SBL | Study Text - BPP

Syllabus of Strategic Business Leadership (SBL)

The objective of the syllabus is to illustrate, in the context of an integrated case study, organizational leadership and senior consultancy or advisory capabilities and related professional skills.

At the Strategic Professional level, the syllabus for Strategic Business Leader acts as the main leadership syllabus and is a substantial integrated assessment. The examination requires students to demonstrate a variety of professional skills needed by good leaders or to advise or assist senior management in managing organizations. In the sense of leadership capability, the syllabus thus incorporates the core roles of organizations.

In the Applied Knowledge and Applied Skills examinations, the key capabilities of the Strategic Business Leader syllabus presume that important technical skills and knowledge have been gained where some of the Strategic Business Leader's core capabilities have been incorporated in a subject-specific context, such as governance, internal audit, control, risk, finance, and management.

The analysis also draws on a number of ethical and technical skills learned in the module of Ethics and Professional Skills, which should be completed before any of the Strategic Professional exams are attempted.

For the remainder of the syllabus, the Strategic Business Leader syllabus covers nine key parts, using leadership, professionalism and ethics and corporate governance as the initial focus. Excellent leadership requires providing a team of professional and responsible directors, setting a suitable 'tone from the top' and bringing relevant organizational and cultural values into the organization.

A sound governance structure and efficient management systems support this. The syllabus starts by discussing leadership and having accountable and ethical leaders in place, having an understanding of who they are responsible for.

This section also discusses personal and professional ethics, ethical frameworks and professional values as applied to the role of a senior manager or advisor and as a guide to acceptable actions and behavior in a number of circumstances.

The presence of an effective governance system within organizations in the broad context of agency relations is directly linked to organizational leadership.

This aspect of the syllabus focuses on managers' respective roles and obligations, the related committee structures and the successful evaluation of senior management performance, demonstrating their transparency by reporting to stakeholders more broadly and holistically within an integrated reporting system.

It is only after the fundamental structures and values of organizational leadership and governance are in place that the strategy can be determined and the organization's strategic position can be evaluated and strategic options assessed and implemented.

Evaluating strategic choices, making strategic decisions and executing strategy requires the representatives of the company or its advisors to thoroughly understand the risks involved, such that the syllabus then discusses risk recognition, evaluation and control as a core component of responsible leadership and management.

The syllabus also includes a section on the implementation and use of IT and security controls at all organizational levels, from technical aspects such as big data, cloud computing and e-business, to the use of IT in information management, organizational control and financial and organizational operations.

In order to support risk management, the syllabus also addresses organizational control in its broader context, including internal audit, review, internal control, and appropriate reporting to implement and promote effective governance, including compliance issues related to the protection of assets, including data security, and and compliance issues related to the protection of assets.

The syllabus covers the financial aspects of an organization's management, including the evaluation of available finance sources and key financial and management accounting techniques for performance analysis and decision-making support. Candidates need to be aware of legal issues and of the implications of strategic and investment decisions for financial reporting and taxation.

Finally, the syllabus focuses on innovation, excellence in performance and management of change to enable organizational success and to implement change through effective organizational processes, IT solutions and project management, including the role of new and disruptive technologies in changing the nature of business analysis and transactions.

The last section, which relates to all the others, is the Professional Skills section, which shows the range of professional skills that the candidate must demonstrate in the exam to make them more employable, or if they are already at work, to improve their chances of progress.

Main capabilities

To Completion the exam successfully, candidates should be able to:

• In order to set the 'tone from the top' and maintain a positive culture within the company, apply excellent leadership and ethical skills, in the management of performance and value development, adopt a whole organizational perspective.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of an organization's governance and agency system and recognize the board or other agents' responsibility towards their stakeholders, including the social responsibilities of the organization and the implications of reporting.
• Evaluate the organization's strategic position against the external environment and the availability of internal resources to identify strategic options that are feasible.
• Analysis of the organization's risk profile and of any identified strategic options, within a culture of responsible risk management.
• To analyze factors affecting the value chain of the organization to identify strategic opportunities and implement strategic options within the framework of robust IT security controls, selecting and applying appropriate information technologies and data analytics.
• Evaluate the reporting of management and internal control and audit systems in order to ensure compliance with and achieve the goals of the organization and safeguard organizational assets.
• In the planning, implementation and evaluation of strategic options and actions, to apply high-level financial techniques from the Applied Skills exams.
• Enabling success through innovative thinking, the best use of class strategies and disruptive change management technologies; initiating, leading and organizing projects while managing talent and other business resources effectively.
• Use a range of professional skills in the Strategic Leader exam to address requirements and in preparation for, or to support, current work experience.