Business Strategy

This course is about business (or competitive) strategy. The goal of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills on which to evaluate and make strategic decisions that concern the success of a business in a given industry.

You will learn to undertake several types of strategic analyses, to understand issues such as the following:

·       whether a given industry (or segment) is profitable or not

·       how a firm should compete in an industry to create competitive advantage

·       how a firm should respond to opportunities and threats

·       how to shape a business model that fits with the external environment and the internal capabilities

·       how to evaluate strategic options and arrive at clear recommendations for the future.

 ·       Have a good knowledge of the key concepts, evaluation criteria and frameworks that form part of modern-day competitive strategy analysis

·       Identify a company’s current competitive strategy

·       Assess whether that competitive strategy is fundamentally sound or not, and make recommendations

·       Identify how the business is likely to evolve, the implications for current strategies and how to respond.

In presence

Sessions cover theory, business case discussions, expert talks, and group presentations

·      20% team project presentation: In a team, you will analyze the competitive strategy of a company of your choice using the class concepts and theories 

·      80% individual exam: The exam will be multiple-choice and will cover the concepts and theories articulated in class and in the textbook (selected chapters only), and application to cases.