The overall objective of this segment is to provide candidates with an understanding of the basic concepts and principles that underlie the practices of strategy and leadership. In the increasingly complex business environment in which organisations operate, characterised by change, uncertainty and escalating competition, the disciplines of strategy and leadership have become critical to successful organisational performance.

Specifically, the segment aims to:

• discuss the terms strategy and leadership and their relationship, and consider various viewpoints about what constitutes an effective strategy
• apply concepts such as environment and industry analysis, capability analysis and gap analysis to business strategy formulation
• discuss and illustrate the process of strategy implementation, including issues related to the transformational change process
• analyse the role of leaders in developing and implementing strategy
• consolidate the understanding of strategy and leadership concepts through the use of real-world examples integrated throughout the material, and apply these concepts to business case scenarios through the use of a major case study
• assist candidates in developing skills in thinking strategically and formulating broad strategies for consideration and application in their organisational environment

Further case scenarios are contained in My Online Learning that enables candidates to integrate their learning of various concepts through interactive learning tasks.

Formal assessment for this segment is based on an examination that contains both multiple-choice questions and written-response questions. The section containing multiple-choice questions will represent no more than 20 per cent of the total marks available while the section containing the written-response questions will represent no less than 80 per cent of the total marks available.

The content of the Business Strategy and Leadership segment is as follows:

Module 1: An introduction to strategy and leadership

• the origins and importance of strategy
• approaches to strategy
• leadership defined
• the strategy process
• strategic thinking and analysis
• levels of strategy
• strategic leadership
• leadership and ethics

Module 2: Framework for strategic analysis: analysing the external environment

• analysing the external environment
• defining the industry
• remote environment analysis
• industry analysis
• understanding the industry life cycle
• industry analysis for the public sector
• from industry to market analysis
• CPAs and external environment analysis

Module 3: Framework for strategic analysis: analysing the internal environment

• identifying the existing business strategy: the five questions approach
• key stakeholders and strategy
• identifying and analysing corporate strategy: the four questions approach
• other issues in developing business or corporate strategy
• strategic capabilities
• measuring the performance of strategic capabilities
• measuring organisational performance
• comparing performance measures
• CPAs and internal environment analysis

Module 4: Formulating a strategy

• gap analysis
• business strategic options
• corporate strategy formulation
• risk assessment
• strategic decision-making
• practical strategic decision-making
• leadership and strategy formulation
• the role of the CPA in formulating strategy

Module 5: Implementing strategy

• strategy: from thinking it to doing it
• managing people and systems
• designing structure
• the politics of strategy implementation
• reviewing the implementation process
• the role of leadership in implementing strategy

Module 6: Leadership and the strategic process

• the nature of strategic leadership
• achieving strategic success
• transformational leadership
• the role of leaders in strategic thinking
• the role of leaders in strategic analysis
• the role of leaders in setting direction
• the role of leaders in strategy formulation and selection
• the role of leaders in implementing strategy
• leadership and the CPA
• future challenges

Module 7: Case study

• Part A: Chasseur Chickens Pty Ltd
• Part B: Notting Foods Australia Pty Ltd