Every leader aims for growth, yet many find their strategic ambitions stalled by execution bottlenecks, market volatility or a lack of internal capability. To thrive, organisations must convert high-level strategy into tangible commercial results while simultaneously building a culture of continuous innovation.
UCD Smurfit Executive Development has two programmes designed specifically to bridge this gap between ambition and impact.
Whether you are looking to revolutionise your commercial leadership and sales performance over a comprehensive nine-month journey, or looking to rapidly equip your team with a three-day agile framework to drive immediate innovation, these programmes provide the tools, peer networks and expert faculty to turn your business goals into measurable realities.
The UCD Smurfit Executive Development Professional Diploma in High Performance Sales & Business Development (NFQ level 9), equips leaders with the frameworks and confidence to unlock the next level of business performance and execute successful growth strategies.
RM Block
Rather than just a standard sales course, programme director John O’Gorman says that participants quickly realise it is a comprehensive growth strategy programme. “Past participants have identified performance gains of more than 25 per cent,” says O’Gorman. “We look at gains, not process losses. We help participants find the gains to drive growth.”
Delivered by expert faculty and external contributors, the curriculum targets six core pillars of commercial leadership:
- Strategy and sales alignment: Participants analyse their own organisations as live case studies, using models such as Frank Cespedes’s Aligning Strategy and Sales to fix execution bottlenecks.
- Leadership and coaching: This module teaches practical coaching skills to create environments where teams can thrive.
- Value-based sales: Participants learn how to leverage customer insights to build and document value propositions.
- High-performance operations: How to harness emotional intelligence and trust to optimise sales and customer retention.
- Value-creating negotiation: How to master win-win negotiation strategies.
- Talent management and collaboration: Focuses on talent identification, succession planning, and fostering productive teamwork and collaboration.
The programme balances rigorous theory with practical insights from external contributors spanning the military, technology sector and elite sports bodies such as Leinster Rugby. Taking the cue from high-performance sport, the curriculum emphasises the power of the “post-match briefing”, encouraging leaders to pause, reflect and recognise progress. According to O’Gorman, taking the time to reflect on these learnings can drive an immediate 15-20 per cent improvement in productivity.
Equally vital is the peer-to-peer learning environment. The in-person modules at UCD Smurfit Executive Development are designed to remove barriers, encourage participants to openly share experiences and ideas and build lasting professional connections and networks.
In a business landscape crowded with competing transformation initiatives, this diploma provides the clarity needed to focus on true growth. Turning your strategic ambitions into measurable execution and results.
The next intake for the Professional Diploma in High Performance Sales and Business Development begins on October 1st, 2026. Delivery is in person over nine months, with participants attending six two-day modules.
Learn more at smurfitschool.ie or watch the webinar here for an overview of the programme
Competitive advantage
After three decades working with leaders on growth Ian Kierans, programme director of Leading Innovative Growth, says he has never met an organisation that did not want it. The real test is whether they can deliver it now and keep renewing it as markets shift.
BCG’s 2024 research found that 83 per cent of leaders rank innovation as a top-three priority, yet only 3 per cent are ready to turn it into results. Kierans sees the same gap in Ireland, having engaged leaders from about 100 organisations. The problem is not ambition. It is capability.
AI widens that gap. For most organisations, AI is not the customer proposition; it is a capability that can become a competitive advantage. Treated mainly as technology deployment, it risks solving the wrong problem. Value comes from starting with the real growth challenge, then deciding where AI can make the biggest difference.
Growth stalls when markets change faster than established organisations can respond. Creating new value rarely sits in one place; it cuts across strategy, sales, marketing, technology and operations. Without a coherent growth system, it becomes everyone’s ambition and nobody’s job. Conferences, design-thinking workshops, hackathons and AI boot camps can create energy, but not results.
Leaders who keep delivering growth manage two jobs at once: keeping the core business fresh while shaping future opportunities with lower risk. Differentiation that increases market share and profitability comes from this balance.
Drawing on decades of research and applied work across sectors, Kierans and colleagues developed the 5+1 Innovative Growth methodology. In Diageo Beer Supply, it helped identify capabilities for new brewing platforms, test facilities and brand foundations. At AB Ludvig Svensson, deeper customer insight helped counter copycat competition through new segmentation and renewed market focus.
UCD Smurfit Executive Development’s Leading Innovative Growth is a brand new three-day programme for any leader responsible for growth. Participants apply this growth system to their own priorities: real challenges, practical application and results. The compact structure combines an online diagnostic and kick-off, three in-person days and a one-month follow-up, with practitioner perspectives, peer learning and incisive tools. Prior feedback highlights sharper diagnosis, “clarity within complexity” and “execution, not just ideas” – cutting through the noise around innovation so leaders can turn bold ambitions into practical actions that pay back.
The new programme will be held from October 19th to 21st, 2026. Learn more at smurfitschool.ie or watch the webinar here for an overview of the programme
