Advanced Strategy for Entrepreneurs and Innovators

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
	Jan Hohberger	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

This course focuses on how founders and CEOs design and implement strategies to sustain and enhance business performance, examining issues central to the long- and short-term competitive position of the ventures they lead.

Strategy involves making choices to use your resources in order to achieve your goal, while accounting for the competitive landscape. This implies in most instances commitments that are difficult to revert. As such, it is crucial for organizations and their executives to develop a strategic mindset that help them to understand their strategic options and the consequences of their decisions for the future of the organization. A special focus of this course will be the differences in strategy tools and practices between varies types of firms and situations (e.g. start-ups, larger established firms).

The course provides a set of frameworks and analytical tools that enables you to understand and plan effective strategies for companies competing in a range of industries.

Course Learning Objectives

At the end of the course, students should

- be familiar with the core concepts of strategy and should be able to analyse the strategic positioning of companies, understand their strategic choices and define a strategy

- be able to choose adequate strategic tools and concepts and apply it business problems across different type of firms and industries

- be able develop and apply strategy decision-making skills to determine the major opportunities and problems facing the organization, to develop a creative set of alternative strategies, to select the most appropriate one, and to convert alternatives into actionable plans.

CONTENT

1. Introduction to Advanced Strategy
2. The Strategy Process
3. Industry Analysis
4. Firm Resources & Capabilities
5. The Nature and Sources of Competitive Advantage
6. Developing an Innovation Strategy
7. Strategy Execution

1. Introduction to Advanced Strategy

2. The Strategy Process

3. Industry Analysis

4. Firm Resources & Capabilities

5. The Nature and Sources of Competitive Advantage

6. Developing an Innovation Strategy

7. Strategy Execution

Methodology

This course comprises a mix of teaching and learning methods, including interactive teaching sessions, case discussions, audio-visual material, guest speakers and short simulations.

Assessment criteria

Class participation 30%
Strategy Challenges & Special Deliverables 40%
Final project or final exam 30%

Class participation (30%)
- Your active participation in the class discussions is essential for the learning experience in the course. For the purpose, you are expected to come well prepared to class. We will cold-call students so please make sure you are ready to discuss the assigned cases and readings in detail.
- Your participation will be evaluated based on three criteria: relevance, advancement and fact-based:
Relevance: Are your comments clearly related to the discussion/case?
Advancement: Does your comment move the class discussion forward?
Fact-Based: Are you backing up your comments with facts?

Strategy Challenges & Special Deliverables (40%)
- During the course, we will organize a number of "Strategy Challenges?. Strategy Challenges will have a similar structure to case competitions, where teams will be asked to analyse the situation of a company or industry and to deliver a strategy plan or sound analysis.

Final Project or Final Exam (30%)
-The final project or final exam will be designed to evaluate your understanding of and ability to use the tools and concepts covered in the course.

Bibliography

All materials (readings, cases and videos) will be available in electronic format at ESADE's e-learning platform. Other suggested readings will be available through the course webpage or by accessing ESADE's digital library

Textbook (optional):
- Grant, R. M. 2016. Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Wiley

Timetable and sections

Group	Teacher	Department
	Jan Hohberger	Dirección General y Estrategia

Timetable

From 2019/2/4 to 2019/2/15:
Each Thursday from 8:30 to 12:00. (Except: 2019/2/7)
Each Friday from 9:00 to 13:00. (Except: 2019/2/8)
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 14:30 to 18:30. (Except: 2019/2/8 and 2019/2/12)

Type:	OP	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Advanced Strategy for Entrepreneurs and Innovators (CIE80004)

General information

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