Corporate Strategy

Overview

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In this course you will learn how corporations create, capture, and maintain value, going beyond the management of a single line of business. It is thus a complement to (and should typically follow) a course on Business Strategy, which focuses on developing and sustaining competitive advantage for a single business unit. Here, you will be able to better understand and learn the tools to analyze and manage decisions from a corporate-level perspective, which emphasizes the management of multiple businesses and multiple stakeholders. Examples of such decisions include vertical integration, diversification, mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, international expansion, global strategy, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. You will: • Understand how corporations create and capture value as multi-business enterprises. • Learn tools and frameworks to assess choices regarding corporate scope, corporate transactions and global strategy. • Learn to analyze complex business situations and develop coherent corporate strategies. • Understand the role of corporate governance and stakeholder management in modern companies. This course is part of the iMBA offered by the University of Illinois, a flexible, fully-accredited online MBA at an incredibly competitive price. For more information, please see the Resource page in this course and onlinemba.illinois.edu.

Syllabus

Course Orientation

You will become familiar with the course, your classmates, and our learning environment. The orientation will also help you obtain the technical skills required for the course.

Module 1: Corporate Scope

This module focuses on corporate strategy with particular emphasis on the scope of the firm. Both vertical integration (vertical scope) and diversification (horizontal scope) are addressed. The module seeks to explain the relative advantages of (and alternatives to) vertical integration and diversification; and when and how they can be used to create a competitive advantage.

Module 2: Corporate Transactions

This module focuses on corporate strategy with particular emphasis on transactions used by companies to change or manage the scope of the firm. Mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, and strategic alliances are the specific transactions focused on. Challenges and best practices with respect to each are discussed.

Module 3: Global Strategy

This module focuses on global strategy and strategies for competing around the world. It explains how companies can expand into other countries using different entry modes, and why multinational enterprises adopt different global strategies.

Module 4: Stakeholders and Governance

This module focuses on the characteristics of public firms, management of different stakeholders, and corporate social responsibility. It also describes various mechanisms of corporate governance used to mitigate agency problems and align managerial action with stakeholder (particularly shareholder) goals.