A Guide to Business Strategy

Strategy is the most exciting course in any business curriculum because it gives the chance to put all of your management and work skills to effort. Strategy classes will place you in the chairman of the board’s chair, and you are going to love that feeling. Strategy refers to the actions that a company plans in response to or in anticipation of changes in its external environment, its customers, and its competitors Exposure to strategy concepts alters the way you look at businesses. Ultimately, strategy is a company’s plan to achieve its goals. Read this handbook of Art & Science.

Course outline

The Seven S model

Strategy is how all of a company’s S’s work together.

Structure

  • Systems
  • Skills
  • Style
  • Staff
  • Shared Values
  • Strategy
  • The Value Chain

The process of producing and delivering goods and services

Integration

Ways to expand a business: backward, forward, vertically, horizontally.

Ansoff Matrix

Four strategies for business expansion

Porter’s Five Forces Theory

Five forces that determine the competitive intensity of an industry

The Learning Curve

The more units produced the lower the cost per unit falls due to production efficiencies.

Signaling

Indirectly communicating with competitors

The Prisoner’s Dilemma

The captive nature of competitive relationships within an industry

Portfolio Strategies

The theories large multi-business corporations use to decide which companies they should buy, sell, or hold.

Globalization

The worldwide competition inherent in certain industries due to a variety of globalizing factors.

Synergy

The incremental profits generated by the combination of two companies that share resources

Incremental Approach

The concept that strategy is not a grand scheme but is developed over a period of time, step-by-step