ACCA-SBL-Strategic Business Leader

Teacher

LCBS Dhaka

Categories

ACCA Professional Level

৳20,000.00

Course Description:

Introduction

The aim of the exam

The aim of the Strategic Business Leader (SBL) exam is to demonstrate organizational leadership and senior consultancy or advisory capabilities and relevant professional skills, through the context of an integrated case study.

The examination requires candidates to demonstrate a range of professional skills demanded by effective leaders or in advising or supporting senior management in directing organizations.

Role play

The basic structure of each exam will require the candidate to take the role of an organizational leader or as a consultant or adviser to senior management.

For example, in exam question, candidates might be asked to adopt the role of an external management consultant throughout the case. Another approach of the examiner could be testing candidates’ knowledge by asking them to play multiple roles throughout the question papers. That could include roles of being the chairman of the nominations and corporate governance (NCG) committee in one question. In another question, they might be asked to play the role of an assistant auditor or a project manager. In each scenario candidates were expected to “get into character” and be very careful to consider who they were working for and who the report was for and what they required.

The strategic leader

Being a leader

Increasingly the role of accountants is that of professional advisors and leaders within business.

A leader is expected to be able to:

analyze a business situation and
provide and implement appropriate, effective and sustainable solutions

This means that they can:

be clear and focused, identifying the key issues in any situation
analyze and address ethical concerns
use technical models and quantitative analysis to draw out key issues, establish causality and integrate a wide range of factors into a coherent argument
make clear recommendations that meet and exceed the needs of users and are ‘fit for purpose’.

The SBL exam will test the extent to which you can fulfill this role and demonstrate this skill set.

Thinking strategically

Strategic analysis is covered in great depth within the strategic business leader syllabus but at this stage it is sufficient to remind you of the key characteristics of thinking strategically.

Having a strategic perspective means the following:

Taking a long-term perspective.
Looking at the whole organization as well as individual products / divisions / strategic business units (SBUs).
Setting the direction of the whole organization and integrating its activities.
Considering the views of all stakeholders.
Analyzing the organizations resources and defining resource requirements.
Relating the organization to its environments.
Looking at gaining a sustainable competitive advantage.

In the exam most, if not all, of the questions will have a strategic context, so you will have to pitch your answer accordingly.

Professional skills

Employability and professional skills

Employers have consistently informed the ACCA and other professional accountancy bodies that their employees need to possess certain professional and ethical skills, in addition to the technical knowledge and skills that they expect of a qualified accountant.

The main capabilities that employers are seeking in qualified accountants are the ability to communicate appropriately, demonstrate commercial acumen, deploy analytical skills, adopt a skeptical stance and evaluate data and business information effectively.

These form the basis of the professional skills listed in the syllabus:

Communication
Commercial acumen
Analysis
Skepticism
Evaluation

Learning Outcomes:

On successful completion of this paper, candidates should be able to:

Apply excellent leadership and ethical skills to set the ‘tone from the top’ and promote a positive culture within the organization, adopting a whole organization perspective in managing performance and value creation.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the governance and agency system of an organization and recognize the responsibility of the board or other agents towards their stakeholders, including the organization’s social responsibilities and the reporting implications.
Evaluate the strategic position of the organization against the external environment and the availability of internal resources, to identify feasible strategic options.
Analyze the risk profile of the organization and of any strategic options identified, within a culture of responsible risk management.
Select and apply appropriate information technologies and data analytics, to analyze factors affecting the organization’s value chain to identify strategic opportunities and implement strategic options within a framework of robust IT security controls.
Evaluate management reporting and internal control and audit systems to ensure compliance and the achievement of organization’s objectives and the safeguarding of organizational assets.
Apply high level financial techniques from Skills exams in the planning, implementation and evaluation of strategic options and actions.
Enable success through innovative thinking, applying best in class strategies and disruptive technologies in the management of change; initiating, leading and organizing projects, while effectively managing talent and other business resources.
Apply a range of Professional Skills in addressing requirements within the Strategic Business Leader examination and in preparation for, or to support, current work experience.

Certification:

This paper is considered as the foundation paper or the backbone paper of the ACCA Strategic Professional level. Passing this paper ahead of any other papers of the Strategic Professional level will help students to have a better understanding of the real-life business case scenarios. Moreover, it will help them to gain confidence and competency required to pass the optional level papers.

Course Features: