How finance can drive strategy, not just report on it

A practical introduction to Strategic Management Accounting using Dynamic Business Models

You'll discover why today's financial planning and analysis tools and strategy methods cannot answer management's most important questions—and how simple business simulations can.

A 90-minute, self-paced course

See the business – think ahead ...

A dynamic business model shows how today's decisions create tomorrow's results.

It connects the financial results back to the real world system that drives them

... and to the decisions that steer its behaviour

... explaining the past and exploring the future.

The challenge facing modern finance

Senior managers don't just ask:

  • What happened?
  • Why did it happen?

Increasingly they want to know:

  • What happens if we cut prices? 
  • How fast should we recruit before demand grows? 
  • What will make this improvement programme succeed? 
  • What tactics will fight off a tough new competitor? 
  • How can this investment pay back faster?

These are strategic questions.

Traditional accounting systems, dashboards, budgets and KPIs were never designed to answer them.

The missing capability

The missing link isn't more data ... It isn't AI ... It isn't another dashboard.

It is a working model of how the business actually behaves.

Dynamic business models capture the causal relationships between customers, staff, products, capacity, cash, profits and many other resources. They are sometimes called "digital twins" because they mimic the behaviour of all significant parts of the business system—and the results it generates.

 Once built, they let you explore alternative futures and strategies before committing real money and effort.

See it working ...

Watch a short demonstration of a business model answering questions that conventional finance tools simply cannot.

What you will learn

After completing this short course you'll understand:

  • Why strategic management accounting has struggled to fulfil its promise.
  • Why budgets, forecasts and KPIs cannot capture how businesses evolve over time.  
  • How dynamic business models overcome those limitations.  
  • How finance professionals can provide stronger support for strategic decision making.  
  • How these models work alongside existing accounting and planning systems.

Who should take this course?

This course is designed for:

  • Finance Directors 
  • Management Accountants 
  • FP&A professionals 
  • Business Analysts 
  • Commercial Finance teams 
  • Consultants supporting strategic planning

Why this matters now

Businesses are investing heavily in AI, analytics and planning software.

But none of these technologies can produce reliable strategic advice unless they first understand how the business actually works.  

Dynamic business models give that understanding.  

They become the engine behind better plans, better initiatives and better strategic decisions.

Check out the course content ...

Kim Warren

Kim is an experienced strategy professional, teacher and publisher of online courses and teaching resources on business modeling – fast becoming a main-stream capability for executives, consultants and business students. He also offers resources to help model non-business challenges, notably in health-care and international aid.

After senior corporate strategy roles, Kim joined London Business School, to teach on MBA and Executive programs. To overcome serious limitations with standard strategy methods, he developed the powerful strategy dynamics modelling method for designing and managing strategy for any organisation or challenge. Once a specialist skill, building these simulations is now easier, faster and more reliable than spreadsheet modeling. Such models mimic real-world behaviour and performance of businesses and other organisations with uncanny realism.

Kim is author of the prize-winning Competitive Strategy Dynamics (Wiley, 2002), a major strategy textbook Strategic Management Dynamics (Wiley, 2008), and summary e-book now widely used in MBA and executive teaching – Strategy Dynamics Essentials (Kindle, 2011). He is also co-founder of Strategy Dynamics Ltd, which publishes "serious games" and online courses exploiting the user-friendly modelling application, Silico.

Course Pricing

full price

£40

  • full price for the SMA minicourse

Buy Now

© 2026 SD Courses