THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS
Credit CPE:3.5
The goal of this course is to explore the fundamentals of strategy, examine the components of a
strategic management system, and consider the ways finance and accounting professionals can be
business partners in the strategy-making process.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Define strategy, competitive advantage, and the components of the strategic management
system
2. Recognize how the strategic management system can add value to an organization
3. Describe the building blocks of strategy and their role within strategy formulation
4. Identify the opportunities for the finance team to get more engaged in the strategic
planning process
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING AND INTERNAL ANALYSIS
Credit CPE:4.5
The goal of this course is to continue to explore strategic analysis and take an in-depth look at
some of the analytical tools used to perform an environmental scan of an organization’s internal and
external environment.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Identify key external environmental scanning factors and the analytical tools STEEP,
PESTEL, and Porter’s Five Forces.
2. Describe the competition and market-related issues impacting strategy, including life cycle,
structure, segmentation, intelligence, and strategy risk.
3. Define internal analysis and the analytical tools that help an organization identify its
strengths, weaknesses, and core and differentiated competencies.
4. Recognize how the value chain, SWOT analysis, and Gap analysis can lead to a firm’s
competitive advantage.
CREATING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE AT THE BUSINESS AND FUNCTIONAL LEVELS
Credit CPE:4.0
The goal of this course is to explore the fundamentals of competitive advantage and to consider
some specific business- and functional-level strategies.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of competitive advantage
2. Identify the cost leadership and product/service differentiation strategies of achieving
competitive advantage
3. Explain the importance of core and differentiated competencies and how they can lead to a
sustained competitive advantage
4. Describe key business-level strategies and how they are used to improve a company’s
competitive position
5. Recognize how operational excellence, quality optimization, technology, and innovation can
be used to develop an effective functional-level strategy
CORPORATE AND GLOBAL STRATEGIES AND SUSTAINING COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
Credit CPE:3.5
The goal of this course is to explore corporate and global strategy formulation as well as to
understand the importance of maintaining competitive advantage for long-term growth, profitability,
and organizational longevity.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Identify portfolio analysis tools, and key growth and restructuring strategies at the corporate
level
2. Review important factors an organization must consider when expanding globally such as
market expansion, value chain optimization, risks of conducting international business
3. Recognize the importance of sustaining competitive advantage
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION AND PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
Credit CPE:5.5
The goal of this course is to explore strategy implementation and performance evaluation and
consider the role of risk, governance, ethics, and social responsibility in strategy execution.
Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of marginal analysis and investment decision analysis used
when evaluating strategic alternatives.
2. Identify the components of risk management including risk analysis, strategies to mitigate
risk, and the importance of enterprise risk management (ERM).
3. Describe the characteristics of successful strategy implementation including leadership,
communication, workforce engagement, effective deployment, and change management
practices.
4. Recognize the critical tools of strategy measurement and organizational performance
including evaluation and control, balanced scorecard, benchmarking, strategy maps, key
metrics, profitability measures, and international considerations.
5. Explain the importance of governance, ethics, and social responsibility in strategy
implementation.
