Top tutor Chris Cain emphasises that in the ACCA’s Strategic Business Leader (SBL) exam there are no marks for knowledge, unless they are applied.
SBL is one of the most practical ACCA exams students sit. The SBL examiners constantly inform students and trainers that there are ‘no mark awarded for knowledge unless its applied’.
So, what does that mean in relation to a Task that appeared in the SBL September 2023 exam – Corjetz? (This pre-seen and task can be found in the SBL exam resources.)
The Task
Note that there are three parts to the Task:
1 The preamble
2 The Task
3 The Professional skills
Understanding that the three parts are all relevant and interconnect is critical when planning an answer. Note, in this illustration, the statement in the Task: “the impact that the current CEO’s leadership style has had on Corjetz’s culture” is emphasised in the Professional skills: “the impact of leadership style on Corjetz’s culture”.
Given that there are no marks for knowledge unless applied, students must avoid doing a memory dump of everything they know about the ‘cultural web’ and/ or the different styles of leadership, such as coercive, directive, participative and collaborative. Although students never lose marks, they certainly won’t collect any for statements such as: “Culture can be defined as the way we do things around here and the
cultural web is an excellent model to consider in the case of Corjetz.”
No marks for this statement!
Or: “There are a number of different leadership styles that the CEO in Corjetz can adopt, such as tell, sell, consult or join”.
No marks for this statement!
The solution
To collect marks, knowledge must be applied to the pre-seen information and the relevant Exhibit(s) in the context of the task.
The following Exhibit is relevant to this Task:
Based upon the above, the following is a brief excerpt from one of my student’s answers who I have taught the SRriIC process and how to apply knowledge.
Briefing Note
Prepared for: Chief People Officer (CPO)
Prepared By: Senior Business Analyst
Date: September 20X3
Problems caused by the previous leadership style at Cortetz
Loss of Talented Staff
One of the main problems caused by the previous leadership style adopted at Corjetz of ‘punishment’ rather than ‘reward’ was the significant loss of talented staff.
This was a major problem because it would have had a negative impact on the motivation of employed Corjetz staff in suggesting ways of improving operations and in-flight services.
A major consequence of losing talented staff is the increased cost of talent management, ranging from initially attracting staff, going through induction at Corjetz to motivating them to undertake their role at Corjetz effectively.
Note: the above excerpt from my student’s answer has the appropriate format, the use of headings and sub-headings and applies SRriIC. The above is likely to be awarded two technical marks because it is answering the task requirement, and well on the way to collect the four professional skills marks.
- Chris Cain, the creator of SRriIC©, is an experienced ACCA lecturer and has trained SBL prizewinners. WhatsApp: +44 7973 508793
