MGPS5000 Business Strategy
Strategy is the heart and soul of any business. The essence of business strategy is to understand your organization's uniqueness and order-winning criteria. This course will focus on how classic strategy paradigms such as differentiation; brand creation; core competency expertise; speed to market; value migration and leadership in the areas of cost reduction, technology and innovation are linked to a sustained competitive advantage. In addition, the course will examine how changes in the competitive landscape such as globalization, the rapid diffusion of technology, excess capacity, shifting marketplace demographics, increasing cost transparencies, the erosion of pricing power and the commoditization and unbundling of products/services; are creating both problems and unique opportunities. This course seeks to integrate and synergize all the disciplines required for effective business management. Emphasis will be placed on the ethical dilemmas that confront managers due to advances in technology, greater access to information, and more collaborative ventures that break down traditional proprietary boundaries. Given the recent wave of ethical lapses in business, students will be sensitized to the ethical considerations in any given decision-making scenario. Utilizing lectures, assigned readings, small group projects, case studies and a business simulation, the students will become proficient at business strategy analysis, creation and implementation within an ethical framework. A final class project will involve the creation of an Individualized Business Strategy Analysis and Action Plan, which applies the techniques learned during the course to any business selected by the student.