Explores how artificial intelligence (AI) empowers businesses to enhance competitiveness. Examines how AI integrates with business strategy. Offers students an opportunity to recommend business solutions through the integration of AI capabilities. Focuses on leveraging machine learning techniques like unsupervised, supervised, and reinforcement learning for data-driven insights. Examines the intersection of managerial practices and AI capabilities through real-world case studies. Students also have an opportunity to gain practical insights into implementation and ethical considerations and navigate the dynamic landscape of AI-driven business transformations.
The value chain is a powerful way to determine how companies compete. The value chain method structures the firm into distinct activities and enables us to clearly identify how a firm pursues a business strategy.
By focusing on how companies individually execute and collectively coordinate primary and support activities in the value chain, you will be better-equipped to examine how effectively a firm operates to serve market needs.
Syllabus - Aligning Business Strategy for AI Integration•10 minutes
Academic Integrity•1 minute
Module 1 Overview•1 minute
Module 1 Readings•18 minutes
Exploring the Value Chain•6 minutes
The Value Chain Enables More Specific Diagnoses of Value Creation•3 minutes
Cost Leadership vs. Differentiation Strategy•8 minutes
3 assignments•Total 40 minutes
The Value Chain Quiz•30 minutes
Check Your Knowledge: The Value Chain and AI•4 minutes
Check Your Knowledge: Value Chain & Competitive Advantage•6 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Meet Your Fellow Learners•10 minutes
The External Environment: General and Industry
Module 2•2 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, we introduce the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) framework as a tool to formulate firm strategy. A firm’s external operating environment is systematically considered to identify opportunities and threats. The general environment is examined using the PESTEL (Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Environmental, and Legal) framework and the industry environment is examined using Porter’s Five Forces model of industry competitiveness. These factors in the external environment are the W and T of SWOT.
What's included
1 video5 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
1 video•Total 4 minutes
The External Environment•4 minutes
5 readings•Total 49 minutes
Module 2 Overview•1 minute
Module 2 Readings•21 minutes
The External Environment: SWOT•7 minutes
The External Environment: Formulating Strategy•10 minutes
The Industry Environment: Porter's Five Forces/Factors Framework•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 30 minutes
Check Your Knowledge: External Factors•30 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Value Chain and External & Industry Analysis•10 minutes
The Internal environment: Resources, Capabilities, & Core Competence
Module 3•3 hours to complete
Module details
In this module, we cover how a firm’s internal environment is considered using the Resource-Based View (RBV) to identify strengths and weaknesses that correspond to the S and W elements of SWOT.
What's included
1 video4 readings3 assignments1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
1 video•Total 3 minutes
The Internal Environment•3 minutes
4 readings•Total 75 minutes
Module 3 Overview•1 minute
Module 3 Readings•60 minutes
Strengths and Weaknesses•10 minutes
Integrating AI, Machine Learning, and Analytics•4 minutes
3 assignments•Total 36 minutes
The Internal Environment Quiz•30 minutes
Check Your Knowledge: Internal Environment •3 minutes
Once we have all S, W, O, and T factors identified, we relate S factors to the other three W, O, and T factors. This SWOT matrix method assists in identification of firm capabilities that can lead to competitive advantage in the form of a special capability that is called a core competence.
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