Faculty
Bersant Hobdari

Course Coordinator
Bersant Hobdari

This course builds students’ ability to analyze and develop business strategies by introducing frameworks and tools to understand the dynamics of industry structure, the nature of competition in general, their co-evolution and to analyze the specific competitive position and strategic options of a given firm. Students will learn basic theories of competition and frameworks for analyzing industry structure, internal capabilities, and competitive interaction, as well as how to use those theories and frameworks to develop and, especially, to articulate a coherent strategic analysis.

The study of Business Strategy is essentially the study of competition: how firms interact with other firms and with their external environment more broadly; and how those interactions affect firms’ relative performance, i.e., who wins and why? This course starts with the premise that a business strategy is a “plan to compete,” or more precisely, a plan to out-compete one’s rivals, a plan to win the competition. Ideally such a plan specifies the firm’s objectives and the key choices and trade-offs it is making to achieve those objectives in the face of competition from other firms (for example, what market position it will occupy and how it will allocate its scarce resources); in other words, how it will achieve a competitive advantage.

In this context, strategic analysis—the analysis that supports the development of a strategy—requires first an understanding of the nature of competition in general and second an understanding of the specific competitive context faced by a given firm. In particular, strategic analysis involves assessing the competitive landscape, including the structure of the firm’s industry; the firm’s own internal strengths and weaknesses; and the strengths and weaknesses of its existing and potential rivals. This course will introduce tools, concepts, and frameworks used to analyze the nature of competition and to develop a competitive strategy.

4-hour written, closed book

Each three-hour slot will normally be divided between lecture and class discussion, although we will often move back and forth between lecture and case discussion within the slot. The sessions have been designed to facilitate as much active class participation as possible, and the proportion of time allocated to lecture and discussion will vary somewhat week by week. Prior to each session, there will be a message put on Sitescape setting out what we are going to do in the next session, and how we are going to do it.

Articulate and confident oral communication is an invaluable professional skill. This class encourages the development and exercise of this skill through in-class discussions of business cases. All students are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned case. Hence, case discussions will often be initiated by the professor calling on students to offer their assessment of the key issues in the case.

Indicative literature