a real supply chain.
4. Holding the funding constraint
- Locate the group’s debt capacity and its contractual limits
- Anticipate the effect of a major decision on rating and cost of debt
- Arbitrate between financing, asset disposal and slowing the plan
- Organise dialogue with capital providers
Practical work: assessment of three financing structures for the same transaction, with analysis of their effect on the financial structure.
5. Organising decision-making in an international group
- Allocate powers between headquarters, regions and subsidiaries
- Define escalation thresholds and review circuits
- Handle disagreements between entities without paralysis
- Document decisions and organise their review
Practical work: revision of an existing delegation framework. Presentation of proposed changes and their rationale.
Participants
Senior executives of large industrial corporations.
Prerequisites
Executive experience in an industrial group operating internationally. No academic prerequisite.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Digital Strategy & AI for Executives
A usable overview of AI and data, with no technical prerequisite
Description
Artificial intelligence and data have entered management committees without the corresponding decision frameworks always following. This three-day seminar gives executives a usable overview: what these technologies actually enable, what they cost, the risks they introduce, and the governance rules they make necessary. No technical prerequisite is required.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Separate AI uses that create value from those that amount to announcement effects
- Assess a portfolio of digital initiatives and judge their maturity
- Identify the risks introduced by an AI system: bias, opacity, dependency, uncontrolled use
- Set data governance rules proportionate to what is at stake
- Locate the obligations arising from the European framework applicable to AI
- Organise the allocation of responsibilities between management, business, data and compliance
Teaching methods and resources
Input illustrated by real projects, both successful and abandoned. Case studies, trade-off exercises, digital investment committee simulations. Data project maturity grid and AI governance matrix. Interactive quizzes and peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Understanding what the technology enables and what it costs
- Locate the main families of AI systems and their enterprise uses
- Distinguish what is mature from what remains experimental
- Assess the full cost of a project: data, infrastructure, skills, maintenance
- Identify the success conditions common to completed projects
Practical work: comparative analysis of two enterprise AI projects, one completed and one abandoned. Identification of the decisive factors.
2. Governing data before governing AI
- Establish data quality, traceability and accessibility as prerequisites
- Define data ownership within the organisation
- Organise the protection of personal and strategic data
- Handle data transferred to third-party providers
Practical work: assessment of an organisation’s data maturity using a structured questionnaire, followed by presentation.
3. Identifying the risks of an AI system
- Spot biases arising from data, models and uses
- Detect excessive automation and loss of human judgement
- Address uncontrolled use of generative AI within teams
- Assess reputational, legal and operational impacts
Practical work: application of a risk matrix to a concrete use case. Distinction between technical, human and organisational risks.
4. Deciding and arbitrating a portfolio of initiatives
- Select which initiatives to fund and which to stop
- Set exit criteria before launch
- Arbitrate between building internally and buying from the market
- Measure the real contribution of a deployed system
Practical work: arbitration of a portfolio of six initiatives under budget constraint, with justification of choices before the group.
5. Putting proportionate governance in place
- Clarify responsibilities between management, business, data, legal and compliance
- Structure a control framework matched to the risk level of the systems
- Locate the obligations of the European framework applicable to AI
- Organise documentation and continuous improvement
Practical work: building an AI governance framework for a given organisation. Debrief on proportionality trade-offs.
Participants
C-level executives and senior directors.
Prerequisites
No technical prerequisite. Practical experience of decision-making bodies is expected.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Regulatory Strategy for Financial Institutions
Anticipating regulation early enough to make it a parameter of the plan
Description
Compliance is too often handled downstream of strategy, which makes it expensive and imposed. This five-day seminar proposes the opposite: anticipating regulatory change early enough to make it a parameter of the strategic plan. It draws on European texts currently under negotiation or transposition, whose timetable is examined for what it implies in terms of preparation.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Follow the making of a European text and identify when it can still be influenced
- Build a three-year regulatory roadmap for their institution
- Connect that roadmap to the strategic plan and the internal control framework
- Estimate the compliance burden of a text before it is finally published
- Organise regulatory watch so that it produces decisions
- Conduct supervisory dialogue on a matter still under construction
Teaching methods and resources
Input based on European texts in progress. Compliance case studies, roadmap-building exercises, supervisory dialogue simulations. Compliance burden estimation grid and regulatory tracking matrix. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Understanding how European regulation is made
- Locate the roles of the Commission, Parliament, Council and sectoral authorities
- Follow a text from draft to application
- Spot the moments when an institution’s position can still be carried
- Distinguish regulation, directive, technical standards and guidelines
Practical work: reconstruction of a recent text’s passage, identifying the changes obtained and who carried them.
2. Estimating the burden of a text before publication
- Read a draft text from an implementation standpoint
- Identify the data and systems that will be called on
- Estimate realistic preparation lead times
- Spot the uncertainties that call for clarification
Practical work: collective estimation of the compliance burden of a draft technical standard.
3. Building a three-year regulatory roadmap
- List the deadlines applicable to the institution and rank them
- Identify workstreams that can be shared across several texts
- Sequence the work against available capacity
- Arbitrate between minimum compliance and structural investment
Practical work: building a three-year roadmap for a given perimeter, then comparison between subgroups.
4. Connecting compliance, strategy and internal control
- Embed regulatory constraints in the strategic plan’s assumptions
- Position the compliance function within the decision process
- Avoid duplication between control frameworks
- Measure the framework’s effectiveness by something other than control volume
Practical work: critical review of an internal control framework. Identification of duplication and blind spots.
5. Conducting supervisory dialogue
- Prepare an exchange on a matter where the institution’s position is challenged
- Document a chosen interpretation defensibly
- Handle a remediation request without committing beyond what is achievable
- Use supervisory feedback as a source of improvement
Practical work: simulation of a supervisory interview on a contested matter. Debrief on argument construction.
Participants
Banking and insurance executives and board members.
Prerequisites
General knowledge of the European prudential framework, and an executive role or board mandate.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
ESG & Sustainable Finance for Executive Leaders
Moving from statement to evidence before investors and supervisors
Description
ESG expectations have moved from statement to evidence: investors and supervisors now ask for data, methods and a verifiable trajectory. This five-day seminar treats ESG strategy as a steering exercise, with its indicators, its disclosure obligations and its exposure to challenge. It covers capital market expectations as well as those of the authorities.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Formulate an ESG strategy consistent with the institution’s business model
- Distinguish commitments that can be held from those exposed to challenge
- Put in place the indicators for steering non-financial performance
- Locate the applicable disclosure obligations and their timetable
- Assess the institution’s exposure to physical and transition risk
- Conduct investor dialogue on the chosen trajectory
Teaching methods and resources
Input based on corporate publications and authority positions. ESG trajectory case studies, indicator-building exercises, analysis of published reports. Materiality analysis grid and transition risk exposure matrix. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Locating expectations and who carries them
- Separate the expectations of investors, supervisors, clients and employees
- Distinguish what is obligatory from what is a voluntary position
- Locate the European sustainability disclosure framework
- Identify the points on which a commitment exposes the institution to challenge
Practical work: comparative analysis of two sustainability reports. Identification of substantiated and unsubstantiated commitments.
2. Building an ESG strategy consistent with the business model
- Run a materiality exercise that can actually be used to decide
- Select a small number of commitments and document them
- Reconcile stated ambition with real implementation capacity
- Handle activities in tension with the announced trajectory
Practical work: building a materiality matrix for a given business model, followed by a reasoned presentation.
3. Measuring and steering non-financial performance
- Choose indicators that genuinely reflect the trajectory
- Organise data collection and guarantee traceability
- Handle missing data and estimates
- Embed ESG indicators in performance management
Practical work: definition of a small set of indicators for a given activity, with sources and limitations identified.
4. Assessing exposure to climate and transition risk
- Distinguish physical risk from transition risk
- Locate the relevant time horizons for each type of exposure
- Use scenarios without confusing them with forecasts
- Translate exposure into consequences for the portfolio or industrial base
Practical work: exposure analysis of a sector portfolio under a transition scenario. Presentation of the consequences identified.
5. Reporting and engaging
- Structure a sustainability disclosure that is readable and verifiable
- Prepare investor dialogue on the weak points of the trajectory
- Handle a public challenge to a commitment
- Organise the periodic review of the trajectory
Practical work: simulation of an exchange with an investor on a contested commitment. Debrief on how the exchange was conducted.
Participants
Executives in banks, insurance companies and industrial groups.
Prerequisites
Some prior exposure to sustainability disclosure obligations is recommended. No academic prerequisite.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Enterprise Risk Management at Board Level
Overseeing risk in a few hours of board time each quarter
Description
Board oversight of risk plays out in a few hours of meeting per quarter, on the basis of documents produced by the very people being overseen. This five-day seminar tackles that constraint head-on: which questions to ask, which signals to spot in a risk report, and how to judge the quality of a control framework without auditing it yourself. It is built around board meeting simulations.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Exercise effective oversight of financial, operational and strategic risks
- Read a risk report and spot what is not being said
- Put to management the questions that move a matter forward
- Judge the quality of a control framework from operating indicators
- Locate the respective responsibilities of the board, its committees and management
- Handle a persistent disagreement between the board and management
Teaching methods and resources
Input illustrated by real governance situations. Board and risk committee simulations, critical framework reviews, analysis of anonymised risk reports. Risk report reading grid and oversight checklist. Peer exchange between directors.
Course programme
1. Locating the board’s role in the control framework
- Distinguish oversight, control and operational management
- Allocate work between board, risk committee and audit committee
- Identify what the board must examine itself and what it can delegate
- Locate the responsibilities attached to the mandate
Practical work: review of how work is allocated between bodies in an existing framework. Identification of blind spots.
2. Reading a risk report
- Spot indicators that reveal a situation and those that mask it
- Identify methodology changes that make series non-comparable
- Detect subjects absent from the report
- Request useful additions without multiplying demands
Practical work: analysis of an anonymised risk report. Formulation of the questions to raise in the meeting.
3. Overseeing financial and operational risks
- Assess credit, market and liquidity exposure at board level
- Track operational risks, including conduct and third-party risk
- Locate operational resilience and business continuity
- Handle significant incidents and their follow-up
Practical work: examination of a major operational incident file. Reconstruction of the questions the board should have asked beforehand.
4. Overseeing strategic and emerging risks
- Identify risks that appear in no risk map
- Handle long-term exposures within a quarterly calendar
- Assess the risks introduced by transformation projects
- Organise the periodic review of strategic assumptions
Practical work: emerging risk identification exercise from a company profile. Collective ranking.
5. Managing the relationship with executive management
- Ask a difficult question without undermining management
- Handle a persistent disagreement on the assessment of a risk
- Use internal audit as an information source belonging to the board
- Organise the evaluation and improvement of the framework
Practical work: simulation of a risk committee meeting where the board’s assessment and management’s diverge.
Participants
Board members, chief risk officers and senior executives.
Prerequisites
A board mandate or a risk management leadership role.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Corporate Strategy & Long-Term Value Creation
Explaining where the value will come from, not just the ambition
Description
Many strategic plans describe an ambition without explaining where the value will come from. This five-day seminar is about that connection: formulating an explicit value creation thesis, identifying the competitive advantage that makes it credible, and translating it into performance objectives that are actually tracked. It draws on sector case studies.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Formulate a five-year value creation thesis and set it out on one page
- Identify the source of competitive advantage that supports the thesis
- Translate the thesis into performance objectives tracked by the executive committee
- Distinguish value-creating growth from value-destroying growth
- Organise the periodic review of the plan and the conditions for revising it
- Handle the tension between short-term expectations and long-term commitments
Teaching methods and resources
Methodological input illustrated by documented company trajectories. Sector case studies, thesis formulation exercises, strategic review simulations. Competitive advantage analysis grid and value creation tree. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Understanding where value comes from
- Distinguish value created, value captured and value transferred
- Locate the determinants of an activity’s durable profitability
- Identify defensible competitive positions
- Spot activities that destroy value despite apparent growth
Practical work: decomposition of a company’s value creation over ten years. Identification of the real sources of performance.
2. Formulating a value creation thesis
- State the thesis on one page, with explicit assumptions
- Identify the conditions that would make the thesis false
- Connect the corporate thesis to activity-level theses
- Test the thesis against the resources actually available
Practical work: drafting a value creation thesis, then testing it against a subgroup playing a sceptical investor.
3. Building and defending competitive advantage
- Distinguish structural advantage from temporary advantage
- Identify the mechanisms that protect a position
- Anticipate the erosion of an advantage and prepare what follows
- Handle activities with no identifiable advantage
Practical work: analysis of the competitive advantage of a given activity and estimation of its remaining life.
4. Translating strategy into performance objectives
- Select a small number of indicators that reflect the thesis
- Allocate objectives across activities and functions
- Avoid indicators that induce behaviour contrary to the strategy
- Organise tracking in the executive committee
Practical work: building a compact strategic dashboard. Critical analysis of each indicator’s side effects.
5. Steering over time
- Organise the periodic review of the plan and the conditions for revising it
- Handle short-term pressure without abandoning the trajectory
- Decide to stop a direction that has become obsolete
- Communicate a strategic shift without loss of credibility
Practical work: simulation of an annual strategic review in which several initial assumptions turn out to be false.
Participants
CEOs, strategy directors and executive committee members.
Prerequisites
Experience of leading or contributing to a strategic planning exercise. No academic prerequisite.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Cybersecurity & Operational Resilience for Executives
What must be decided before the crisis, and how to arbitrate during it
Description
A major cyber crisis is decided in hours, on incomplete information, with consequences that reach far beyond the information system. This five-day seminar prepares executives for that moment: what must have been decided beforehand, how to arbitrate during, and to whom to report afterwards. It includes crisis exercises. No technical prerequisite is required.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Locate the company’s cyber exposure without going into technical detail
- Arbitrate security and resilience investments
- Decide during a cyber crisis under time and information constraints
- Organise crisis communication towards clients, employees and authorities
- Locate the applicable notification obligations and their deadlines
- Report on the resilience framework to the board
Teaching methods and resources
Input illustrated by documented crises. Time-constrained crisis exercises, remediation case studies, communication simulations. Resilience investment trade-off grid and crisis checklist. Peer exchange between participants.
Course programme
1. Locating exposure without going technical
- Identify the assets whose unavailability stops the business
- Locate the most frequent entry points, including through third parties
- Distinguish data theft scenarios from business interruption scenarios
- Assess dependency on critical providers
Practical work: mapping of a given organisation’s critical assets and identification of external dependencies.
2. Arbitrating resilience investments
- Compare investments whose benefit is an event that does not happen
- Distinguish prevention, detection and recovery capability
- Set realistic recovery objectives and draw the budget consequences
- Handle legacy systems that are difficult to secure
Practical work: arbitration of a resilience budget across five competing workstreams, with justification before the group.
3. Deciding during the crisis
- Organise the crisis unit and the flow of information
- Arbitrate between shutting systems down and continuing in degraded mode
- Handle the question of ransom payment and its implications
- Document decisions as the crisis unfolds
Practical work: time-constrained crisis exercise on a ransomware scenario. Debrief on the decisions taken and their sequence.
4. Communicating and notifying
- Locate notification obligations and their deadlines
- Build client communication that does not backfire
- Organise internal communication during the outage
- Handle media pressure and social networks
Practical work: time-constrained drafting of the messages intended for clients, employees and authorities, followed by critical analysis.
5. Drawing conclusions and reporting
- Conduct the post-incident review without looking for a culprit
- Identify structural remediations and sequence them
- Report to the board on the framework and its limits
- Organise regular exercises for management bodies
Practical work: preparation of a board presentation on the lessons of a crisis and the associated remediation plan.
Participants
Executives of banks, insurers and large industrial firms.
Prerequisites
No technical prerequisite. A general understanding of the company’s information system is useful.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Corporate Governance & Board Effectiveness
Closing the gap between a compliant board and an effective one
Description
A board can be perfectly compliant with governance requirements and still be ineffective. This five-day seminar addresses the gap between the two: composition, committee operation, conduct of meetings, evaluation, and the actual responsibilities of those who sit on it. It includes composition reviews and meeting simulations.
Learning objectives
By the end of the programme, participants will be able to:
- Assess a board’s composition against the company’s challenges
- Organise the work of specialised committees and their link to the board
- Lead or contribute to a meeting so that it produces decisions
- Locate the civil and criminal liabilities attached to the mandate
- Conduct a board evaluation and act on its findings
- Handle conflicts of interest and disputes between shareholders
Teaching methods and resources
Input illustrated by documented governance situations. Composition reviews, meeting simulations, conflict of interest case studies. Board evaluation grid and skills matrix. Peer exchange between directors.
Course programme
1. Composing a board
- Establish the skills matrix expected against the strategy
- Handle independence, diversity and availability
- Organise renewal and succession
- Induct a new director effectively
Practical work: review of a board’s composition against a company profile. Identification of missing skills.
2. Organising the work of the board and its committees
- Allocate subjects between the board and specialised committees
- Build an annual calendar covering the full scope of responsibilities
- Define the expected quality of meeting papers and their circulation deadlines
- Handle urgent matters without bypassing committees
Practical work: building an annual board calendar for a given company, with allocation of work.
3. Conducting a meeting
- Structure an agenda that leaves time for the important subjects
- Bring disagreements out rather than working around them
- Close on decisions that are stated and traceable
- Handle the presence of executive management in the room
Practical work: simulation of a board meeting with a heavy agenda. Debrief on time management and the formulation of decisions.
4. Locating responsibilities and handling conflicts
- Identify the civil and criminal liabilities attached to the mandate
- Handle a conflict of interest, from disclosure to abstention
- Manage a dispute between shareholders within the board
- Document an objection so that a record is preserved
Practical work: analysis of a conflict of interest case. Identification of the measures to take and how to formalise them.
5. Evaluating and improving
- Conduct the evaluation of the board, its committees and its members
- Choose between self-assessment and external evaluation
- Turn findings into actual changes in how the board operates
- Organise the follow-up of agreed improvements
Practical work: design of a board evaluation process, followed by presentation of the methodological choices made.
Participants
Board members, senior executives and general counsel.
Prerequisites
Holding or preparing for a board mandate or an executive role.
Trainer credentials
The experts who deliver our courses are specialists in the subjects covered. They are validated by our teaching teams on both subject knowledge and teaching ability, for each course they deliver. They have at least ten years of experience in banking or consulting and hold, or have held, positions of responsibility.
Assessment
The trainer assesses progress throughout the course through quizzes, case studies and simulations. Participants also complete a positioning test before and after the course to validate the skills acquired.
Teaching resources and materials
- Audiovisual aids, documentation and course materials, applied practical exercises with worked solutions, case studies and presentation of real cases.
- At the end of each course, Helios Advisory provides participants with a course evaluation questionnaire, which is then analysed by our teaching teams.
- An attendance sheet per half-day is provided at the end of the course, together with a certificate of completion where the participant has attended the full session.
Enrolment and lead times
Enrolment is finalised with our teaching team. Send us your request through the contact form: we will confirm the next available sessions and the enrolment arrangements suited to your situation.
Accessibility
For any question or requirement relating to accessibility, contact us through the contact form. Each situation is reviewed with you so that the course arrangements can be adapted.
Practical information
The following applies to every programme presented on this page.
Funding
Several funding routes exist and depend on your professional situation: skills development plan, sector funding bodies, or direct company funding. Contact us so we can work out the most suitable option together.
Timetable
Courses run from 9.00 to 17.30, with a lunch break of one hour to an hour and a half. Participants are welcomed from 8.45. Breaks and lunches are provided. For four or five day courses, sessions finish at 16.00 on the final day.
Dates and locations
In-company and open sessions are arranged on request, at our premises, at yours, or remotely. Contact us for the next available dates and to agree the format best suited to your teams.
A question or a specific requirement?
Every programme can be adapted to your context, your sector and the level of your teams. We will come back to you with a tailored proposal, a schedule and a price matching your request.
This programme is an original work designed by the teaching teams of Helios Advisory. Any reproduction, representation, adaptation or exploitation, in whole or in part, without prior written authorisation, is strictly prohibited.