Foundations of Strategy

(1.5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Strategic management deals with the organization, management, and strategic positioning of the firm so as to gain long-term competitive advantage. Many of your business courses emphasize a specialized, functional perspective of business situations (e.g., marketing, human resources, accounting, finance, operations management). In this course, we integrate these acquired skills by taking the perspective of a general manager (or, equivalently, a management consultant). General managers are responsible for setting the goals, objectives, and strategies of the organizations they lead as well as the implementation and execution of such plans. To do this, managers must be capable of understanding and utilizing the knowledge from each of the organization's functional areas to develop a cohesive and effective competitive strategy. In addition, they must be able to analyze competitive situations within industries in order to understand the sources of the firm's competitive advantage. In today's business environment, whether you are a new hire, consultant, or the CEO, you must be capable of thinking strategically.