This course is about business strategy, which concerns the following questions: Why does one company outperform its competitors? What makes one company fail while others succeed?
Over the course of the semester, we will rely on case studies, theory, real world examples, and classroom discussion to answer these questions. The purpose of the course is to give you an overview of the discipline of business strategy and its most prevalent tools to understand the WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, HOW and TO WHAT EXTENT of strategic thinking. We will kick off the semester with what is meant by STRATEGY. Subsequently, we will discuss existing frameworks that can help you make sense of the vast amount of information needed to identify, formulate, develop and implement strategy. Case studies of real companies will help us apply these frameworks and make sense of strategic situations and outcomes. Lastly, you will be asked to refine your strategic thinking by adopting the role of strategy consultant in a real-world project. Working in teams, you will put together a strategic analysis of an assigned public company. This analysis will prompt you to apply the frameworks and models to develop a top-down and bottom-up report of a company’s industry location, core competencies, challenges and opportunities, and competitive environment. This project will tie together the diverse parts of the course. In addition, it will provide you with a ‘product’ to take with you when you enter your job search.
- Teacher: Michael Braun