PQ ACCA exams
SBL: in with the new Ashim Kumar explains everything you ever wanted to know about the new ACCA Strategic Business Leader examination, examinable from September
rom September, the Professional papers P1 and P3 are being replaced by the Strategic Business Leader (SBL) exam. SBL is a compulsory paper, the Option papers remain unchanged. This article outlines some features of the new paper.
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The objective of SBL “To demonstrate organisational leadership and senior consultancy or advisory capabilities and relevant professional skills” (ACCA). The SBL Exam SBL is a four-hour (unseen) case study based exam that will include one scenario on which all questions will be based. In addition, it will contain substantial data in the form of ‘exhibits’. The exhibits may take the form of reports, press articles, company website, minutes of meetings, memos and so on. The extra hour given to candidates in the exam is to allow the analysis of this large volume of data and identify facts relevant to each answer. There will be up to five compulsory questions, each with sub-parts. Candidates will be required to answer from different stakeholders’ perspectives; for example, project manager, internal auditor, etc. Each exam will contain a total of 80 technical marks and 20 professional skills marks. Professional skills marks are awarded for communication; commercial acumen; analysis; scepticism; and 18
evaluation. A failure to demonstrate these essential skills in the exam will greatly reduce the chances of success at that sitting. It is not enough to be technically competent; our professional stakeholders demand more from us. The SBL syllabus SBL must not be seen as simply a merger between P1 and P3; it is a different ‘animal’ altogether. Although it does take some topics from P1 (eg governance), and from P3 (eg strategy), there are many additional areas included (eg leadership). The core areas of this syllabus are leadership; governance; strategy; risk; technology and data analytics; organisational control and audit; finance in planning and decisionmaking; innovation, performance excellence and change management; and professional skills. This is clearly a very broad syllabus and candidates will be expected to combine a knowledge of different topics to produce a comprehensive solution; much as you would in a real business situation. Assumed knowledge Candidates will be assumed to have a knowledge of: • Ethics and Professional Skills Module (EPS). • The Applied Skills papers (F1, F4, F5, F7, F8 and F9). Refer to pages 6–9 of this mapping document for detail on which topics in these papers are
relevant: http://future.accaglobal.com/ assets/documents/strategic-businessleader-mapping-of-key-appliedknowledge-and-applied-skills.pdf The ACCA does not expect you to carry out technical calculations from previous subjects; it does, however, expect you to be aware of, and apply principles and tools from earlier studies to a real-world problem. For example, the question may provide the NPV of a project and expect you to incorporate that information in your answer. So you need to know the implications of a positive or negative NPV and use that as a part of your answer to make a recommendation or, draw a conclusion. So, you may say in your solution: “A positive NPV of $1m is prima facie support for the decision to accept a project, however a number of other factors will also need to be considered.” You would highlight other relevant factors as provided in the question, for example, relative size of the investment, possible competitor response, risk of obsolescence of this project, stakeholder response and so on. You would then provide a balanced recommendation, which incorporated all of the issues discussed. Exam preparation The SBL examination is unlike anything else in the ACCA curriculum so far; so we need to take a new approach in preparing for it: 1. Read outside the subject. Quoting realworld examples to reinforce your points in the exam, will earn you professional marks; let’s pick them up. 2. Familiarise yourselves with the Examiner’s approach and their suggestions on how to answer the questions. Please read the article here: http://future.accaglobal.com/assets/docu ments/strategic-business-leaderexaminer-approach-article.pdf 3. You will need to practise treating the exam like a real-world scenario and not an academic exercise, approaching each question from the perspective of a different stakeholder, and applying professional skills when attempting your answers. Passing this exam depends on being able to apply knowledge, skills and technique, in an ethical, comprehensive and professional way. If all this sounds daunting then get help sooner rather than later from someone with good communication skills and a broad experience of business to maximise your chances of success. PQ • Ashim Kumar is an FME online tutor. See https://www.fmelearnonline.com PQ Magazine August 2018