Foundations of Business Strategy

Compared to the other courses I've taken, Foundations of Business Strategy proved much less time-consuming, with required readings limited to very short chapters from a forthcoming book by Lenox (and when I say "short", I mean it's more a pamphlet than a book, with chapters only a few pages long), and a business case each week. The professor encouraged discussion of each case, both in small groups and in the discussion forum, and each week recorded a debriefing that made reference to students' comments in the forum; however, the only assignments that needed to ber turned in before the final project were (relatively easy) weekly quizzes that covered the lecture topics. Quizzes, hence the lectures the quizzes covered, could be completed at any time during the course, though completing the lectures late meant that a student had no chance to participate in the discussios of the associated cases. The final project was a 1500-word "executive summary" of a strategic analysis of an organization of the each student's choice.

Hi. FOBS is one of the courses I have enjoyed learning most. Globalization and liberalization has increased the uncertainty in the business environment. Any organization that wants to survive and grow on a continuous basis needs strategic management. The course introduces students to the various tools that can be used by a strategist to analyse the industry structure, firm structure and competitive dynamics to evaluate the current position of a firm and to develop a better competitive position for the future. It covers the various ways an organization can position itself viz a viz its competitors . It also covers the kinds of diversification and the rationale for a firm to diversify. The risks of diversifying are also covered. Overall the course is an excellent one that gives you a birds eye view of the subject. The course is in great demand with more than a lakh students registering each time the course is run. The superior teaching skills of Professor Michael Lenox has made the course even more attractive to the students. The quizzes really help students to apply their mind on what has been learnt and master the concepts well. There is a final project that gives the student an opportunity to apply the tools learned to a real business case. I participated in the next three sessions of this course as Community TA with great satisfaction.

The course gives a basic tool-set for analysis of competitive positioning of a firm. It introduces a nice set of fairly visual tools which might be helpful for a presentation at management level. Experienced lecturer! It touches very briefly upon interesting topics from macro-economics (e.g. Ricardian economics in the context of competitiveness) but unfortunately does not go into the necessary detail. As a mathematician I was so sorry to see a meaningful plot demonstrating some macroeconomic equilibrium shown for a few minutes and disappearing without being properly defined and explained.

The course includes video lecturing, discussion groups, test quizzes, and a peer-reviewed final project (3-15 pages analysis of the competitive position of a firm, chosen, researched and written by each student).