Strategic Management Best Practice

Overview

What makes firms successful and what makes them fail or underperform? Strategic management provides some answers to these fundamental management questions. It involves analyzing a firm’s resources and its industry environment to deliver competitive advantage over other firms.

This course addresses the strategic management of organisations, including the formulation of longer term strategic directions, the planning of objectives and supporting strategies, and the control of strategic implementation. It provides learners with an understanding of the approaches and tools for planning and controlling strategy at the organisation and sub-unit levels, as well as experience in case analysis and practical application of planning and control skills. Topics include evaluating the strategic environment, industry and competitive analysis, formulating mission and setting objectives, strategy selection and implementation, and strategic control.

Furthermore, success in the future may well require the firm to change in radical ways and to target different markets with different products and services. This course will give you a holistic view of the firm and will provide you with an understanding of business and corporate strategy.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Understand principal concepts in strategy theory and practice

• Apply these concepts to analyze markets and firms in real life situations

• Design strategies that enable firms to achieve and sustain competitive advantage

• Have awareness of some of the challenges inherent in implementing new strategies

• Discuss strategic issues with colleagues and be able to offer critical insight

COURSE STRUCTURE

Part 1: Industry and competitive analysis

The start of the course will involve an introduction to what strategy actually is. Using economic and management principles, we will then consider methods to analyze the competitive landscape that firms operate in. You will learn how to determine industry attractiveness (i.e. detect profit opportunities; how to identify potential threats to a firm’s profit making abilities; and how to select an appropriate strategic position in relation to an existing industry structure).

Part 2: Core competencies

In this part of the course, we will explore the relationship between competitive advantage and firms’ internal capabilities (also called core competencies). We will look at how firms develop unique and superior resources and capabilities that are difficult for other firms to replicate.

Part 3: Corporate strategy and implementation

This section focuses on common strategic actions that alter the scope of the firm, particularly diversification, mergers, acquisitions and alliances. We will explore how organizational structures and processes influence strategic outcomes and the role of managers as organizational leaders and architects.

Part 4: Strategy and innovation

The ability of a firm to innovate, whether it be through new product development or through organizational innovation, is crucial to sustaining competitive advantage. We will begin by looking at some of the problems that successful firms face and we will consider how firms can get in front and stay ahead of the pack.