Strategic Success Foundations I Certificate

Overview:

The degree of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and/or ambiguity makes the need for strong foundations ever more important if one is to help your organization successfully navigate forward. The Strategic Success Foundations I Certificate prepares you for the rigours of navigating turbulence while ensuring strategic integrity of actions and decisions. It’s a holistic approach that considers how CPAs can and must contribute to and influence business health, resilience and economic sustainability.  
  
You will gain and/or strengthen the foundations needed to be and become more strategic – whether as a value-added finance business partner, strategy advisor and/or strategic leader, planner or decision-maker. Being future ready requires the ability to adapt, to pivot, and to provide insights and foresight, while remaining grounded in sound business, operating, ethical and strategic principles and practices. 
  
This program is valuable to all levels of leaders and emerging leaders, analysts and advisors who are interested in the dynamics and application of strategic thinking and strategy development, in a way that supports and shapes business resiliency, social, societal and economic development. 
  
The Strategic Success Foundations I Certificate may qualify for up to 18 hours of professional development. 

Special Instructions 
This course emphasizes the application of practical frameworks, based on examples and experience, to support effective strategic thinking and active influence in decision-making, shaping strategy and business direction. 
  
Participants will be encouraged to reflect on, engage with and apply concepts delivered through a blend of written and video content; examples and illustration; self-reflection and application or creative project activities; and, teach-back and takeaway discussion panels, quizzes and/or self-assessments. 

Course Content:

Topics covered in these courses include: 
 
Course #1 Be Strategic – Core Thinking Skills and Key Mindsets to Thrive in a Turbulent World

• Strategy formulation vs. strategic thinking
• A suite of distinctive mental models and frameworks to support and enable ongoing, integrative, strategic thinking and execution, plus periodic strategy formulation
• Related governance, ethical and professionalism considerations
• Practical application and relevance outside of formal. Periodic strategic planning; for ongoing, effective and value-added insight, stewardship, finance business partnering and collaborative effort 
   

Course #2 Build Strategically – Business Blueprinting Basics, to Preserve Coherence as your Business Adapts

• Multi-levels of strategy and integrative strategy formulation
• An illustrative approach to conceptualizing your business and the intricacies and interconnections between levels of strategy – the ‘story’ of strategy – and the cause-and-effect dynamic of leading and lagging performance
• Practical application and relevance both in and outside of formal strategic planning; for effective and value-added insight, strategy development, alignment amongst various aspects of one’s business, steward- and leadership and finance business partnering

Course #3 Bold-Better-Best Strategy – Fundamentals for Stewarding Strategic Health and Wealth

• Exploration and application of an over-arching framework for strategic thinking, choice- and decision-making and formulation
• Within the context of this strategic analytical framework: key strategic tools, frameworks and practices to properly explore, apply business intelligence and discernment, and support effective decision-making, strategy formulation and eventual execution at each level of strategy
• Tools, practices and frameworks will be further considered from the perspective of the professionalism and business value-adding expectations of the CPA as the “preeminent accounting designation and business credential” 

Learning Objectives:

Upon completing these courses, you will be able to: 
 
Course #1 Be Strategic – Core Thinking Skills and Key Mindsets to Thrive in a Turbulent World

• Activate and apply critical and strategic thinking skills in order to lead, steward and partner adaptively and on pace with shifting demands and expectations
• Engage and energize a value-creating strategic perspective for better insights, strategic success partnering and direction-setting
• Recognize and include a wider array of thinking patterns, to navigate through disturbance and into possibility 
     

Course #2 Build Strategically – Business Blueprinting Basics, to Preserve Coherence as your Business Adapts

• Stimulate integrative, strategic thinking using an approach that gives you a line-of-sight visual of your total business or organization
• Assure strategic coherence and alignment, for greater teamwork and collaboration
• Use the blueprint approach for scenario-building, to generate and evaluate strategic choices

Course #3 Bold-Better-Best Strategy – Fundamentals for Stewarding Strategic Health and Wealth

• Explore and (re)-discover strategic performance "essentials" - what they are and how, when, why to apply and tailor them
• Strengthen performance dynamics at each level of strategy 

Who Will Benefit: 

Those who are actively seeking to strengthen their role and influence through better thinking skills as active ‘partners’ in their organization’s success and desired impact. 
  
Those who want to develop their capacity to conceptualize, illustrate and communicate their story of strategy and the internal alignment that facilitates its achievement. Useful to gain a better understanding of your organization’s total performance, integration and strategic alignment, as well as for strategic scenario-building and alternatives analysis. 
  
Those who are intent on adding the best value possible and actively engaging in effective, high-performance strategy formulation and strategic thinking effectiveness. 
  
This program is valuable to financial professionals at all levels of leadership or emerging leaders, analysts and advisors who are interested in the dynamics and application of strategic thinking and strategy formulation fundamentals.