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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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!

I am a 10-year business professional in sales/business development. This class was excellent. All of my knowledge has been accumulated through "common sense" or "learning on the go", so it was extremely valuable to revisit the core fundamentals of what is value, what is strategy, and frameworks that can be used to perform strategic analysis. I highly recommend this course for those who want to establish a structured understanding of the business environment around them.

I have taken several classes here and I have to say this is one of the best. As an Introduction, the topics are presented clearly in a concise yet with enough detail to make the course worthwhile and to be able to apply the concepts in the real world or to seek more instruction or reading on the subjects. Michael and Jarred presentations are excellent, well produced, engaging, fun and even elegant. Well done!

This has been a very informative and inspirational course I have taken. I have spoken to so many people regarding this course. It has given me so much insight into business and how it all starts fitting together. I can't wait to complete the rest. - Thank you Coursera and a big THANK YOU to the two wonderful lecturers from University of Virginia. You explanations and lecturers are wonderful.

Hi Team,

I came to know about this course through one of the social networking site. The course content was very good.It covered all the important aspects of business world in a very interesting manner. And lectures also covered reference of various examples which made the session very knowledgeable.

Really Good Content.

Thanks,

Nimisha Ranjan

Hello,

Thank you for the opportunity to learn this important course am so glad have been able to learn;

1. Analyzing Industry Structure

2. Analyzing Firm Capabilities

3. Determining Competitive Position

Am glad this will help me manage run my own projects in a professional way.

Thank you so much

this help me so much that the language was perfect, teachers were great , materials and cases were so helpful to me , and quiz was the best part of theme all that help me to focus more and focus again to get the best and the most correct choice ...thank you coursera for this great course

Highly focused and objective stuff.Course content is exhaustive and highly relevant.prof Harris and Prof Lenox the main architects of this course are excellent with their delivery and modulation.the whole learning process was fun and enjoyable.Many thanks to other support staff as well.

I learned basic and useful knowledge about business strategy. For example how to analyse a company and its competitive advantages and what tools can be used to know an industry. It provides me valuable content for my further study and career. I would like to recommend it to my friends.

this course is provide basic understanding for the market analysis in scope of how to position your self in the market in a competitive way and earn an economic rent , i strongly recommend this course to the professionals and the beginners, this course will sharpen your skills.

thanks