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AI for Business Strategy is Menova's flagship 16-hour workshop, taught by Ahmed Amrousy — Executive Education Instructor at the American University in Cairo and a DBA candidate at Ain Shams University. It combines SOSTAC, Playing to Win and the Strategy Cockpit Canvas to take a leadership team from scattered AI activity to one written, sequenced and costed AI strategy. The workshop is usually delivered across two days, on-site in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, or live online.

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The flagship. Sixteen hours that end with a written AI strategy, not a reading list.

Most organisations have AI activity. Very few have an AI strategy.

There are pilots in three departments, a licence agreement nobody reviews, an enthusiastic manager in finance, and no answer to the question what are we actually trying to win?

AI for Business Strategy is sixteen hours built to close that gap — and to close it inside the room, not in a consultant’s follow-up deck.

Three frameworks, deliberately combined

SOSTAC provides the spine: situation, objectives, strategy, tactics, action, control. It stops the conversation collapsing into a tool discussion.

Playing to Win forces the five choices most AI conversations avoid — above all what will we not do. A leadership team that cannot name what it is declining does not yet have a strategy.

The Strategy Cockpit Canvas assembles the result onto one page the executive committee can actually review each month, rather than a sixty-slide deck that is opened once.

Sixteen hours, honestly used

Day one establishes where the organisation genuinely stands — including an audit of current AI activity, which in most organisations is the uncomfortable part. Day two makes the choices, sequences them across four quarters with owners and budgets, and writes kill criteria in advance for every initiative.

Every choice is defended in front of the other participants before the workshop closes.

Before anything begins: the boundary

Because the workshop runs on real strategic material, the first session sets the data boundary — what may be entered into a public AI tool and what may not. It is a short session, and it is not optional.

What you leave with

  • Leave with a written AI strategy for the organisation, drafted and challenged in the room
  • Make the five Playing to Win choices explicitly, for AI rather than in the abstract
  • Sequence AI initiatives across four quarters with owners, budgets and kill criteria
  • Build a Strategy Cockpit Canvas the leadership team can review monthly
  • Establish the measures that will tell you the strategy is working before the P&L does

Programme outline

01

Day one — Situation: where the organisation actually is

  • SOSTAC situation analysis, run with AI against your own market and competitors
  • An honest audit of current AI activity, including the projects nobody has stopped
  • Capability, data and governance readiness assessed rather than assumed

02

Day one — Objectives and the winning aspiration

  • Playing to Win — what winning with AI would mean for this organisation specifically
  • Separating cost-reduction ambitions from revenue and capability ambitions
  • Setting objectives that can be falsified, not just asserted

03

Day two — Strategy: the five choices

  • Where to play — which functions, markets and customer segments
  • How to win — the capability that would be genuinely hard for a competitor to copy
  • Capabilities, management systems and the choices being avoided

04

Day two — Tactics, action and control

  • Sequencing initiatives across four quarters with owners and budgets
  • Kill criteria written in advance for every initiative
  • The measures that move before the financials do

05

The Strategy Cockpit Canvas

  • Assembling the full strategy onto a single reviewable page
  • The monthly leadership review rhythm that keeps it alive
  • Peer challenge — each choice defended in the room before the workshop closes

Who it is for

  • Executive committees and leadership teams
  • Strategy, transformation and corporate development functions
  • Organisations with scattered AI pilots and no coherent position
  • Boards preparing to commit meaningful AI budget

Frequently asked questions

How long is the AI for Business Strategy workshop?

Sixteen hours, usually delivered across two consecutive days. Some leadership teams prefer four half-days spread over two weeks, which allows data gathering between sessions and generally produces a stronger final strategy.

What frameworks does the workshop use?

Three, deliberately combined. SOSTAC structures the strategic process from situation analysis through to control. Playing to Win forces the five hard choices — particularly what the organisation will not do. The Strategy Cockpit Canvas assembles the result onto a single page the leadership team can review monthly.

What does the leadership team actually leave with?

A written AI strategy: the five Playing to Win choices made explicitly, initiatives sequenced across four quarters with named owners, budgets and kill criteria, and a completed Strategy Cockpit Canvas. It is drafted and peer-challenged inside the sixteen hours, not promised as a follow-up deliverable.

Who should attend?

The people who can actually make the choices — the executive committee or the senior leadership group, ideally with the strategy or transformation lead. The workshop does not work well as a delegated exercise, because the exercises require real authority over budget and priorities.

Is prior AI knowledge required?

No, though teams that have already completed AI for Executives move faster. Where a leadership team is starting cold, the two programmes are often run as a sequence — one day of AI for Executives, then the sixteen-hour strategy workshop.

Can it be delivered in Arabic?

Yes. Ahmed delivers verbally in Arabic with English slides and English strategy documents, which is the format most leadership teams in Egypt and the Gulf prefer. Full English delivery is also available.

Is confidential strategy material safe in the workshop?

The workshop runs on the organisation's real strategic material, so a boundary session comes first: what may be entered into a public AI tool, what must stay offline, and how to run strategic analysis without exposing confidential data. That standard is set before any exercise begins.

How much does the workshop cost?

The flagship workshop is scoped per organisation. Email ahmedamrousy@aucegypt.edu with your leadership team size, sector and preferred dates for a written proposal with agenda, duration and price within two working days.

Talk to Ahmed

Every Menova programme is scoped to the client. Book a short call — or send the team size, seniority and objective — and you get a written proposal with agenda, duration and price within two working days.

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