Manage a 21st century business strategy. Develop and implement an innovative business approach in just three courses.
Suggested by: Coursera (What is Coursera?)
No prior knowledge required
No unnecessary risks
The world of business strategy is changing. What worked in the past doesn’t necessarily work today. This course prepares you to think strategically in an era where companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft are worth more than companies like Exxon. Today, business value and competitive advantage are often created by consumers’ perceptions of what is considered “impressive,” rather than by physical assets or the size of the economy.
In this course – the first of three courses in a specialization specifically designed for the era of creativity and innovation – you will prepare for the challenges of formulating and implementing strategy in 21st century businesses.
The purpose of this course is to present, analyze, and discuss the various aspects of formulating a business strategy. We emphasize that strategy can be interpreted as a universal theme that provides coherence and direction to a company’s actions and decisions. We will touch on a variety of topics related to business strategy in the context of the company’s position in the market, industries, and different locations.
2-4 hours a week.
Even a fully developed business strategy can fail if you don’t pay enough attention to its implementation. This is especially true for strategies that are based on innovation or that are designed for complex or rapidly changing environments.
In the 1920s, successful implementation relied on stability and was often achieved through hierarchy and control. Today, the key is to remain dynamic and able to respond quickly to competitive and technological trends, without losing sight of the strategic objective. In this course, we will build a toolbox for implementing today’s business strategies to help them succeed.
In this final project course, we will return to the strategic conflict in e-Types, which was introduced in the first course in this specialization, Strategic Management, and analyzed in each of the subsequent courses, Strategy Formulation and Strategy Implementation. After we expose and analyze what happened in e-Types, we will move on to a new set of strategic cases that differ in company size, geography, and focus. For your final project, we ask you to apply everything you have learned in this specialization and analyze your choice of one of these four situations.
