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Strategy and General Management I (2215.YR.014427.1)

General information

Type:

OBL

Curs:

1

Period:

S semester

ECTS Credits:

2 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group Teacher Department Language
Year 1 George Chondrakis Dirección General y Estrategia ENG

Prerequisites

There are no prerequisites for this course.

COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO PROGRAM

This course focuses on how to design and implement strategies to sustain and enhance business performance, examining issues central to the short-term competitive position and long-term survival of the firm.
As a field, strategic management intends to explain why and how some firms outperform others in the market place, by developing a competitive advantage and sustaining it over time. Strategy involves making choices to use your resources in order to achieve your goal. 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 helps them to understand their strategic options and the consequences of their decisions for the future of the organization.
The course provides a set of frameworks and analytical tools that enable 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:

1. be familiar with the core concepts of strategy and be able to analyze the strategic positioning of companies, understand their strategic choices, and define a strategy.
2. understand and apply some key strategy concepts, such as industry attractiveness, core competencies, competitive advantage, and generic strategies.
3. improve their general management/strategy decision-making skills. Throughout the course participants will develop their ability to analyze a company's competitive positioning and the business environment in which it operates, to identify the major opportunities and problems faced by a firm, to develop a creative set of alternative strategies and tactics, to select the most appropriate one, and to convert alternatives into actionable plans.

Successful completion of this course should help you develop a strategic mindset and learn to analyze and provide recommendations to companies that need to address their future or solve a strategy challenge.

Methodology

In working through this course, it is important to realize the purpose and limitations of studying strategy. Unlike in physical sciences like chemistry or physics, it is impossible to describe certain steps or decisions that will ensure a certain outcome (e.g. increased profitability). That is to say, there are no rules for riches. The study of strategy can be more usefully understood as a collection of tools and frameworks that help analyze certain strategic questions or the "right? thing to do in a particular business setting. But these answers may have limited applicability to other situations. Strategic management is therefore, to a certain extent, a study of contingencies. This course is designed to present a number of these contingencies along with various empirical regularities in order to help students develop (heuristic) modes of thinking about business strategy and performance.
In more practical terms, this course comprises 5 sessions with a mix of teaching and learning methods, including interactive teaching sessions, case discussions, audio-visual material, and guest speakers.

Assessment criteria

The final grade will consist of:
- Class participation - 20%
- Case studies & strategy challenges - 50%
- Final exam - 30%

Timetable and sections

Group Teacher Department
Year 1 George Chondrakis Dirección General y Estrategia

Timetable Year 1

From 2021/10/5 to 2021/10/21:
From Thursday to Friday from 9:30 to 12:30. (Except: 2021/10/7, 2021/10/8 and 2021/10/14)
Each Tuesday from 14:00 to 17:00. (Except: 2021/10/12 and 2021/10/19)

From 2021/10/29 to 2021/11/8:
Each Friday from 9:30 to 12:30.
Each Monday from 16:00 to 18:30. (Except: 2021/11/1)