Do you talk strategy with your clients? Why not?

This course gives you the keys to developing your ability to advise your clients, internal or external, on their business strategies. Instructor Blair Cook discusses strategic management principles in a practical context for small- and medium-sized business application, and focus on the essentials you need to know to participate, facilitate, and converse with your clients about their strategy. This is an outstanding opportunity to further add value to your client relationship.

We cover:

  • How to assess your client's current and future strategy
  • Strategy development
  • Performance management

You learn to gather information, analyze data, and provide value-added advice to your clients. You also receive a turnkey strategic management toolkit that you can put to use right away with your clients, including the 20 key questions that all good strategies need to address.

Learning Objectives
  • Recognize elements of your expertise that enable your client's strategic management process
  • Define elements of a good strategic planning process
  • Identify how to advise your clients on developing and executing strategy
Last updated/reviewed: March 12, 2024
32 Reviews (128 ratings)

Reviews

4
Member's Profile
Good overview of strategy. Very basic, but still useful. It's nitpicking, but the instructor is a little difficult to listen to. I think he's trying to be enthusiastic, but it comes off as almost yelling the whole time and is rather annoying. While a lot of discussion of very basic strategy concepts were discussed, there wasn't much on how to convince clients to hire us as strategy consultants.

4
Anonymous Author
I worked for a company which said they had a strategic plan but then showed in many ways that they did not (through their seat of the pant decisions that were constantly moving them in many different directions - many of which did not work well together). Too bad they did not have a good strategic advisor working with them.

5
Member's Profile
This course has been an eye opener to me and it will enable my firm to start offering value added services to our clients. In this new age offering only traditional services such as accounting, bookkeeping and tax services might not be enough and might be the reason why small firms struggle.

5
Member's Profile
I was able to follow along with the presenter and scroll through the slides at the same time which reinforced the learning of the information rich content. This is a great deal of very useful material that I can apply daily!

4
Anonymous Author
The instructor's tone, while undoubtedly intended to be engaging, is distracting. The course feels like listening to an infomercial. But, it covers good material and includes a helpful toolkit.

5
Member's Profile
Mr. Cook has done it again. An outstanding, non-intimidating overview of the entire strategic planning process in a well-structured 90 minute presentation.

5
Member's Profile
Very thoughtful and articulate presentation of usable insights. The summary of a very difficult subject was well developed and the handouts are very useful.

4
Anonymous Author
A lot of information packed into this course! Blair Cook provides excellent insight into providing strategic management services to clients. Well done!

5
Anonymous Author
Very well presented and thoughtful. The supporting materials are a great takeaway and provide a lot of practical value after the course is finished.

4
Anonymous Author
Very interesting however I think more time should be spent on how to help clients and to give examples of strategy consulting for clients.

5
Member's Profile
Very helpful - would like to see more trainings on how strategic thinkers with CPA background can add value to their organizations.

4
Anonymous Author
Great introductory course on strategy for businesses. I would highly recommend to those interested in the topic.

4
Anonymous Author
Fairly general and high level, but a good refresher course on SWOT/BCG Matrix/Porter's 5 forces, etc

4
Anonymous Author
overall it was a good course and i general, I appreciate all the courses from this professor

4
Anonymous Author
I do not work in the Financial Industry yet this information was very relevant to me.

5
Anonymous Author
This provided a good background to client advisory and the SWOT analysis was helpful.

5
Member's Profile
Great course on strategic planning with a really useful and practical 2 page tool.

4
Member's Profile
The course reinforced the need to write down and communicate strategic plans

5
Member's Profile
Enjoyed the class and especially appreciate the tools and materials provided

5
Anonymous Author
great course with helpful insights, thank you to the presenter and content

4
Anonymous Author
These tools are very useful. I plan to apply them in my organization.

5
Anonymous Author
great course --complex concepts but made interesting by instructor

4
Anonymous Author
Wet good overview of the topic with excellent support materials

5
Anonymous Author
very well organized and explained and informative. I loved it.

5
Member's Profile
good overall overview and examples throughout the presentation

4
Anonymous Author
Really great course.This course will help me with my clients.

5
Anonymous Author
Excellent overview, especially good for new team members.

4
Member's Profile
Slides with lots of information, but interesting topic.

5
Member's Profile
nice review of strategic concepts

5
Anonymous Author
excellent course!

4
Member's Profile
Good thoughts

4
Anonymous Author
Good content

Prerequisites
Course Complexity: Intermediate

Prerequisite: Business experience

 

Advanced Preparation: None

 

Education Provider Information
Company: Illumeo, Inc., 75 East Santa Clara St., Suite 1215, San Jose, CA 95113
Contact: For more information regarding this course, including complaint and cancellation policies, please contact our offices at (408) 400- 3993 or send an e-mail to .
Instructor for this course
Course Syllabus
INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
Understanding Strategy
  What is strategy?8:05
  Mission, Vision, and Values7:14
Assess, Develop, Manage
  Current State Assessment7:28
  Strategy Development10:51
  Performance Management7:48
CONCLUSION
  Supplemental: Using the Strategic Advisory Toolkit5:43
SUPPORTING MATERIALS
  Slides: Strategic Advisory PDF
  Strategic Advisory Glossary/IndexPDF
  Strategic Advisory ToolkitDOCX
REVIEW & TEST
  REVIEW QUESTIONSquiz
 FINAL EXAMexam