CIMA E3Course Notes
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CIMA E3
Enterprise Strategy
Course Notes
By Nick Best
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Chapter 1 ...............................................................................4
Formulating a business strategy ...................................................4
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Business strategy .............................................................................. 5
Levels of Strategy ............................................................................. 7
Approaches of Strategy Formulation ...................................................... 8
Planned Strategies ............................................................................ 8
Emergent Strategies (Mintzberg) .......................................................... 11
Incrementalism ............................................................................... 12
Freewheeling Opportunism................................................................. 13
The three strategic lenses.................................................................. 13
Chapter 2 ............................................................................. 16
Mission and objectives ............................................................. 16
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Mission ......................................................................................... 17
Mission Statements .......................................................................... 17
Objectives ..................................................................................... 19
Effective Objectives ......................................................................... 21
Stakeholders .................................................................................. 22
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) .................................................... 25
Chapter 3 ............................................................................. 29
External analysis .................................................................... 29
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
External Analysis ............................................................................. 30
PESTEL analysis ............................................................................... 30
Porter’s Five Forces ......................................................................... 32
Evaluating overseas markets – Porter’s Diamond....................................... 36
Environmental uncertainty ................................................................. 38
Chapter 4 ............................................................................. 43
Internal Analysis .................................................................... 43
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Internal Analysis.............................................................................. 44
The Resource Audit - The Nine M’S ....................................................... 44
Porter’s Value Chain......................................................................... 46
Supply Chain Management.................................................................. 49
Product life cycle ............................................................................ 52
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix ................................................... 54
Chapter 5 ............................................................................. 60
Financial evaluation of current position ....................................... 60
1.
2.
3.
Financial analysis ............................................................................ 61
Financial ratios ............................................................................... 62
Ad-hoc financial evaluation in the CIMA P3 exam...................................... 67
Chapter 6 ............................................................................. 70
Corporate Appraisal ................................................................ 70
1.
2.
3.
Corporate Appraisal - Swot Analysis ...................................................... 71
GAP analysis................................................................................... 72
End of the strategic analysis stage........................................................ 73
Chapter 7 ............................................................................. 75
Strategic Choice and Evaluation ................................................. 75
1.
2.
3.
Strategic Choice .............................................................................. 76
Porter’s Generic Strategies ................................................................ 76
Strategy Clock ................................................................................ 79
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5.
6.
7.
8.
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Strategic direction ........................................................................... 80
Methods Of Strategic Development ....................................................... 83
Corporate political activity and non-market strategies ............................... 87
Strategy Evaluation .......................................................................... 87
Ethics and strategic choice................................................................. 88
Chapter 8 ............................................................................. 93
Strategic Implementation – Change management ............................ 93
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Strategy Implementation ................................................................... 94
Change management ........................................................................ 94
Types of change .............................................................................. 95
Effective management of change ......................................................... 97
The process of change ...................................................................... 99
Culture and Change........................................................................ 100
Chapter 9 ........................................................................... 106
Strategic Implementation – Information systems ........................... 106
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Information.................................................................................. 107
IS strategy ................................................................................... 107
Steering committee........................................................................ 112
Levels of management, information and control..................................... 113
Information systems at different levels ................................................ 115
E-commerce................................................................................. 119
Using business strategy models to identify IT needs................................. 120
Chapter 10 ......................................................................... 125
Strategic Implementation - Marketing ........................................ 125
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Marketing .................................................................................... 126
Defining a marketing strategy ........................................................... 127
The Marketing Mix ......................................................................... 128
Marketing Research ........................................................................ 131
Segment - Target – Position .............................................................. 132
The Management accountant’s role in marketing .................................... 136
Branding ..................................................................................... 140
Relationship marketing ................................................................... 142
Chapter 11 ......................................................................... 144
Strategic Implementation – Organisational Structure...................... 144
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Structure..................................................................................... 145
Types of organisational structure ....................................................... 145
Centralisation Versus Decentralisation................................................. 151
Structure and strategy .................................................................... 152
Business process reengineering and lean systems .................................... 152
Chapter 12 ......................................................................... 156
Strategic Review And Control .................................................. 156
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Strategic Review And Control............................................................ 157
Performance Measurement ............................................................... 157
Balanced Scorecard ........................................................................ 161
Performance pyramid ..................................................................... 163
Benchmarking............................................................................... 164
Critical Success Factors ................................................................... 165
Internal Control ............................................................................ 166
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CIMA E3 Course Notes
Chapter 1
Formulating a business strategy
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Business strategy
Strategy
A strategy is a plan of action designed to achieve a goal or objective. The
aim of a strategy is to gain some kind of competitive advantage or to help to
exploit future opportunities.
A strategic plan tends to be an overall guide to the way forward rather than
a detailed step by step approach due to the tendency of the real world to
be uncertain. In the example of a chess game, a ‘strategy’ provides the
over-riding approach that the player will take to win the game, but the
exact set of moves they undertake will vary depending on the opponent’s
moves.
Strategy in business
Applying this to a business scenario, according to the CIMA official
terminology a business strategy can be defined as:
"A course of action, including the specification of resources required, to
achieve a specific objective"
Or, more complete definition is given by Johnson, Scholes and Whittington
as:
“The direction and scope of an organisation over the long term, which
achieves advantage for the organisation through its configuration of
resources within a changing environment, to meet the needs of the markets
and to fulfil stakeholder expectations”
Business strategy therefore is concerned with the overall management of an
organisation and includes the management of and taking decisions about:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
Products
Markets
Locations (production and sales)
Structure
Personnel
Buildings and machinery
How to compete
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Key features of strategic management
The key features of strategic management are:
Long term approach – decisions are made over the long term, often for
periods exceeding one year
Focused on organisational objectives – the aim being to ensure that the
plan of action achieves the most important objectives for a wide group of
key stakeholders
Aligned with internal strengths and weaknesses – the aim should be to
capitalise on the business strengths and overcome any key weaknesses.
Devising a strategy will often follow a position audit of the business to
ascertain the businesses current position.
Adapted to the changing business environment – so that changes in
political, economic, social and technology factors are taken account of,
while adapting to industry changes, such as competitive threats, supply
issues or changing customer needs.
The importance of strategy
Strategic management of businesses is important for the following reasons:
•
Provides a clear direction, focusing management decision making
•
Adapts the organisation to the changing environment ensuring it’s
continuing survival and success
•
Ensures competitiveness through understanding and adapting to
competition
•
Focuses in building key competences to meet customer needs
•
Co-ordinates all elements of the business in a structured planned
approach.
Director’s role in strategy
Ultimately it is the director’s responsibility to decide on and take decisions
on strategy in the organisation. Typically strategy will be discussed and
agreed in board meetings. Larger organisations often have a small
department whose role is to analyse the business, markets and competitors
and devise strategy for the board to discuss and agree upon.
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The directors have a fiduciary duty to make strategic decisions which are in
the best interests of the company and its shareholders, and as such it is
important that due diligence undertaken before key contracts resulting
from strategic decisions are signed. This might include an analysis of key
suppliers prior to long term supply agreements or review of an acquisition
target by an independent accountancy firm prior to purchase.
2.
Levels of Strategy
There are three different levels on which strategy can be set:
Corporate Strategy
The corporate strategy provides the direction for the business as whole,
including all parts of the business. It includes consideration of:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The overriding purpose and scope of the business
Which businesses and markets should the organisation operate in?
What should the core competencies be?
Resources and financing
How to compete
How to integrate and structure the business
For a company such as Diagio, one of the world’s leading premium drinks
businesses with brands such as Guiness, Smirnov and Johnie Walker amougst
it’s group. It needs to decide which products to include in it’s brands, which
markets to operate in and so on. In 2002 Diagio sold Burger King as they
moved out of the ‘food’ industry into a focus on Premium Branded Drinks.
This was a ‘corporate level decision’.
Business Strategy
Each business unit or subsidiary of the business is likely to have different
goals, competitors, suppliers, manufacturing approaches, IT, financial
requirements and so on, and so each strategic business unit (SBU) needs its
own strategy. This covers:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Which competencies?
Which products?
Which markets?
Tactics to beat competition in this market
Business resources (people, buildings, machinery, processes)
How to compete in this business area?
In Diagio, different strategies will be required for each drinks brand and
each regional market due to the different nature of the products and
markets. These are ‘business level’ strategies.
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Operational/Functional Strategy
Each functional area within each business unit will then have its own
strategy, so there will be strategies in each department e.g. HR, IT,
production, finance and marketing.
These should be designed to be consistent with the business strategy of the
SBU.
3.
Approaches of Strategy Formulation
There are a number of different approaches to the development of
strategies within organisations.
•
•
•
•
Planned strategies
Emergent strategies
Incrementalism
Opportunism
These will be examined one by one in the following sections.
4.
Planned Strategies
Strategies can be consciously and formally planned in advance, either by the
directors or by a specialist department. This provides a clear, justifiable
strategy based on the information available about the company’s current
position, environment and competencies. As such the strategy developed
should be well thought through and effective.
Planned strategies are often used in large organisations, and are particularly
suitable where the industry is subject to relatively little change.
Planned strategies tend to consist of four of distinct stages:
Strategic Analysis
•
Defining the direction (e.g. Mission and objectives)
•
External analysis of the business environment (e.g. PESTEL analysis,
Porter’s 5 forces)
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•
Internal analysis of the firm (e.g. Value chain, Resource audit,
Product analysis)
•
Corporate appraisal (e.g. SWOT analysis)
Strategic Choice
•
Selecting strategic options
•
Choosing options the firm is going to take (including financial
evaluation using techniques such as NPV, IRR and Payback period).
Strategic Implementation
Putting the strategies into practice including polices and strategies for:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
marketing
finance
R&D
IT
Human Resources
Project management
Change management
Structure
Strategy Evaluation and control
•
Evaluating the success of the strategy by measuring actual
performance against objectives
•
Taking control action by amending future strategies and objectives.
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Rational planning model
The stages of strategic planning can also be shown using the rational
planning model, which is an alternative way of showing the same process.
Mission and
Objectives
Environmental
Analysis
Position Audit
Corporate Appraisal
Strategic Options
Strategic
Evaluation
Strategic
Implementation
Review and Control
Criticisms of planned strategies
While planned strategies provide logical focused, well organised strategies
they have also been criticised:
Time commitment – they can be very time consuming to create, for large
businesses often taking many months, and may be out of date by the time
they are published
Cost – costs include staff time, collecting information, using strategy
consultants
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Lack of flexibility - The organisation can become constrained by a fixed
plan and as a result not take new opportunities that arise or adapt to
changes in the business environment (e.g. a new competitive threat).
5.
Emergent Strategies (Mintzberg)
Emergent strategies are strategies which emerge out of the course of the
business rather than having been formally planned. They could perhaps be
due to opportunities which present themselves (e.g. a competitor comes up
for sale) or threats which need to be addressed (e.g. a competitor develops
a new product and the company must follow suit to remain competitive).
Em
NOW
er
ge
nt
st
ra
te
g
ie
s
in
c
lu
d
ed
Cr
af
tin
g
Planned strategy Realised strategy
Fa
ile
ds
tr a
teg
ies
dis
General idea of goals
And future direction
ca
rd
ed
Emergent strategies can be combined with the successful elements of the
planned strategy to define the way forward for the business. The process of
bringing these together is called crafting a strategy.
In the example of a development of a new product, that needs of the new
product would need to be crafted alongside those of the existing business,
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including production timings and approaches of both existing and new
products, combined marketing strategies, allocation of funds to different
product lines and the use of human resources for each area.
This is more appropriate for businesses in a changing environment, such as
high technology, where restriction to one planned strategy may be a
competitive weakness.
It is also most commonly used in smaller organisations where the
organisation relies less of formal plans and processes and more on the
knowledge of key managers and staff who can be very flexible to change.
6.
Incrementalism
In fast changing environments it may be unrealistic to effectively undertake
the full strategic planning process. Instead it is more practical to develop a
short term strategy based on the consensus of opinion of major
stakeholders.
An incrementalist approach was adopted by many businesses during the
ecomonic downturn of the late 2000s as uncertainty made it hard to make
accurate long term predictions.
The strategy is then developed regularly using a series of small scale
changes as dictated by the changing environment.
Another situation where incrementalism is common in the public sector
which while not a rapidly changing environment, is one where there are a
wide variety of stakeholder needs to satisfy. It can thus be hard to agree
clear long term objectives to keep every stakeholder content, and thus a
shorter term ‘middle ground’ view is taken that ‘satisfies’ all groups.
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Freewheeling Opportunism
NOW
Take advantage of opportunities as they arise
Little plan or direction, but very flexible and dynamic
In this model there is no formal approach to strategy development.
Directors dictate the business direction through taking whatever
opportunities are available at a particular point in time. This allows the
business to be very flexible and take opportunities that companies using a
more formal approach to strategy development would be slow to take.
Freewheeling opportunism is most common in small companies with an
entrepreneurial leader who can direct and focus their organisation down
each new track based on the opportunities they identify and wish to pursue.
The lack of formal processes makes change quick and easy.
8.
The three strategic lenses
According to Johnston, Scholes and Whittington, business strategy can
considered from three different perspectives.
Strategy as design
A strategy is planned based on internal and external analysis and logical and
rational thought. e.g. Rational model
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Strategy as experience
Strategy comes from learning from and adapting to real-world experience
e.g. Emergent strategies (and to a lesser extent incrementalism)
Strategy as ideas
Strategy comes from the continuous application of new innovations and
business and process change. This depends on staff and structural
flexibility, entrepreneurship and idea generation.
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Strategic Mock Exams – E3, F3 and P3
Based around the latest Preseen
2 full mocks are available for each strategic subject
Full marking and detailed feedback
Full mock marking
Detailed and personalised feedback to focus on helping to pass the exams
Personal coaching on your mock exam
1hr personal coaching session with your marker
Personalised feedback and guidance
Exam technique and technical review
Strategic and Financial analysis of the Pre-seen
Strategic analysis - all key business strategy models in E3
Financial analysis – based around the F3 syllabus
Risk analysis – based around the P3 syllabus
30 page strategic report
Full video analysis of how all key models apply to the unseen
Video introduction to all the key models
Personal Coaching Courses
Personal coaching to get you through the exam
Tuition Course – Personalised tuition to give you the required syllabus
knowledge – tailored to your needs
Revision Course - Practise past exam questions with personal feedback on
your technical weaknesses and exam approach and technique
Resit Course – Identifying weaknesses from past attempts and providing
personalised guidance and study guides to get you through the exam
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CIMA E3 Course Notes
Chapter 2
Mission and objectives
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Mission
What is the organisation all about? Why does it exist? Who does it exist for?
What is it trying to achieve? An organisation’s mission answers these
questions.
A mission helps to provide:
Common purpose – so everyone is clear what the purpose and values of the
company are to help guide the company’s culture
Focus for the strategy – strategic decisions can be based upon and reviewed
against their consistency with the mission to ensure the organisation does
not get off track or lose focus on its true values and purpose.
Direction for objectives – to ensure alignment of activities towards
achieving objectives which are consistent with the company’s purpose.
2.
Mission Statements
A mission statement is a written statement of the company’s purpose,
strategy, values and policies.
Campbell set out the following key elements of good mission statements:
Purpose
•
•
•
Why does the organisation exist?
For whom does it exist?
What does the organisation hope to achieve long term?
Strategy
•
•
How will the organisation compete?
The range of businesses it is operating within.
Values
•
What the organisation stands for (quality, value for money,
innovation etc.)
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Policies
•
Policies people are expected to follow which will ensure people act
according to the defined values, strategy and purpose.
Qualities of good mission statements include:
•
•
•
•
Clear/unambiguous
Concise
Covers the whole organisation
Open ended (not quantifiable)
Example real life mission statements
Amazon
To be earth’s most customer centric company; to build a place where
people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy
online.
Apple
Apple is committed to bringing the best personal computing experience to
students, educators, creative professionals and consumers around the world
through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.
Dell
To be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the
best customer experience in markets we serve.
Facebook
To give people the power to share and make the world more open and
connected.
Google
To organise the world‘s information and make it universally accessible and
useful.
Microsoft
To enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full
potential.
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YouTube
To provide fast and easy video access and the ability to share videos
frequently
You will notice that many real life mission statements are often short and
focused, and lack some of Campbell’s elements of good mission statements.
While theoretically incomplete this adds focus and improves the mission as a
communication tool.
Many of these organisations go on to produce other statements which when
taken in combination with the mission statement complete Campbell’s
elements. For example Microsoft has the following values statement:
“As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness,
personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual selfimprovement, and mutual respect. We are committed to our customers and
partners and have a passion for technology. We take on big challenges, and
pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to
our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honouring our
commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality.”
3.
Objectives
The purpose of objectives
A mission is non-quantifiable i.e. it provides an overall direction and
purpose rather than being directly measurable. This means it is very hard to
measure its success and it is not a good tool for motivating staff since
targets are unclear.
For a mission to be effective, it needs to be supported by clear, measurable
objectives which provide targets for directors and staff, and hence
motivates and provides focus for them.
They also perform an important role in performance measurement as
organisational and individual performance can be assessed by how
effectively they have achieved their objectives.
Hierarchy of objectives
Objectives are set at different levels within the organisation to motivate
and focus performance in each major part of the business. This goes right
down to the individuals who are set objectives as part of their appraisal.
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Corporate
Vertical
consistency
Business Unit
Functional/operational
Individual
Horizontal consistency
Time-based
consistency
Vertical consistency of objectives
Lower level objectives should be consistent with higher level objectives
(e.g. individual’s should be set objectives which. when achieved, will
contribute to the achievement of their function’s objectives.). This ensures
each part of the organisation is acting in a way which is appropriate to the
needs of the next level up.
Horizontal consistency of objectives
The objectives of different departments, individuals, or businesses are
consistent with each other (e.g. the production department objectives and
sales department objectives are co-ordinated to ensure the right products
and product quantities are produced to meet sales planned). This facilitates
co-ordination within the organisation.
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Time based consistency
Objectives should be consistent and achievable over time, so for example
the 6 month objectives should be a natural progression towards those for
the full year.
4.
Effective Objectives
Qualities of effective objectives
To be effective objectives should have the following qualities:
Specific – about a clear focused topic e.g. profit, sales, customer
satisfaction, new product development.
Measurable – able to be measured to ensure people can be held accountable
for them, and to give people focus. e.g. Turnover from new products
launched.
Achievable – To ensure they are motivational to those people tasked with
working towards them and to make rewards attached to them meaningful.
Relevant - to the person/division who has been set the objective, and
consistent with the organisation’s mission. E.g. New product launch
objectives might be given to the research and development or marketing
departments.
Timebound – to provide a deadline to focus and motivate people towards,
and ensure accountability at that date
Examples and how they relate to SMART
1. To have great quality products.
Not measurable or timebound. Hard for the manager to know what they’re
trying to achieve, and so they lack focus in their actions and are
demotivated.
2. To be great
Not SMART in all 5 areas. (Great at what? How do you measure great? How
do you achieve greatness? Is it relevant for the manager to be great? By
when should they be great?) Hard for the manager to know what they’re
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trying to achieve, and so they lack focus in their actions and are
demotivated.
3. To reduce our current level of defects from 69 per 1000 to 0 per 1000
by the end of the month.
Probably not achievable, but SMART in other respects. Demotivating as too
difficult. The manager does not strive to achieve it.
4. To increase sales of products by 10% over the course of the next
month.
Not relevant enough to what they do, but SMART in other respects. They
can’t control the target directly so it does not motivate them to improve
what they do.
5. To reduce the number of defective products from 2 per 1000 to 1 per
1000 by the end of the year.
A SMART objective
5.
Stakeholders
What are stakeholders?
Stakeholders of an organisation are people who are affected in some way by
what the organisation does.
Organisational objectives should always be considered in relation to the
objectives of different stakeholders. This ensures that a wide range of needs
are considered in the objective setting process and balanced objectives are
produced.
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Who are the key stakeholders
Stakeholders and their needs include:
Category
Stakeholder
Needs of the stakeholder
Internal
- Directors
- Employees
- Pay, bonus, overall performance, job security
- Pay, bonus, personal performance, job security
Connected
- Shareholders
- Customers
- Suppliers
- Financiers
- Share price growth, dividend payments
- Prices, quality, delivery times, assured supply
- Assured custom, high prices
- Interest payments, ability to pay back loans
- Government
- Pressure groups
- Local community
- Wider community
- Tax, law, wealth of nation
- E.g. environment
- Employment, nice place to live
- Environment
(usually have
a contract)
External
(Other)
Stakeholder power
The degree to which stakeholder needs are considered as part of the
objective setting process depends on the level of power they have to impact
the organisation and its results. The needs of powerful groups will tend to
be prioritised
For example large customers have significant power and products, prices,
location of production facilities and so on may be impacted by their needs.
Small customers have far less power and less consideration will be paid to
their individual needs.
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Stakeholder Mapping (Mendelow’s Matrix)
Low
Minimal
Effort
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Key
Players
Power
High
Low
Level of Interest
High
Mendelow's matrix helps to identify the relationships that should be built
with different stakeholders. A stakeholder's position in the matrix depends
on two factors:
Power- The power to influence the organisation, and affect its decisionmaking.
Interest - The interest which the stakeholder has in the organisation. The
greater the interest in the organisation the greater the level of
communication that will be required with them. Many employees have little
power, but good communication of plans is important to retain their loyalty
and motivation.
Each stakeholder is placed in one box depending on each factor and then
treated differently depending on where they are:
Minimal effort – e.g. Temporary employee. Give them basic information to
meet their needs, but pay little attention to them in decision making and
strategy.
Keep informed – e.g. Full time employee. Regularly communicate with
them, particularly things they are interested in. This helps retain good
relationships and avoids them seeking to increase power (e.g. through staff
grouping together in a union).
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Keep satisfied e.g. Government. They have high power so to avoid them
exercising the power they should be kept satisfied e.g. by paying them on
time or meeting whatever needs they have. As they have little interest only
information is given to them as is necessary (e.g. profit information to
government to help assess tax payable).
Key players (Keep Close) e.g. Major shareholder – Regular communication is
maintained and their goals and objectives included as part of the strategy
setting process and business approach.
6.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Corporate Social Responsibility is, as the name suggests, a companies
responsibility to the society in which it operates. This means considering all
stakeholders as part of the decision making process – not just the ‘key
players’.
CSR policies cover issues such as environmental policy and sustainability,
health and safety, treatment of staff, charitable work and contribution and
supporting local communities.
Benefits to business of good CSR
Brand differentiation
In crowded marketplaces, companies strive for a unique selling proposition
that can separate them from the competition in the minds of consumers.
CSR can play a role in building customer loyalty based on distinctive ethical
values. Several major brands, such as The Co-operative Group, The Body
Shop and American Apparel are built on ethical values.
Avoiding regulation
Corporations are keen to avoid interference in their business through
taxation or regulations. By taking substantive voluntary steps, they can
persuade governments and the wider public that they are taking issues such
as health and safety, diversity, or the environment seriously as good
corporate citizens with respect to labour standards and impacts on the
environment.
Reputation
A good CSR policy and approach can support a good long term reputation for
the firm, which supports the development of a strong, well recognised and
well respected brand. This can help to gain customers, attract and retain
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high quality staff, build trust with investors, and gain the loyalty of
suppliers.
Building CSR into the organisation
There are a variety of ways of
Mission and objectives
Inclusion of CSR values within the mission statement has become common
practise, and creates focus for directors when setting strategy to ensure CSR
is built into strategies being are followed.
Creating focused CSR objectives with clear plans for achievement also help
focus CSR activity, particularly when these are linked to managerial
performance and reviewed regularly.
CSR Policies
A CSR policy is an internal statement of rules and expectations on CSR issues
to be applied within the organisation. It sets out the organisations values
and clear rules to be following in relation to many ethical and social issues.
Philanthropy
A common element of CSR is philanthropy. This includes monetary donations
and aid given to local organizations and impoverished communities in
developing countries.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking enables comparison of CSR performance against other
organisations. It involves reviewing competitor CSR initiatives, as well as
measuring and evaluating the impact that those policies have on society and
the environment, and how customers perceive competitor CSR strategy.
After a comprehensive study of competitor strategy and an internal policy
review performed, a comparison can be drawn and a strategy developed for
competition with CSR initiatives.
Social accounting, auditing, and reporting
Social accounting involves accounting for and reporting social and
environmental effects of a company's economic actions.
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A number of reporting guidelines or standards have been developed to serve
as frameworks for social accounting, auditing and reporting including:
•
•
Global Reporting Initiative's Sustainability Reporting Guidelines
The ISO 14000 environmental management standard
In some nations, legal requirements for social accounting, auditing and
reporting exist although there is little international agreement on what
constitutes meaningful measurement of social and environmental
performance.
Many companies now produce externally audited annual reports that cover
Sustainable Development and CSR issues ("Triple Bottom Line Reports"), but
the reports vary widely in format, style, and evaluation methodology (even
within the same industry).
Within organisations internal auditors may perform internal reviews (or
audit) against the companies CSR policies as a way to review internal
compliance.
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Strategic Mock Exams – E3, F3 and P3
Based around the latest Preseen
2 full mocks are available for each strategic subject
Full marking and detailed feedback
Full mock marking
Detailed and personalised feedback to focus on helping to pass the exams
Personal coaching on your mock exam
1hr personal coaching session with your marker
Personalised feedback and guidance
Exam technique and technical review
Strategic and Financial analysis of the Pre-seen
Strategic analysis - all key business strategy models in E3
Financial analysis – based around the F3 syllabus
Risk analysis – based around the P3 syllabus
30 page strategic report
Full video analysis of how all key models apply to the unseen
Video introduction to all the key models
Personal Coaching Courses
Personal coaching to get you through the exam
Tuition Course – Personalised tuition to give you the required syllabus
knowledge – tailored to your needs
Revision Course - Practise past exam questions with personal feedback on
your technical weaknesses and exam approach and technique
Resit Course – Identifying weaknesses from past attempts and providing
personalised guidance and study guides to get you through the exam
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