Description
The purpose of this course is to present, analyze and discuss the different facets of business strategy formulation. Emphasizing that strategy can be seen as a unified theme that provides coherence and direction to the actions and decisions of a firm, we will cover a variety of business strategy topics concerned with firm positioning in the context of different markets, industries and locations.
At the end of the course, you will be able to:
– Identify why a strong strategy is essential for the future business success
– Formulate a business strategy that suits the needs and visions of your organization
– Explain why managers too often formulate sub-optimal strategies
– Extrapolate measures to optimize current business strategies
Workload: 2-4 hours per week.
What you will learn
Introducing strategy formulation
In the first module of this course, we will examine and discuss the foundations of strategy formulation, emphasizing key concepts such as competitive advantage, value creation, planned vs emerging strategy, and strategic fit.
Industry analysis
Building on the insights generated in the first session, in the second module we explore different industrial organization frameworks and discuss the importance of industry effects on firm performance. Keywords of this module include competition, industry attractiveness, and the ‘Five forces’-framework.
Resources and capabilities
The purpose of this session is to understand the role of firm resources and capabilities in building and formulating a strong strategy. In particular, we will discuss concepts such as the value chain, core capabilities, heterogeneous resources, and the VRIO framework.
Global strategies and the multinational corporation
The opportunities and challenges of operating internationally are substantially different to the domestic context. Thus, to understand strategy in a global context, we focus on the multinational corporation and discuss strategic terms like foreign entry mode, location strategies, global integration/local adaptation, and distance.
