In this course you will learn how organizations create, capture, and maintain value. In doing so, you’ll develop an understanding of how and why this process is fundamental for sustainable competitive advantage. You will be able to better understand value creation, and capture and learn the tools to analyze both competition and cooperation from a variety of perspectives, including the industry-level (e.g., five forces analysis) and the firm-level (e.g., business models and strategic positioning).
This course is part of the Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization
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Strategic Leadership and Management SpecializationUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-ChampaignAbout this Course
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100% online
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Course 5 of 7 in the
Approx. 18 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
Skills you will gain
- Strategic Management
- Business Model
- Strategic Thinking
- Business Strategy
Flexible deadlines
Reset deadlines in accordance to your schedule.
Shareable Certificate
Earn a Certificate upon completion
100% online
Start instantly and learn at your own schedule.
Course 5 of 7 in the
Approx. 18 hours to complete
English
Subtitles: Arabic, French, Vietnamese, German, Russian, English, Spanish
Offered by
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is a world leader in research, teaching and public engagement, distinguished by the breadth of its programs, broad academic excellence, and internationally renowned faculty and alumni. Illinois serves the world by creating knowledge, preparing students for lives of impact, and finding solutions to critical societal needs.
Start working towards your Master's degree
This course is part of the 100% online Master of Business Administration (iMBA) from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
If you are admitted to the full program, your courses count towards your degree learning.
Syllabus - What you will learn from this course
2 hours to complete
Course Orientation
You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.
2 hours to complete
3 videos (Total 11 min), 6 readings, 1 quiz
4 hours to complete
Module 1: Leading Strategically
The Leading Strategically module will lay the foundation of business strategy course. You will learn about mission, vision and values and their role in overall strategy landscape. You will learn about the VARS framework for analyzing business models and SWOT framework for understanding the fit and coherence of business strategy.
4 hours to complete
12 videos (Total 73 min), 4 readings, 2 quizzes
4 hours to complete
Module 2: External Analysis
The Environmental Analysis module will focus on a key aspect of business strategy – analyzing and understanding the external environment of a firm. You will learn about the macro-environment of firms and the PESTEL framework for macro-environmental analysis. You will also learn about firms’ industry environment and understand how to predict industry profitability by using the 5-forces framework.
4 hours to complete
9 videos (Total 83 min), 4 readings, 2 quizzes
3 hours to complete
Module 3: Internal Analysis and Competitive Advantage
The module on Internal Analysis and Competitive Advantage will provide an in-depth understanding of the origins of unique company strengths and how they can produce a competitive advantage. You will learn about the origins and consequences of fundamental internal differences among firms using the analytical viewpoints of activities, resources, and capabilities. You will be introduced to the strategic tools of value chains, value networks, and the V-R-I framework to help you analyze the implications of these within-firm differences for (sustained) competitive advantage.
3 hours to complete
8 videos (Total 64 min), 4 readings, 2 quizzes
5 hours to complete
Module 4: Strategic Positioning and Strategic Renewal
The Strategic Positioning and Strategic Renewal module brings together the internal and external aspects of strategic analysis to formulate an overall strategy for the firm. You will learn about the two main “generic strategies” that businesses can pursue, which can be complemented by broad or narrow scope to yield four key types of strategic positioning. You will also learn about “dual” strategies and why and how a firm's strategy must be adapted to strategically renew its positioning.
5 hours to complete
11 videos (Total 72 min), 6 readings, 2 quizzes
Reviews
- 5 stars82.42%
- 4 stars14.84%
- 3 stars1.82%
- 2 stars0.57%
- 1 star0.34%
TOP REVIEWS FROM BUSINESS STRATEGY
by KPJun 4, 2018
The topics presented in this course were very interesting, however some of the content needs to be updated. For example, Uber now has UberEats, which I don't believe was reflected in the course.
by SDNov 28, 2020
Highly recommended course material. Really enjoyed solving the case studies. The learning from the course on different frameworks was immense. Also the feedback from the peers provided more insights.
by EEOct 8, 2018
Enjoyed this course and the presentation of it. The writing assignments did get a bit cumbersome at times, but did fortify retention of the information presented for me.
by JTNov 9, 2017
Great course. Best conductor so far in the specialization. Lecture, materials, evaluations are all where and how they are suppose to be. Kuddos Professor Deepak Somaya!!
About the Strategic Leadership and Management Specialization
Through this 6-course Specialization in Strategic Leadership and Management, you will learn the fundamentals of effectively leading people, teams, and organizations and develop tools to analyze business situations. In addition to building a conceptual framework for leadership, learners will develop and practice strategies for immediate impact. The Specialization covers the strategic, human resource, and organizational foundations for creating and capturing value for sustainable competitive advantage both within a single business and across a portfolio of businesses.
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