STRAT 6071 - Business Strategy

Business Strategy adopts the perspective of the chief executive and challenges the student to evaluate the competitive environment, evaluate the firm's core skills and capabilities, and to craft a strategy that will allow the firm to leverage its competitive advantages over time. The course begins with an introduction to the core concepts and tools of competitive analysis, and then illustrates the application of these tools to the host of questions the chief executive must answer in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. The first part of the course focuses on business-level strategy, which explores how to create and sustain competitive advantage in undiversified firms. Topics addressed in this portion of the class include industry dynamics, identification of competitively valuable skills, resources, and capabilities, technology strategy, and trade-offs among various business level strategies. The second part of the course focuses on corporate strategy, which is concerned with the complex and challenging task of managing the diversified (multi-product) firm. Topics addressed include vertical integration, diversification, and globalization strategies.