Corporate Strategy

Instructor: Bart Vanneste

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6 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 4 modules in this course

Corporate strategy is the strategy a firm uses to compete across multiple businesses. Many small firms want to grow by entering new businesses. Many large firms already are in multiple businesses, e.g. a photo camera producer selling also sunglasses.

We developed this course to help you make good corporate strategy decisions. Of the many decisions a firm has to make, corporate strategy decisions are among the most consequential. We will look at these key corporate strategy decisions: - Diversification: How and which businesses should your firm enter? - Divestiture: How and from which businesses should your firm exit? - Corporate HQ: How should we organize corporate headquarters to create value across the different businesses?

Welcome to week 1! This week, we introduce corporate strategy and its main goal: corporate advantage. To deepen our understanding of corporate strategy, we compare it with business strategy. We also cover sum-of-the-parts analysis, an often used technique to value multi-business firms, and we discuss how it relates to corporate advantage.

What's included

8 videos7 readings1 assignment

8 videosTotal 47 minutes

Welcome to Corporate Strategy!3 minutesPreview module
Examples of Multi-Business Firms4 minutes
Defining Corporate Strategy2 minutes
Understanding Difference 1: Number of Businesses4 minutes
Understanding Difference 2: Corporate Advantage7 minutes
Understanding Difference 3: Competition7 minutes
Conducting a Sum-of-the-parts Analysis12 minutes
Why We Cannot Infer Corporate Advantage from a Sum-of-the-Parts Analysis4 minutes

7 readingsTotal 97 minutes

How to Use Discussion Forums10 minutes
Get to Know Your Classmates10 minutes
Optional: Example of a Sum-of-the-Parts Analysis10 minutes
Lecture slides10 minutes
Chapter Corporate Advantage45 minutes
Glossary10 minutes
Assessment2 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 20 minutes

Corporate Advantage20 minutes

Welcome to week 2! A key decision in corporate strategy is determining which businesses a firm should be active in. This week we look at the diversification decision: entering a new business. If you get stuck on the quiz or assignment, you should post on the Discussions to ask for help. (And if you finish early, I hope you'll go there to help your fellow classmates as well.)

What's included

11 videos4 readings2 assignments1 discussion prompt

11 videosTotal 58 minutes

Examples of Diversification4 minutesPreview module
Understanding the Basic Modes of Diversification7 minutes
Understanding the Diversification Test5 minutes
Understanding Synergies8 minutes
A Five-step Approach to the Diversification Decision2 minutes
Step 1: Finding Synergies6 minutes
Step 2: Identifying Resource Gaps4 minutes
Step 3: Identifying Candidates3 minutes
Step 4: Evaluating Ally or Acquire7 minutes
Step 5: Evaluating Organic or Inorganic Growth6 minutes
Concluding the Five-step Approach to the Diversification Decision1 minute

4 readingsTotal 55 minutes

4Cs Synergies Framework10 minutes
Lecture slides10 minutes
Chapter Diversification25 minutes
Introduction to quiz on Microsoft-Linkedin acquisition10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 42 minutes

Diversification12 minutes
Microsoft-Linkedin acquisition30 minutes

1 discussion promptTotal 10 minutes

Examples of Diversification10 minutes

Welcome to week 3! A key decision in corporate strategy is determining which businesses a firm should be active in. This week we look at the divestiture decision: exiting from a business. If you get stuck on the quiz or assignment, you should post on the Discussions to ask for help. (And if you finish early, I hope you'll go there to help your fellow classmates as well.)

What's included

9 videos2 readings1 assignment1 peer review

9 videosTotal 35 minutes

Examples of Divestiture4 minutesPreview module
Understanding the Basic Modes of Divestiture4 minutes
Understanding the Divestiture Test7 minutes
Understanding the Regional Perspective3 minutes
A Three-step Approach to the Divestiture Decision1 minute
Step 1: Finding Synergies5 minutes
Step 2: Identifying Better Parents5 minutes
Step 3: Choosing Divestiture Mode2 minutes
Concluding the Three-step Approach to the Divestiture Decision1 minute

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

Lecture slides10 minutes
Chapter Divestiture: Stay or Exit10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Divestiture30 minutes

1 peer reviewTotal 60 minutes

Respond to letter of activist investor60 minutes

Welcome to week 4! A key decision in corporate strategy is determining how to organize to create value across businesses. This week we look at corporate headquarters and how they can influence the different businesses. If you get stuck on the quiz or assignment, you should post on the Discussions to ask for help. (And if you finish early, I hope you'll go there to help your fellow classmates as well.)

What's included

9 videos5 readings2 assignments

9 videosTotal 49 minutes

Example of Corporate Headquarters2 minutesPreview module
Who Controls Corporate Headquarters?6 minutes
How to Control More than You Own6 minutes
Understanding HQ Influence Models5 minutes
Understanding the Financial Perspective3 minutes
Understanding the Uncertainty Perspective4 minutes
Understanding the Synergy Perspective9 minutes
Understanding the Social Perspective3 minutes
Using the Synergistic Portfolio Framework6 minutes

5 readingsTotal 42 minutes

Course review2 minutes
Lecture slides10 minutes
Chapter Designing the Corporate HQ10 minutes
Further readings10 minutes
Introduction to quiz on resource allocation10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

Corporate Headquarters30 minutes
Resource allocation30 minutes

Instructor

Instructor ratings

4.9 (985 ratings)

Bart Vanneste

University of London

1 Course109,317 learners

Offered by

University of London

UCL School of Management

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Reviewed on Jun 28, 2022

A very crisp and easy to understand content. Lot of emphasis on explaining different strategy concepts through management models and frameworks. Overall, a great course !

Reviewed on Nov 10, 2023

I would really like to thank Mr. Vanneste for explaining everything in easy way. This course has really helped me with the better understanding of the Strategies which are used by the Corporate HQs

Reviewed on Nov 8, 2023

Firsrly Alhamdulillah for passing this course successfully, I highly recommend this course for every beginner on the management strategy, you will get the foundation of corporation management.

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