The increasing flow of business information has caused many executives losing their direction and being unable to make proactive decisions. For example, while the issue of rescheduling foreign debt is still unsettled, a new threat of a second financial crisis has emerged to affecting Asia. While an investment in the expansion of production facilities is being approved, the market suddenly shows sign of slowing; or while sales are on the rise, a new competitor suddenly emerges with better quality product at lower prices.

To deal with an ever-changing business environment, executives need to equip themselves with new strategic business analysis capabilities; i.e. the ability to analyze different factors in business that will help in the understanding, interpretation and characterization of strategic issues that determine the survival of a company. Only when business executive understand these strategic issues will they be able to survive and thrive amid the storm of information.

Strategic-management process canbe described as anobjective, logical, systematic approach for making major decisions in an organization. It attempts to organize qualitative and quantita-tive information in a way that allows effective decisions to be made under conditions of uncertainty.

Nevertheless, strategic management is not a pure science that lends itself to a nice, neat, one-two-three approach. Based on past experiences, judgment, and feelings, intuition is essential to making good strategic decisions. Intuition is particularly useful for making decisions in situations of great uncertainty or little precedent. Although some organizations today may survive and prosper because they have intuitive geniuses managing them, most are not so fortunate. Most organizations can benefit from strategic management, which is based upon integrating intuition and analysis in decision making. Choosing an intuitive or analytic approach to decision making is not an either or proposition. Managers at all levels in an organization inject their intuition and judgment into strategic-management analyses. Analytical thinking and intuitive thinking complement each other.

This course includes a study of strategic planning including mission statement development, analysis of the external environment and internal organizational factors, development of strategic alternatives, selection of appropriate alternatives, implementation of strategies, and competitive strategies and dynamics. Special emphases are given to the integration and coordination of the functional areas within the enterprise. The case method will be used to provide practical experience in analysis and decision-makingin the solution of business problems.

The participants by the end of the course program shall undertake the certification exam for proving that they have fulfilled the standard requirement as strategic business analyst.

The AAFM® certification process, administered by GAFM Board, identifies to the public that those individuals who have been authorized to use the AAFM® certification marks in the globe have met rigorous professional standards and have agreed to adhere to the principles of integrity, objectivity, competence, fairness, confidentiality, professionalism and diligence when dealing with clients.