Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Programme

Rethinking Global Strategy – Online: Learn to analyse forces of globalisation and identify winning strategies to lead a global business and build a competitive advantage through international expansion and by applying proven open innovation and knowledge-sharing methods.

M&A Success Strategies – Online: This elective equips with the essential tools and frameworks necessary to make better M&A decisions from start to finish.

Supply Chain Strategies for Business – Online: Gain the strategic capabilities required to navigate the complexities of today's supply chain landscape and deliver transformative change within your organisation.

Agile Strategy Execution: This elective provides the insights and tools to bridge the gap between the rational development of strategy and real-life execution. It helps identify hidden traps, balance the rational with the emotional and build the internal capability to continue successful strategy implementation.

Strategies for a Circular Economy – Online: Learn about circular economy business models and ways to integrate circularity into existing processes while mitigating roadblocks.

Sustainable Finance: This elective addresses the fundamentals of sustainable finance and provides financial services professionals with the appropriate knowledge and skills to fully integrate sustainability into their work and organisations. It covers sustainability from the perspective of key financial sector actors, including asset owners, asset managers, banks and insurers.

Impactful Leadership for Sustainability: Learn to navigate the complexities of a leadership role and tackle issues through courage, emotional intelligence and an ability to read room dynamics. Gain an understanding of your leadership capacity relative to your role, and deal with changes in complex systems while recognising the inevitability of actions within dynamic systems.

Note: Electives are subject to change.

Meet your cohort peers and faculty in person at the INSEAD campus immersion and networking event. This event provides a valuable opportunity to form a lifelong global community.

CSO training prepares senior leaders and strategy executives to design and execute corporate strategy at the highest level. The INSEAD Chief Strategy Officer Programme provides a 10–12 month learning journey that combines expert faculty teaching, applied projects and peer discussions to strengthen strategic thinking, leadership skills and strategy execution.

The INSEAD Chief Strategy Officer Programme’s value depends on your career stage and professional goals. The learning journey offers a globally recognised executive education experience for senior leaders, and equips them with the tools to drive sustainable growth and improve organisational performance. The programme also provides a digital certificate of completion and connections to INSEAD’s powerful alumni network, offering lifelong learning and global career opportunities.

This programme will help you build the ability to interpret external environments, read early warning signals and shape strategic directions that help your organisation remain competitive in a fast-paced world.

The programme curriculum explores how digital transformation and disruption affect organisations, and offers strategies for leaders to adapt business models to changing environments.

Through six capstone projects and try-it activities, you will practice strategy execution, test strategic tools and translate concepts into practical implementation within your organisation.

Each participant has a success coach assigned to their cohort, offering feedback, alignment with career goals and support in applying programme insights to real-world challenges.

The CSO Programme is tailored for current CSOs seeking to expand their impact, senior executives leading transformation and strategy leaders from diverse industries preparing for the chief strategy officer role.

Graduates receive a verified digital certificate from INSEAD Executive Education, demonstrating a deep understanding of strategic leadership, competitive strategy and the ability to deliver results in changing environments.

The INSEAD Chief Strategy Officer Programme follows an immersive learning process. Participants are expected to fulfil a certain minimum criteria to earn the Certificate of Completion. This includes successful completion of core and elective activities and the project work.

As participants progress through each core module and elective, reviewing the weekly content, they earn points for each activity. Participants need to have earned a certain minimum number of points at the end of each core module and elective. In addition, participants are also required to submit the six practical learning experiments at the end of set phases of the programme.

To complete the programme and earn the certificate, participants are required to:

• Complete a minimum of 80 percent of all in-platform learning activities; 

• Submit at least three weekly action learning project (ALP) assignments per core module and elective; and

• Submit a timely ALP.

On-campus attendance is optional for this programme. You will have the opportunity to participate in an on-campus immersion and networking event at the end of the programme. However, the curriculum is fully online and consists of a mix of recorded video and live virtual sessions with fellow participants, learning coach and faculty.

The learning experience is especially designed to encourage interaction and simulate as close an experience to face-to-face interaction as possible. Participants can interact with each other through discussion forums, live forums, webinars and virtual networking interspersed throughout the learning journey.

In addition, the programme concludes with an optional in-person immersion and networking event.

Yes, we purposefully manage class sizes to ensure ample faculty-to-participant time. INSEAD faculty will also regularly read and respond to your comments in the discussion forums. The faculty is assisted in these interactions by the learning coach, acting as a bridge between the participants and the faculty.

The Chief Strategy Officer Programme has been designed with your busy schedule in mind. You will be required to commit not more than three to five hours per week, enabling you to benefit from this impactful programme while balancing your work responsibilities. The programme offers a blend of self-paced modules and live interaction.

The learning journey includes live and asynchronous online sessions with renowned faculty, industry experts and global peers. You can take advantage of live sessions and the peer discussion forums to ask questions and discuss ideas with your success coach and cohort participants. Real-world examples and a debrief of the programme learnings are delivered through a combination of recorded video and live online lectures.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to take any more electives than the specified number. The electives are designed to help you gain specialised skills in areas that are aligned with your career, so that you can dedicate focused time for learning and honing those skills.

Yes, we provide closed-captioning for all pre-recorded videos as well as closed-captioning for recordings of live sessions.

Eruditus collects all programme payments, provides learner enrolment and programme support, and manages learning platform services. INSEAD is collaborating with Emeritus (part of the Eruditus Group) to offer a portfolio of high-impact programs.

For the programme refund and deferral policy, please click the link here.

Programme fees for Emeritus programmes with INSEAD may not be paid for with (a) funds from the GI Bill, the Post-9/11 Educational Assistance Act of 2008 or similar types of military education funding benefits or (b) Title IV financial aid funds.