Programmes


Programme

Strategic Leadership Programme for Women Executives (Batch 2)

Connect for Enquiries:

Jaro Education (IIMA’s service provider): +91 7506505142

IIM Ahmedabad: Email: eep-blendedprograms@iima.ac.in ; Phone: +91 797152 6300 (Office hours Mon to Fri, 9:00 AM to 5:45 PM)

Over the last couple of decades, women leaders such as Indra Nooyi, Leena Nair, Jacinda Ardern, Sheryl Sandberg, Falguni Nayar, Sudha Murthy, and Kamala Harris among others have made headlines for breaking ‘glass ceiling’ in their respective domains. While we celebrate these successful stories of women leadership, one needs to be reminded that these success stories are far and few. The narrative is not very different for middle and senior-levels managers at workplace.


Lack of sound training and mentorship, and systemic gender-based barriers often limit women executives’ rise to leadership positions. Academic research has shown that gender-diverse leadership promotes stakeholder management, collaborative and empathetic approaches to strategic decision-making, and fosters innovation and better business outcomes. Having said that, several women executives can capitalize on and harness their inherent strengths in a more effective way by gaining the necessary knowledge, skills and exposure to strategy tools. This is needed to realize better career growth and outcomes.


Discussions held with the top management and the board members of some organizations have revealed that women executives can do better if they further sharpen their high-level thinking. These discussions have emphasized the need to curate specialized programs that can upskill women executives who are currently in middle and senior management positions, and who aspire to occupy top leadership positions in organizations. A specialized program is desirable for women executives that, while keeping their unique challenges in mind, can prepare them as management thinkers and simultaneously nurture their leadership style as per their values and strengths.


Keeping the corporate sector’s demands in mind, the objective of the ‘Strategic Leadership Program for Women Executives’ is to empower and equip women professionals with appropriate strategy tools, a growth-oriented strategic mindset and strong networks that will enable them to navigate workplace challenges and achieve top leadership positions in organizations. In doing this, the program also strives to contribute to creating diverse top management teams and board rooms in the future.

 

Course Duration: Spread over six to seven months

 

Mode of Delivery: The programme will be delivered on Jaro Education’s platform through direct-to-desktop [D2D] and campus modules at IIM Ahmedabad.

 

Please note that the online sessions will not be recorded.



Frequency: Once a week

 

Class Schedule: Every Sunday 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

 

Evaluation Methodology: IIM Ahmedabad shall carry out the examinations, group assignments, and evaluation required for certification. For More Information, please refer the brochure.

 

Certification: At the end of the Programme, eligible participants will receive a Certificate of Completion (CoC) of the Programme from IIM Ahmedabad subject to the assessment and fulfilment of attaining overall 80% attendance and evaluation criteria.

 

IIMA Alumni Status: Participants who are attending short-duration Executive Education Programmes for the first time, on or after April 1, 2012, will have to attend for a total of 21 days in one or more programmes in order to be eligible for alumni status and alumni identity card, both of which will be awarded on the payment of a one-time alumni fee of INR 10,000/- + GST.

 

Eligibility and Admission Criteria

  • Educational Qualification: Applicants must be working women professionals with a graduate degree (10+2+3 or equivalent) in any discipline, with a minimum of 50% marks.
  • Work Experience: Women executives with minimum of 5 years of work experience after graduation are eligible to apply.
  • The eligible candidates will be selected based on their educational and professional background and motivation based on the application form submitted.
  • Applications with Credentials & Corporate Nominations – Selections will be based on a detailed Profile of Candidate in her own words elaborating her Academic record, Profile, Designation, Salary, Roles, Responsibilities, Job Description, and a write-up on “Expectations from the Programme”.

 

Service Provider: Jaro Education

The overarching objective of this programme is to assist women executives upskill themselves as they stive to achieve top leadership positions in organisations by:

  • Developing their strategic mindset via learning building blocks of strategy.
  • Nurturing the strategic leader within them by exposing them to relevant tools and techniques and by understanding the role of cognition in strategy.
  • Preparing them to be a leader of the modern world by understanding role of digital and AI in strategy formulation of a firm Enhancing their financial acumen for strategic decision making.
  • Helping them to navigate gender-related challenges in workplace to break the glass ceiling.
  • Developing strategic communication and storytelling skills to build personal leadership brand.

Module 1: Strategic Thinking

  • Building blocks of strategy including analysis, formulation and implementation
  • Fundamentals of behavioural strategy (cognition and biases in strategy)
  • Analysis-driven decision making
  • AI and strategy formulation


Module 2: Strategic Leadership

  • Building strategic leadership skills: tools and techniques
  • Anticipate futures through scenario planning and analogical reasoning
  • Navigating uncertainty through strategic decision trees
  • Probability and possibility thinking
  • Managing paradoxes through integrative thinking
  • Stakeholder management frameworks
  • Strategic leadership: women leaders as change catalysts

 

Module 3: Strategic Facilitators

  • Gender-related challenges in the workplace: work-life balance, mentorship challenges
  • Negotiation and conflict management strategies
  • Understanding leadership styles
  • Strategic communication and storytelling to build powerful personal brands
  • Building financial acumen
  1. Case method pedagogy
  2. Group Exercises and experiential learning
  3. Interactive lectures

The programme is targeted towards women executives in middle, senior, and top management positions who aspire to occupy leadership positions of medium to large-sized organizations. Women entrepreneurs, who are looking for sharpening their strategic mindset, will also benefit from this programme.

Faculty Chair(s)
Profile image
Prof. Lakshmi Goyal

Profile image
Prof. Chitra Singla

Introduction

Over the last couple of decades, women leaders such as Indra Nooyi, Leena Nair, Jacinda Ardern, Sheryl Sandberg, Falguni Nayar, Sudha Murthy, and Kamala Harris among others have made headlines for breaking ‘glass ceiling’ in their respective domains. While we celebrate these successful stories of women leadership, one needs to be reminded that these success stories are far and few. The narrative is not very different for middle and senior-levels managers at workplace.


Lack of sound training and mentorship, and systemic gender-based barriers often limit women executives’ rise to leadership positions. Academic research has shown that gender-diverse leadership promotes stakeholder management, collaborative and empathetic approaches to strategic decision-making, and fosters innovation and better business outcomes. Having said that, several women executives can capitalize on and harness their inherent strengths in a more effective way by gaining the necessary knowledge, skills and exposure to strategy tools. This is needed to realize better career growth and outcomes.


Discussions held with the top management and the board members of some organizations have revealed that women executives can do better if they further sharpen their high-level thinking. These discussions have emphasized the need to curate specialized programs that can upskill women executives who are currently in middle and senior management positions, and who aspire to occupy top leadership positions in organizations. A specialized program is desirable for women executives that, while keeping their unique challenges in mind, can prepare them as management thinkers and simultaneously nurture their leadership style as per their values and strengths.


Keeping the corporate sector’s demands in mind, the objective of the ‘Strategic Leadership Program for Women Executives’ is to empower and equip women professionals with appropriate strategy tools, a growth-oriented strategic mindset and strong networks that will enable them to navigate workplace challenges and achieve top leadership positions in organizations. In doing this, the program also strives to contribute to creating diverse top management teams and board rooms in the future.

 

Course Duration: Spread over six to seven months

 

Mode of Delivery: The programme will be delivered on Jaro Education’s platform through direct-to-desktop [D2D] and campus modules at IIM Ahmedabad.

 

Please note that the online sessions will not be recorded.



Frequency: Once a week

 

Class Schedule: Every Sunday 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM

 

Evaluation Methodology: IIM Ahmedabad shall carry out the examinations, group assignments, and evaluation required for certification. For More Information, please refer the brochure.

 

Certification: At the end of the Programme, eligible participants will receive a Certificate of Completion (CoC) of the Programme from IIM Ahmedabad subject to the assessment and fulfilment of attaining overall 80% attendance and evaluation criteria.

 

IIMA Alumni Status: Participants who are attending short-duration Executive Education Programmes for the first time, on or after April 1, 2012, will have to attend for a total of 21 days in one or more programmes in order to be eligible for alumni status and alumni identity card, both of which will be awarded on the payment of a one-time alumni fee of INR 10,000/- + GST.

 

Eligibility and Admission Criteria

  • Educational Qualification: Applicants must be working women professionals with a graduate degree (10+2+3 or equivalent) in any discipline, with a minimum of 50% marks.
  • Work Experience: Women executives with minimum of 5 years of work experience after graduation are eligible to apply.
  • The eligible candidates will be selected based on their educational and professional background and motivation based on the application form submitted.
  • Applications with Credentials & Corporate Nominations – Selections will be based on a detailed Profile of Candidate in her own words elaborating her Academic record, Profile, Designation, Salary, Roles, Responsibilities, Job Description, and a write-up on “Expectations from the Programme”.

 

Service Provider: Jaro Education

Objectives

The overarching objective of this programme is to assist women executives upskill themselves as they stive to achieve top leadership positions in organisations by:

  • Developing their strategic mindset via learning building blocks of strategy.
  • Nurturing the strategic leader within them by exposing them to relevant tools and techniques and by understanding the role of cognition in strategy.
  • Preparing them to be a leader of the modern world by understanding role of digital and AI in strategy formulation of a firm Enhancing their financial acumen for strategic decision making.
  • Helping them to navigate gender-related challenges in workplace to break the glass ceiling.
  • Developing strategic communication and storytelling skills to build personal leadership brand.
Contents

Module 1: Strategic Thinking

  • Building blocks of strategy including analysis, formulation and implementation
  • Fundamentals of behavioural strategy (cognition and biases in strategy)
  • Analysis-driven decision making
  • AI and strategy formulation


Module 2: Strategic Leadership

  • Building strategic leadership skills: tools and techniques
  • Anticipate futures through scenario planning and analogical reasoning
  • Navigating uncertainty through strategic decision trees
  • Probability and possibility thinking
  • Managing paradoxes through integrative thinking
  • Stakeholder management frameworks
  • Strategic leadership: women leaders as change catalysts

 

Module 3: Strategic Facilitators

  • Gender-related challenges in the workplace: work-life balance, mentorship challenges
  • Negotiation and conflict management strategies
  • Understanding leadership styles
  • Strategic communication and storytelling to build powerful personal brands
  • Building financial acumen
Pedagogy
  1. Case method pedagogy
  2. Group Exercises and experiential learning
  3. Interactive lectures
For Whom

The programme is targeted towards women executives in middle, senior, and top management positions who aspire to occupy leadership positions of medium to large-sized organizations. Women entrepreneurs, who are looking for sharpening their strategic mindset, will also benefit from this programme.

Faculty Chair
Profile image
Prof. Lakshmi Goyal

Prof. Chitra Singla is a faculty in the Strategy Area of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). She teaches courses on Strategic Management, International Business, Family Business Dynamics, Entrepreneurship, Strategy in Emerging Markets, and Corporate Governance in MBA, PhD, and Executive Education Programs of the institute. She served as the chairperson of the Centre of Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (IIMA Ventures) at IIMA from 2021-24.

Her research interest lies at the intersection of International Business, Family Businesses, and Corporate Governance. Her current work is looking at the domestic and international growth strategies of family business firms and SMEs in India. Prof. Singla has published her work in top ranked international journals. She is a member of the Editorial Review Board of a prestigious international journal—'Management International Review’. She has been a recipient of ‘Madan Mohanka Award for Research in International Business’ at IIMA for the years 2018, 2020, and 2023-24. She has also been the recipient of ‘Philip Thomas Memorial Case Award’ for the year 2021. She was invited as a keynote speaker or panellist at various industry level events such as MCCIA, CII-Indian Women Network, TiE-Global, TiE Pune, NIFT-Gandhinagar etc. She got featured in the book on ‘50 Inspiring Women of Gujarat’ in the year 2022 that was launched by the Honourable Minister for Women and Child Development.

She was an external consultant to ‘International Trade Centre’-a joint agency of the United Nations and WTO for three years. She has provided consultation related to strategic decisions to SMEs in India and Dubai that are family businesses or first-generation entrepreneurial firms. She provides executive training on topics such as ‘Sharpening Strategic Foresight’, ‘Strategic Thinking’, and ‘Growth Strategies’ to the middle and top management of the listed family businesses. She is the faculty chair of various executive education programmes like ‘Young Entrepreneurs Programme’, ‘Strategy for winning in international markets’, and ‘Strategic Management (Blended mode).

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Profile image
Prof. Chitra Singla

Dates

12 Nov 2026

to

23 May 2027

Duration

15 Days

Programme
Fees

INR 3,00,000

Plus 18% GST

Application Deadline

20 Oct 2026

Download Brochure