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About the content
Develop your ability to think strategically, analyze the competitive environment, and recommend firm positioning and value creation. In this course, we will explore the underlying theory and frameworks that provide the foundations of a successful business strategy and provide the tools you need to understand that strategy: SWOT, Competitor, Environmental, Five Forces, and Capabilities Analyses, as well as Strategy Maps. We'll apply these tools in case studies of industry leaders Google, Redhook, Piaggio and Apple.
Syllabus
- Week 1 - Introduction to Strategic Analysis
Welcome to the first module in the Foundations course. In this module, we'll discuss the meaning and importance of business strategy to an organization's competitive positioning. You'll learn about the strategic analysis and the SWOT, competitor, and environme... - Week 2 - Analyzing Industry Structure
Hello and welcome back. In this module, we'll explore how to assess an industry's structure and how the competitive dynamics in an industry affect profitability. We'll go into depth with the five forces tool, a common and highly influential analytical framewor... - Week 3 - Analyzing Firm Capabilities
Welcome! In this module, we'll examine the tangible and intangible assets that form an organization's strength. We'll show you in depth how to complete a capabilities analysis and how to use this analysis to guide decision making. In the Apple case study you'l... - Week 4 - Determining Competitive Position
Welcome to the final module. In these lessons, we'll explore firms' competitive positioning relative to rivals and analyze the advantages and disadvantages of four generic competitive positions firms occupy. We'll use an easy and intuitive tool--strategy maps-...
Instructors
Michael Lenox
Senior Associate Dean and Chief Strategy Officer
Darden School of Business
Jared Harris
Samuel L. Slover Research Chair in Business Administration
Darden School of Business
Content designer
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