Course Schedule and Catalog

Long Title: COMPETITIVE STRATEGY

Department: Management

Grade Mode: Standard Letter

Course Type: Lecture

Credit Hours: 1.5

Description: The field of strategic management explores how firms achieve competitive advantage in a dynamic and complex environment from the general manager’s perspective. This course is organized around fundamental frameworks to assist you in analyzing a wide range of strategic issues facing a firm. It will: 1) Cover theories for in-depth industry analysis, for anticipating and predicting future industry developments; 2) Examine some of the firm specific underpinnings of competitive advantage and growth in both domestic and international settings; 3) Explore some of the challenges in implementing the strategy that has been formulated. Nevertheless, the best analysis in the world will have little effect if it cannot be communicated to others. Managers must be able to articulate their views coherently and persuasively, and they must be skilled at understanding and critiquing other points of view. Management is a "verbal sport;" perhaps 90% of a typical manager's day is consumed by oral communication. Time is often scarce. You must learn to make convincing arguments and to make them quickly, or the merits of your ideas are likely to become simply irrelevant. This skill takes practice, and we will place a great deal of emphasis on it in class.