EPS7201 Strategic Innovation in Mature Organizations

3 Core Credits - Blended Miami Program Core Course

Corporations caught up in the web of commoditization and stagnation have come to realize that they need entrepreneurial capabilities to create new platforms of business that will be the promise of the future. Yet overall, these efforts have produced uneven success. Although entrepreneurs in organizations can benefit from the resources, experience, financial assets and networks of the large company, they are constrained by its bureaucratic practices. Recent evidence points to corporate leaders' renewed attention to developing management systems that work with, rather than against intrapreneurs. In this course we will examine various approaches companies have taken to build this organizational capability. We examine five different approaches and consider the shortcomings or each. We will build the rationale for why innovation must become an organizational function if a company truly wishes to compete for the Future. We focus at the organizational level rather than the individual project level, seeking insights about how organizations can institutionalize structures and processes for entrepreneurship, even within a dominant culture of operational excellence that, of necessity, pervades most large established firms.

MKT4505 Strategic Marketing
(Formerly Marketing Management)
4 General CreditsThis capstone course is designed to apply skills and knowledge gained in prior marketing courses, which is why students must complete at least one marketing elective prior to this class. The course emphasizes issues of creating and implementing a successful marketing strategy in a competitive marketplace. Through case studies, course readings, and a variety of presentation opportunities based on current marketing issues, students will develop strategies to correct/minimize problems and capitalize on opportunities in the marketplace. A team-based client project is undertaken throughout the semester in order to immerse students in the "real world" of business and add substantial outcomes to resumes. Students will also be required to write a research paper involving development of a personal brand statement and a job search strategy to begin a career in the exciting field of marketing. This course is most beneficial to students in their senior year.

Prerequisites: (SME2011 or MKT2000) and one completed marketing elective

STR3000 Strategic Problem Solving

4 Credits

Students who took this as ASM3000 cannot register for this course

Effective leaders excel at identifying and solving the most critical problems facing their organizations. To that end, Babson undergraduates are required to take this advanced management course which helps them to develop practical skills to solve the right problem well. After introducing core concepts and frameworks of strategic management, instructors will introduce their approach to issue-based problem solving. The latter part of the course requires students to work in teams and practice problem solving by identifying, analyzing, and proposing solutions to a strategic problem faced by a company of their choice. This course builds upon and requires students to apply the content of the foundational management courses in accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and microeconomics. Students who are concentrating in strategic management or are interested in consulting are encouraged to take this course as early in their academic career as possible (preferably the end of sophomore or junior year).

Prerequisites: Before enrolling in STR3000, students will need to have completed the following 3 courses: 1) Intro to Financial Accounting, 2) Principles of Finance, and 3) Principles of Marketing, AND;

Pre- or Co-requisites: Students can take the following 2 courses before or concurrently with STR3000: 1) Principles of Microeconomics and 2) Technology Operations Management.

MOB6602 Strategic Transformation
1.5 Credits (MSAEL core)

In order to effectively guide their organizations' strategic renewal through innovation, company leaders must have a vision of what their companies will become. They must be able to envision, shape and imagine a future, design processes for ensuring that happens, and gain the company's commitment to that shared vision. To execute on the strategic transformation agenda, a resource deployment plan must be implemented and metrics for tracking progress toward the future state need to be developed and monitored. In this course students will develop foresight skills, use them to draft domains of innovation intent and learn how to position those to company leaders.

Prerequisites: MOB6600 and EPS6600

COM7501 Strategic Writing for Managers
(Formerly MOB7501)
1.5 Credits

If you have taken and passed MOB7501, you cannot register for COM7501, as these two courses are equivalent

This course helps students become more efficient and effective writers of strategic professional communications. Cases, readings, and assignments illustrate challenging communication problems that demand readable, succinct, substantive, and persuasive writing. Assignments may range in applications to as internal formal and informal communications, and external communication such as media and public relations, client relations, and social media. Class activities involve extensive peer review and editing of students' own writing.

Prerequisites: None

MOB6100 Strategy

MSEL Course

3 CreditsThe goal of this course is to develop knowledge and skills needed to understand and evaluate a firm's strategy as an analyst, recommend future strategic actions as a consultant, and manage the strategic direction of a firm as a manager. By the end of the course, students will: become familiar with the analytical tools used to perform dynamic industry analyses; discover how competitors' different competitive positionings respond to, and build on, industry structures; understand the nature of competitive dynamics in an industry; discover the link between competitive positioning, internal capabilities, and business model development; understand the specificities of competing in a variety of industries and countries simultaneously; and develop the ability to search for, identify, and research diverse strategic issues, challenges and opportunities, and to design and develop innovative solutions. An important part of the course is devoted to a real-life consulting project, in which students work as a team to develop a strategic recommendation for a partner firm.

STR7800 Strategy

2 Credits (Core MBA)

If you have taken and passed MOB7202/MOB7801, you cannot register for STR7800 as these courses are equivalent

This integrative course focuses on strategic and competitive analysis to enable entrepreneurial action. How can we identify the main strategic issues facing our company? How should we position our business strategically to compete effectively? What sources of competitive advantage can we create, exploit and sustain? What capabilities do we need to launch the business, grow the business, and adapt successfully to changes in the environment? Students will need to demonstrate that they can write coherently about strategic developments and options.

MOB7202 Strategy

2 CreditsThis course focuses on strategic and competitive analysis to enable entrepreneurial action. How should we position our business strategically to compete effectively? What sources of competitive advantage can we create, exploit and sustain? What capabilities do we need to launch the business, grow the business, and adapt successfully to changes in the environment?

Prerequisites: MOB7200, EPS7200, MKT7200 and QTM7200

MKT9501 Strategy and Tactics of Pricing
3 Elective Credits

Pricing decisions determine sales volume and revenue, so pricing strategy and structure are vital to a company's profitability and growth. Price determination is a top priority for managers in charge of marketing strategy or product strategy for existing or new products. Revenue and pricing are financial metrics considered to be table stakes for startups. Pricing is also a key variable for CFOs and controllers who have to forecast and manage the impact of pricing changes on a firm's financial results in competitive markets.

MKT9501 is designed to provide you with the concepts, techniques and knowledge that will enable you to determine the best prices and pricing strategy for your business and identify ways to improve existing pricing practice in companies. In the first part of the course, we will cover the fundamental analytical tools and theoretical frameworks needed to analyze costs, customers, and competition in order to set a proactive pricing strategy. We will focus on articulating sources of customer value and introduce tools companies can use to charge for value. The second part of the course introduces examples of pricing tactics from a variety of industries, and in B2B and B2C contexts. Examples of topics included are dynamic pricing, price discrimination and versioning, product line pricing, pricing psychology, bundling and subscriptions. MKT9501 also explores how companies can respond to pricing pressures and (re)structure their revenue models to adapt to increased competition and technological disruptions in global and dynamic markets.

Pre-requisites: It is strongly recommended that students take ECN7500 Economic Analysis for Business Decisions before or concurrently with this course.

STR7531 Strategy & the CEO
3 Elective Credits

Today's CEOs are viewed either as visionaries and corporate wizards, or liabilities and dead weight leading their organizations to stagnation or ruin. Society and investors increasingly look to the CEO as responsible for a company's strategy and its overall performance. How should CEOs approach their jobs? What are the things only the CEO can do? What are the characteristics of a good CEO?

By examining the role of the CEO, this course aims to deepen our understanding of strategy and leadership. We will bring the CEO perspective into the classroom - through regular guest CEOs, videos and case discussions - and outside of class through live interaction with the leader of your own organization or another of your choosing. Hear directly from CEOs how they think about strategy, what is different about their current role from previous functional leadership positions, and what they have struggled with or been surprised by in the job. Think through the intersection of strategy and leadership through case-based discussions and a simulation in which you play the role of CEO.

At the end of the course, students will have a deeper, more hands-on view of strategy and organizational leadership. Students will learn how taking a "CEO perspective" can improve decision-making, problem solving and one's leadership profile at any level of an organization.

For more information: http://www.kaltura.com/tiny/x4wey

Prerequisites: None (strongly recommended to take Strategy (MOB7801 or STR 7800) first)