Business Strategy Simplified

Experts have been making strategy complicated for decades (often deliberately, for the benefit of people trying to sell some service). There are over 90 academic definitions for the word ‘strategy’! No wonder there is confusion.

What if there was a very simple explanation of what a strategy is? Would that be useful? And if that explanation came with a way of testing if something was a strategy (a strategy test if you like), a way to document and share strategies, and a way to tell if they are any good (of evaluating them)? There is, and this course provides it. It is for both serious students of business, and people interested in how strategy might be useful, or affect them.

True to its title, it simplifies strategy. It also looks at how traditional theory relates to this new approach. We will cover the relationship between strategic planning models, strategic planning frameworks, strategy documents, and other issues. You will see what vision, mission, strategy, and plan have in common, and how they are less important than some fundamental concepts.

It is not a summary of material you can find elsewhere. You are getting something unique.

There are 16 lectures in 7 Sections:

1: Introduction.

2: Old thinking/new thinking: what a strategy is.

3: Traditional terms and concepts.

4: Mapping and communicating strategies.

5: Creating strategies.

6: Evaluating a strategy.

7: Applications and summary.

Exercises to help clarify the content and demonstrate how it is applied are included.