What is the Certified Strategic Business Advisor?

The Certified Strategic Business Advisor is a globally recognised professional certification by the Global Leadership Institute (GLI), designed to equip professionals with advanced competencies in Leadership & Management.

How long does this certification take?

The programme is 12 Weeks and can be completed at your own pace through our self-paced online option, or alongside live virtual sessions.

Is this certification globally recognised?

Yes. GLI certifications are internationally recognised and carry CPD credits, making them valuable for career advancement worldwide.

What level is this certification?

This is a Advanced Level certification, suitable for professionals with relevant experience or background in the field.

You can enrol by emailing info@certifications.ac, contacting us via WhatsApp at +254 722 223 084, or filling the enrolment form below.

Certified Strategic Business Advisor in Chad

Course Curriculum

Programme Modules

Click any module to explore the detailed curriculum topics included in this certification.

Foundations and Strategic Context of Certified Strategic Business Advisor

Certified Strategic Business Advisor: industry context, trends and professional standards
Theories and models of leadership and management
The manager's roles, responsibilities and mindset
Leadership versus management and when each is needed
Situational and adaptive leadership
Values, purpose and authentic leadership
The organisational context and operating environment
Self-awareness and the leader's identity
Building credibility and executive presence
Ethics and responsible leadership
Personal leadership development planning

Advising at Executive Level

Executive presence and credibility
Working with a board and governance
The strategic narrative
Diagnosis, guiding policy and coherent action
Where to play and how to win
Sources of competitive advantage
Industry structure and profit pools
Strategic positioning versus operational effectiveness
Scenario planning under deep uncertainty
Strategic options and real options thinking
Resource allocation and capital discipline
Corporate portfolio strategy and parenting advantage
Make, buy or ally: boundary decisions
Mergers, acquisitions and integration risk
Strategic alignment across an organisation

Understanding the Executive Remit

The executive transition: from function to enterprise
Executive time, attention and decision cadence
Setting and communicating strategic direction
Strategic development and long-range positioning
Strategy and performance management systems
Leading through other leaders
Building and running a top team
Leading across cultures and geographies
Succession and the leadership pipeline
Executive ethics and the leader’s shadow
Leading in crisis and under scrutiny
Analytics translation: from data to decision
Experimentation and causal inference in business
Metrics design and the gaming problem
Structured problem solving: issue trees and hypotheses

Framing Advice a Board Can Act On

Working with a board and governance
The strategic narrative
Executive presence and credibility
Strategy as a coherent set of choices
Organisational design as a strategic choice
Power, coalitions and organisational politics
Leading under ambiguity and complexity
Strategic learning and the adaptive organisation
Culture as a strategic asset
Leading strategic change
Developing strategic capability in others
Transformation versus incremental change
Designing a transformation programme
Benefits realisation and value tracking
Synergy realisation after combination

Advising Through Uncertainty

Leading in crisis and under scrutiny
Setting and communicating strategic direction
Leading across cultures and geographies
Scaling a validated model
Intellectual property and defensibility of innovation
Innovation culture, incentives and psychological safety
Measuring innovation performance
Operating model redesign
Sustaining transformation and preventing reversion
Technology strategy and architecture choices
Platform and ecosystem strategy
Digital business models and monetisation
Market attractiveness and country assessment
Market entry modes and partner selection
Localisation and adaptation of the offer

Governance, Independence and Candour

Executive ethics and the leader’s shadow
Working with a board and governance
Executive presence and credibility
Jobs to be done and customer insight
Discovery-driven planning and assumption testing
Minimum viable offer and validated learning
Innovation portfolio and the three horizons
Prototyping, experimentation and design thinking
Product launch and go-to-market sequencing
Cross-border trade, tariffs and logistics realities
Growth strategy and expansion sequencing
Business model design and unit economics
Value innovation and uncontested market space

Advising on Leadership and Succession

Succession and the leadership pipeline
Building and running a top team
Leading through other leaders

Stakeholder and Investor Relations

Stakeholder mapping and business partnering
Presenting and influencing
Stakeholder communications
Influencer and partnership communications
Mentoring, sponsorship and developmental relationships
Stakeholder mapping and engagement
The learning ecosystem and stakeholders
Stakeholder mapping and partnering
Influencing and gaining buy-in
Learner and stakeholder satisfaction
Stakeholders and users of financial information
Stakeholder and investor engagement
Stakeholder mapping and influencing
Stakeholder engagement and risk management
Analytical techniques and bias

Strategic Context for Executives

Emerging threats and defensive strategy
Service strategy, design and transition
IT strategy and business alignment
Collections strategy
Structural and strategic approaches
Cash forecasting and positioning
Investment strategy and allocation
Hedging strategies and instruments
Preparing financial statements
Digital learning strategy
Learning strategy and roadmaps
Category management and strategy development
Sourcing strategies and portfolio (Kraljic)
Negotiation strategy and planning
Strategic customer relationships

Financial Stewardship

Legal, cost and feasibility analysis
Make-versus-buy and total cost of ownership
Cost and price analysis
Income capitalisation and investment value
NGO financial management and budget-versus-actual discipline
Claims investigation and fraud indicators
Solvency, capital and prudential supervision
Vehicle financing, insurance and total cost of ownership conversations
Costing production: standard costs, variances and the true cost of scrap
Non-revenue water, metering and cost recovery
Financial reporting frameworks (IFRS/GAAP)
Cost concepts, classification and behaviour
Costing methods: absorption, marginal and activity-based
Cost-volume-profit and break-even analysis
Standard costing and variance analysis

Risk, Governance and Assurance

Interest-rate risk and gap analysis
Asset-liability committee (ALCO) governance
Derivatives and risk instruments
Risk management and security frameworks
Governance, compliance and standards (ISO 27001)
IT governance frameworks (COBIT)
Enterprise architecture governance
Risk, compliance and audit
Control environment and risk assessment
Governance and the three lines model
Fraud risk and controls
Public, private and non-profit governance
Responsible and sustainable governance
Governance frameworks and codes
Compliance frameworks and programmes

Executive Communication

Management reporting and decision support
Board reporting and information flows
Management and board reporting
Safety communication and campaigns
Environmental monitoring and reporting
Communicating risk to the workforce
Incident reporting and record-keeping
Interpreting financial statements
Toolbox talks and safety communication
Communicating vision and telling stories
Executive communication and presence
Professional writing and reports
Psychoeducation and public communication
Writing advisory reports that drive decisions
Reporting to boards and executives

Executive Decision Making

Evidence, judgement and scepticism
Root-cause analysis and problem solving
Capital structure and financing decisions
Ethical decision-making under pressure
Setting strategic priorities and choices
Strategic decision-making under uncertainty
Structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis
Decision support and insight
Issue and problem management
Backlogs, user stories and prioritisation
Escalation and decision-making
Problem loans, restructuring and recovery
Incident, problem and change management
Portfolio management and prioritisation
Decision-making and problem solving

Evidence for Executive Judgement

AI and predictive project analytics
Data quality and governance
Customer personas and insight
Marketing analytics and attribution
Web and campaign analytics
Customer data platforms and segmentation
Web, campaign and funnel analytics
Sales analytics and forecasting tools
Translating insight into strategy
Management accounts and dashboards
Baseline surveys and data collection tools
Data, analytics and customer insight
Data analytics in audit
Communications analytics
Data migration and cleansing

Legal and Regulatory Environment

Budget vs actual and variance
Cost and profitability analysis
Subcontractor and supplier management
Regulation, ethics and misinformation in media and telecoms
Legal responsibilities and professional bodies
Goal setting and contracting
Forecasting and planning
Compliance and regulatory projects
Procurement and contract value
Procurement and contract management
Advocacy and policy engagement
Regulatory change management
Employment relationship and the psychological contract
Designing an HR intervention or policy
Data visualisation for finance

Market and Customer Perspective

Customer segmentation and needs analysis
Customer journey and experience design
Managing user and customer expectations
Brand and corporate reputation
Supply market analysis
Market risk and VaR
Building the learning brand
HR's role in culture, values and employer brand
Reputation and personal brand
Buyer behaviour and the customer journey
Voice of the customer and feedback
Customer journey mapping
Voice of the customer programmes
Reducing customer effort
Customer effort and sentiment analysis

Leading Change

Measuring change and project impact
Baseline setting and change control
Sales and marketing transformation
Measuring growth and transformation impact
Communicating financial results
Digital and market transformation
Behaviour change and adoption of innovations
Customer experience transformation
Digital and self-service transformation
Measuring CX transformation impact
Digital transformation in banking
Foreign exchange and treasury operations
Technology governance and change control
Foreign exchange and hedging
Digital transformation roadmaps

Enterprise Performance Management

Sales performance and pipeline management
Social performance and outreach
Measuring IT value and performance
Investment principles and objectives
Performance measurement and attribution
Metrics and reporting
Performance management systems and cycles
Learning KPIs and scorecards
Aligning learning to performance
Performance measurement and KPI dashboards
Continuous feedback and performance conversations
Leading and lagging metrics
Strategy execution and the balanced scorecard
Managing team performance and dynamics
High-performance team rituals and cadence

Talent and Capability

Continuing professional development
Career pathways and professional development
Measuring development impact
The learning and development profession
Feedback and developmental conversations
Career and talent development
Building a coaching culture
Measuring coaching and mentoring impact
Capability and skills frameworks
Talent, succession and workforce learning
Nomination, succession and diversity
Project management plan development
Schedule development and optimisation
Team development and effectiveness
Coaching and developing team members

Operating Model

Operational efficiency and productivity
Reconciliation and end-of-day processes
Operating-model and process re-engineering
Designing a banking solution or process
Principles of credit and the lending process
Automation, RPA and straight-through processing
Process and control documentation
Competitive bidding processes
Business process mapping
The HR function: roles, operating models and value creation
L&D operating models and governance
Continuous improvement of finance processes
Process improvement and HR operating efficiency
Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches
Organisational design and operating models

Technology at Enterprise Level

Branch-to-digital migration
Digital banking platforms and APIs
Payment technology and switches
Cybersecurity and fraud technology
Digital credit and alternative data
Innovation and technology investment
Team leadership in technology
Social and digital PR
Treasury technology and systems
Attachment and developmental theory
Digital permits and inspections
Professional roles, boundaries and settings
Digital transformation and IT strategy
Digital procurement and the future of the profession
Delivering technology change that people adopt

Operating Across Borders

Global and comparative HR contexts
Global sourcing and international trade
International and cross-border tax
Managing boundaries and dual relationships
Peer support and consultation
Duty of care and risk management
Record-keeping and data protection
Complaints, accountability and fitness to practise
Financial modelling and scenario analysis
Sensitivity, scenario and what-if analysis
Client feedback and satisfaction
Managing risk and difficult cases

Negotiation and Difficult Conversations

Negotiation strategy and tactics
Managing conflict constructively
Difficult conversations and feedback
Negotiation and conflict resolution
Negotiation tactics and behaviours
Property viewings, offers and negotiation to close
Managing difficult conversations
Conflicts of interest and procurement ethics
Negotiation and conflict management
Conflict resolution and negotiation
Conflicts of interest and transparency
Negotiation and influencing
Integrity, confidentiality and conflicts
Negotiation with vendors
Working with conflict and change

Standards and Improvement

Supplier development and improvement
Sustainable procurement principles and standards
In-process quality control and inspection
Service quality and the passenger experience in transport
Quality management on site: inspections, hold points and defects
Healthcare quality, safety and accreditation
Reporting quality and governance
Evidence-based improvement
Lessons learned and development
Project management standards (PMI, PRINCE2)
Continuous improvement and retrospectives
Management review and improvement
Integration with quality and environment
Certification and continual improvement
Design review and quality

Ethics and Integrity

Artificial intelligence: capability, limits and responsible use
Ethics and treating customers fairly in insurance
Ethical principles and codes of practice
Sustaining ethical, effective practice
Ethical frameworks and codes of practice
Driving effective, ethical outcomes
Ethical, risk and feasibility considerations
Building trust and engagement
The consulting mindset and trusted advisor positioning
Ethics and independence in advisory relationships
Professional ethics and responsibility (PMI)
Ethics, transparency and reputation
Professional standards and ethics
Marketing and sales ethics
Brand safety and responsible marketing

Portfolio and Delivery Oversight

Onboarding and induction programme design
Psychoeducation and workshops
Designing a safety programme or control
Corporate strategy and portfolio choices
Programme governance
Real estate development and project appraisal
Programme cycle management in NGOs
Working with organisations on wellbeing
Projects and expansion: connecting the unserved
Public health programmes: prevention and outreach
Designing an intervention or programme
Change and adoption in projects
Innovation and continuous delivery
Scaling delivery capability
Building project management maturity

Culture and Engagement

Professional case study and presentation
Managing resistance and engagement
Worker engagement and empowerment
Motivation theories and engagement
Creating a coaching culture
Evidence-based practice
Habit change and behaviour design
Strengths, flow and engagement
Meaning, purpose and values
Structuring engagements: scope, deliverables and expectations
Managing engagement risk and professional liability
Measuring engagement and impact
Learning cultures and the learning organisation
Engagement, motivation and energisers
Employee engagement models and drivers

Growth and Innovation Oversight

Innovation and experimentation in learning
Growth strategy: organic, M&A and partnerships
Business model design and innovation
Emerging tools and innovation
Growth strategy and demand generation
Innovation and new product launch
Capstone scoping: a real growth or brand challenge
Data-driven growth
Risk assessment and safety planning
Managing growth, risk and resilience
Innovation in service delivery
Innovation and fintech collaboration
Supplier development and innovation

Sustainability and Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility and ESG
Treatment planning and review
Sustainability and environmental duty
Environmental management systems (ISO 14001)
Sustainability and climate responsibility
Continuous environmental improvement
Supply markets and the enabling environment
Sustainability and responsible sourcing
Environmental, social and governance (ESG)
Sustainability reporting and disclosure
Embedding sustainability in sourcing
Social media management: platforms, communities and algorithms
Measurement and analytics for media and social campaigns
Integrated and sustainability reporting
The project environment and stakeholders

Teams and Forums

Team formation and effectiveness models (Tuckman, Lencioni)
Cross-functional and matrix teams
Leading remote and hybrid teams
Team diversity and inclusion
Managing complexity and comorbidity
Workplace and organisational contexts
Designing and facilitating groups
Working with referrers and multidisciplinary teams
Collaboration and teamwork
Servant leadership and self-organising teams
Facilitation and workshops
Team leadership in L&D
Facilitation skills and presence
Virtual and hybrid facilitation
Facilitation, coaching and mentoring

Frequently Asked Questions

Common Questions

What is the CSBA certification?

Yes. GLI certifications are recognised across 100+ countries and are aligned with recognised global leadership and management competency frameworks. Graduates receive a digital certificate, a physical certificate and CPD credits recognised by employers worldwide.

Who should enrol in the CSBA?

This certification is ideal for Managers and Team Leaders, Heads of Department and Directors, Senior Executives and Aspiring Leaders and Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, and other professionals seeking to formalise their expertise in strategic leadership, organisational management and business transformation with a globally recognised credential.

How long does the CSBA certification take to complete?

The programme is structured over 12 Weeks and offers flexible learning modes. Self-paced learners can progress at their own schedule, while live virtual participants follow a structured cohort schedule with facilitator-led sessions.

Is the CSBA internationally recognised?

What is the cost of the CSBA certification?

The Certified Strategic Business Advisor is offered in two formats: Self-Paced at USD 449 and Live Virtual at USD 649. Corporate group rates are available for organisations enrolling 5 or more participants. Contact GLI for a bespoke corporate training quotation.

What does the CSBA certification include?

Enrolment includes all study materials and study guides, access to GLI's online learning portal, online examination, digital certificate and badge, physical certificate (posted), CPD credits, GLI alumni network membership, and ongoing facilitator support.

What is the assessment format for the CSBA?

The Certified Strategic Business Advisor is assessed through an online examination consisting of multiple-choice questions, case study analysis, and practical application assignments. The assessment is designed to evaluate real-world competency, not just theoretical recall.

What CPD credits do I earn from the CSBA?

The Certified Strategic Business Advisor carries Continuing Professional Development (CPD) credits, which can be applied towards professional body requirements including recognised international professional associations.

Can I study the CSBA while working full-time?

Absolutely. The self-paced option is designed for busy working professionals and allows you to study when and where it suits you. Live virtual sessions are typically scheduled in the evenings or on weekends to accommodate professional commitments.

What career outcomes can I expect from the CSBA?

Graduates progress towards executive, director and C-suite leadership roles. The CSBA strengthens your expertise in strategic leadership, organisational management and business transformation and positions you for advancement across corporates, public institutions, NGOs and enterprises.

Certified Strategic Business Advisor