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Summary Note for Global Strategy & Leadership (GSL) Module 1 to Module 7
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Comprehensive summary study note for CPA Australia Program Global Strategy & Leadership (GSL), Sem 1, 2023
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Global StrategyAnd Leadership
(GSL)
Study Note
rd
3 Edition
CPA Australia
,M1: An Introduction to Strategy and Leadership:
1.1 Introducing Strategy and Leadership (p.3)
Strategy are those decisions that have high medium-term to long-term impact on the activities of the organisation, including
analysis leading to the resourcing and implementation of those decisions, to create value for key stakeholders and to
outperform competitors.
The Evolution of Strategy (p.4):
• ‘Strategy’ derives from the Greek word strategos, meaning the art of planning and conducting a war.
• While often involving competition, strategy can also involve cooperation between competitors to achieve mutually
beneficial outcomes.
1.2: The Strategy Process (p.6):
The Rational Approach to Strategy (p.8)
• Based on a linear and mechanistic model, in which the conception and execution of strategy are treated as discrete,
sequential activities
• It involves systematically comparing external and internal contexts, adopting a particular position to achieve future goals
and expressing that in a recognisable form, such as a vision.
• This approach also selects options on the basis of their relative merit and allows implementation to be designed on the
basis of clear and well- supported statements.
• Chandler (1962) defined strategy as:
1. Setting the basic, long-term goals of an organisation, implementing courses of action
2. Allocating the resources necessary to achieve those goals.
• The rational approach to strategy provides a logical process of analysis and evaluation:
✓ Provides a way of talking, analysing and organising a complex set of issues
✓ Is a means of communication and legitimisation to stakeholders
✓ Is useful as an organising framework to analyse and plan strategy
o Agreeing the strategy context
o Analysing the operating and competitive environment
o Assesing current performance against goals
The strategy process involves
o Identifying and developing options for growth
o Evaluating and selecting options and updating the strategy – implementing and
monitoring outcomes.
Rational Approach Processual Approach
,Strategy Development in Practice (p.10):
• Strategic management is an ongoing and dynamic process that requires constant monitoring and adjustment.
• The execution of strategy and the resulting performance needs to be evaluated to ensure operations are on track.
• The nature of a true competitive strategy involves performing activities differently, or to perform different activities from
one’s competitors.
• Converting strategic plans into actions and results tests a manager’s ability to direct organizational change, motivate
people, build and strengthen company competencies and competitive capabilities, create and nurture a strategy-
supportive work climate, and meet or beat performance targets.
• While the rational approach is presented as a linear, step-by-step approach the process is iterative and interdependent.
• Activities undertaken later in the process may lead to the need for change in the earlier steps (E.g. Obstacles may occur
that prevent implementation of the strategy, thus it might be necessary to consider a completely new direction and
develop an updated strategy)
• What leaders and managers need to do:
o Be sensitive to the environment for new ideas and challenges
o Create context rather than plans, to encourage innovation and variety
o Tolerate imperfection
o Appreciate that the process of strategy is rarely a purely linear process, even if it makes it easier to act as if it is
o Be prepared to regularly review the performance of the strategy
o Be prepared to refine/modify the strategy if it becomes evident change is required
o Keep rules simple and build adaptive tension in other words, provide sufficient order to make things happen,
but not stifle people with rigid controls.
1.3: Gaining a Competitive Advantage (p.12):
• Competitive advantage is the ability of an organisation to outperform its competitors and make more profits than its
competitors do from an equivalent set of activities (E.g. Doing things in a different way)
• It can do this by being more efficient than competitors or undertaking different activities that allow it to charge higher
prices or gain more market share and brand loyalty.
• Where data can create networks, it can create competitive advantage (e.g. Google maps provides real time traffic data,
road conditions and travel times unlike its competitors)
, • The ubiquity of the Internet challenges the activities that many established companies have considered as central to their
businesses, as they are offered by new, specialised competitors that are better, faster, and more efficient products,
services and solutions in their area of focus.
• It is critically important for organisations to understand that what has set them apart from competitors at one point in
time will become commonplace and less valuable over time.
• The challenge for firms is how to respond before and when this happens and why organisational speed, agility and
innovation are key for growth and competitiveness.
Purpose and Strategy (p.13):
• ‘Creating new markets’, ‘serving broader stakeholder needs’ and ‘changing the rules of the game’ are strategies commonly
used by high-growth organisations.
• A company’s purpose extends the focus of the organisation across a network of connected interests and relationships
• Their research suggests that competing based on current competitive conditions means that competitive advantage
becomes commoditised and found that high-growth companies avoid limiting themselves in this way; instead they pursue
opportunities that are consistent with their purpose (E.g. Mars Petcare – Pedigree)
Reshaping the Value Proposition (p.14):
• A value proposition describes the target customer, the problem that is solved for the customer and why what is being
offered is distinctly better than available alternatives.
• Creating a robust value proposition involves understanding customer wants and needs and matching products and services
that the firm develops to create value for the customer.
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