The world of business strategy is in transition. What used to work doesn't anymore -- not necessarily. This course prepares you to think strategically in an age when companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft have become more valuable (in market cap terms) than companies like Exxon. Today, business value and competitive advantage arise more often from consumer perceptions of what is "cool" than from physical assets or economies of scale. In this course -- the first of a three-course specialization tailored specifically for the age of creativity and innovation -- you will gear up for the challenges of strategy formulation and implementation in a 21st century business. After taking the course, you'll be able to: - Explain why "doing" strategy is considered "the high point of managerial activity" (Mintzberg); - Recognize and avoid the old, tired ideas about strategy that are still out there, so you can adopt fresher, better ideas; - Point out how doing strategy has changed because of advancing technology and globalization; - Prepare for the Capstone Project for the Strategic Management and Innovation Specialization

The purpose of this course is to present, analyze and discuss the different facets of business strategy formulation. Emphasizing that strategy can be seen as a unified theme that provides coherence and direction to the actions and decisions of a firm, we will cover a variety of business strategy topics concerned with firm positioning in the context of different markets, industries and locations. At the end of the course, you will be able to: - Identify why a strong strategy is essential for the future business success - Formulate a business strategy that suits the needs and visions of your organization - Explain why managers too often formulate sub-optimal strategies - Extrapolate measures to optimize current business strategies Workload: 2-4 hours per week.

Even a thoroughly developed business strategy may fail if you don't pay enough attention to its implementation. This rings particularly true with strategies based on innovation or implemented in complex or fast-changing environments. In the 20th century successful implementation leveraged stability and typically proceeded through hierarchy and control. Today the key is to stay vibrant and able to quickly respond to trends in competition and technology while not losing sight of the strategic objective. In this course we'll build a toolbox of techniques to execute today's business strategies to help them succeed. After completing this course, you'll be able to: - Create objectives and goals to guide strategy implementation - Identify organizational structures that fit particular strategies - Understand how to leverage company culture in implementation - Describe how to communicate the strategy so that the organization "gets" it - Detect and mitigate risks to implementation