Learner Reviews & Feedback for Foundations of Business Strategy by University of Virginia

The course content is very good and well presented BUT the course requirement of submitting 3 peer reviews is not practicable at all. I have been trying to find assignments to review for almost a week and there are none. This unnecessarily delays me finishing the course, which will in turn lead to me having to pay for another month's subscription. I am very disappointed in this and I wish course requirements would be adjusted for future students.

The material of the course exceeded my expectations, however I do not give it 5 stars because I was a bit surprised by the space Coursera takes in the certificate. In my case, I decided to take it because I had understood that this is a 100% Virginia's University course just available via Coursera's platform. However the certificate says otherwise. It looks more as a Coursera's course, just endorsed by UV.

Purely academic, has very little to do with actual business strategy. None of the trainers has business experience to share which makes this course irrelevant.

I gained much from this course. However, the final assignment is quite difficult to complete for students with no access to data on companies and industries. Had that been readily available (without an exorbitant fee to data providers), I would have rated the course with 4 stars.

I had completed by full-time MBA 18 years back but thanks to this course, now I realize how beautifully tools like SWOT, Competitor, Environmental, Five Forces, and Capabilities Analyses, as well as Strategy Maps come together to help us analyze the competitive environment for an organization, think strategically and understand (and recommend) firm positioning and value creation. Thank you !

Develop your ability to think strategically, analyze the competitive environment, and recommend firm positioning and value creation. In this course, we will explore the underlying theory and frameworks that provide the foundations of a successful business strategy and provide the tools you need to understand that strategy: SWOT, Competitor, Environmental, Five Forces, and Capabilities Analyses, as well as Strategy Maps. We'll apply these tools in case studies of industry leaders Google, Redhook, Piaggio and Apple.

This highly effectual MOOC course from University of Virginia covers most of the prominent aspects of Business Strategy from the way to use the Porter's Five Forces impact, SWOT, competitor, and environmental analysis tools to complete capabilities analysis leading to proper decision making. In the peer-graded assignment, I had to assess an industry's structure [I selected CBC Tiles & banglalink for my assignments] and how the competitive dynamics in an industry affect profitability. I also analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of four generic competitive positions based on what I have taught in the course. Thanks to the instructors for offering their time and skills.

Really enjoyed this course, the Professors are awesome presenting in a very clear, comprehensive way. Learned alot! I feel like they are training me to become a high tech executive/analyst. Thank you!

Great insight of the basic tools covering all important aspects, both professors have discussed fundamental needs of the topic around Business Strategy, keen to learn rest of the courses and excited.

Excellent course contents! The materials were crisp and concise. The instructors did a great job in delivering the key points , especially quoting examples that made their points easy to understand.

Overall, the contents are too fluffy and not very tangible. I appreciate though putting the tools into action and having to work on the competitive position assignment, it provides great insights on what matters in a competitive market. As an optimization proposal I suggest to cover the resources of week one, like terms and formulas. That is much more crucial than some of the fluffy contents. Also the companies discussed during the course should not be more known global companies (like Redhook, or the food market examples), hence not to restrict it to USA.

The Foundations of Business Strategy course captures the basic essence of the knowledge of a firm's capabilities with respect to the industry, competition, capabilities and many more business indicators. The best part is that it equips you with the knowledge of the application of various analysis tools that come handy in understanding the competitive positioning of an organization or its product.

I am very pleased and happy to have completed this course. Amazing online support with study materials, high quality tutorial videos, module quizzes and a very interesting mechanism of submission and evaluation of the final assignment.

I would like to express my gratitude for your financial support for this course. It is because of your generosity that I am able to complete my course within a stipulated time. I would like to take this opportunity and thank each and every member of coursea, you helping me a lot in terms of my career building. Looking forward to studying further Thanks.

I would like to thank my instructor, because of them I was able to understand the depth of the course. I very much appreciated all the effort which they have provided in terms of notes and real examples. it was very informative as well very helpful.

This course was extremely helpful to understand the key aspects of how and why firms do what they do for profitability and growth. I learnt a lot about the importance of industry structure and how it drives the competition within it. This was my first course related to management as I'm aiming to pursue a career in the same, and after completing this course I can say that I know what to expect out of this career option. Also, Prof. Mike and Jared's way of explaining concepts was great which made this course easy going.

I highly recommend this course. It really helped me review the business strategy concepts. I had taken this course in my MBA program. This course really refreshed my knowledge and understanding. Course is delivered in a very methodical and professional manner. Both professors are very effective in teaching the course topics. Case study selection is very thoughtful and insightful. It is a great learning opportunity.

Great introduction to the world of Business Strategy: both instructors are really engaging and passionate about the course concepts. The cases are interesting and the final assignment is a great way to implement the topics that you will learn throughout the course (Five Forces, Capability Analysis, Competitors' Dynamics, Environment Analysis, etc).

This course is essential for all business aspirants, students, and entrepreneurs. With this course, you will be able to understand the industry and firm capabilities which is a key learning to implement our strategic ideas and developments to a new business or already existing businesses. I highly recommend this for a fruitful business career.

As an entry level strategic consultant I've found this course to be a very useful introduction to the core principles of business strategy. The pace of the course is challenging but manageable. The content was well explained and there were some great take-aways in terms of slide decks and sources of information. Thanks

This Course is the perfect starter for any novice like me, who wants to get the basic fundamentals on business strategy. I have implemented a lot of things learned from this course in my day to day work. Thank you Darden School Of business for building this marvelous course. Personal thanks to Professor Mike lenox.

This course is very helpful. It emanates from the strategist' mind. The way this course empowers a person is phenomenal. I personally learnt a lot with this course and hope to learn further as well.

Very good course structure. Good lectures and lecturers. Good additional material and in general a very interesting course on the foundations of Business Strategy. Highly recommended!

A great introduction to business strategy tools (which gets exponentially more complex when you apply them in the follow-on course!). I really appreciated the deep but approachable theoretical discussions of economic rents, and the professor's serious efforts to bring together business and economic principles. As a former student of economics, it gave me a great anchor point in the course.

While I really appreciate the case-based method, the volume of students just isn't high enough to allow for much vigorous discussion on the forums (or wasn't for me). I would highly recommend taking the course with a friend or colleague and setting aside time to connect each week to get the most out of the case discussions.

Was looking for the right course that sharpens my knowledge on Business Strategy and also get a formal recognition for the same. Coursera provided me the platform and the rest was easy. I am happy with the high standard of teaching and evaluation followed at Coursera, which is an ideal mix of Classroom kind of learning and professional assignments. Tests and Peer review of assignments of fellow learners, enables additional learning. This course has provided me the requisite sharpening of my skills, that I can now apply better within my organization. I would strongly want to recommend this course to other learners and be a mentor to others in the journey.

Really enjoyed taking this course. The course material was well-explained in the videos, and the assignments and final case study did a stand-up job of covering all of the material.

Granted, I already have an undergraduate degree in business, but I found this course to be a fantastic refresher for the 3 strategy courses that had begun to fade from memory in the 3 years since I finished university.

A big 'thank you!' to the Darden School of Business - I've no doubt that I'll be looking for other courses of interest offered from your team, once returning to the office in the new-year.

Kevin

Hello

I would love to finish this AWESOME class but I can't. My brother committed suicide on March 26, 2020.

It has become an almost impossible task to try and finish in time. Trying to perform even the easiest of tasks has become a nightmare. Right now, I'm just trying to survive and function through my other job during this trying time for myself, family, my extended family, and my fellow employees. I don't desire to become a liability to my employees by making a incorrect choice that can have dramatic consequences. Thank You for your understanding. Matt Winkeler

As a newbie in coursera, I must say at the beginning, I had doubts about the learning methods and how good the content could be. I ended this first module definitely knowing more, I found myself confident to articulate and analyze ideas using business language. Content structure,exercises and videos at pretty well organized. The weekly quiz allows me to study, read notes again and really prove I understood the concepts. I even understand better what my company is going thru and doing to have a better competitive position in the market. Awesome learning experience!