A. Efendioglu: Teaching Areas

MBA619: Strategic Competitive Advantage

This course deals with a top management perspective of formulation, evaluation, and implementation of organizational policies and strategies. Particular attention is paid to the environmental dynamics that affect strategic decisions and the organization's endeavors to survive and prosper under competitive conditions. The analysis of competitive strategies, coping with environmental and organizational pressures, and developing and understanding of managerial factor in strategic decision process are essential elements of this course.

The “Strategic Competitive Advantage” as a capstone course aims to provide an integrative learning experience which draws from the student's entire graduate course work in the basic disciplines and functional areas without allowing any particular functional perspective to dominate over others. The rationale for this approach is that strategic issues tend to transcend functional area boundaries and the focus of analysis should be the total organization within an environmental context rather than any specialized part of it.

The course requires reading articles in various journals related to the general topic area, analysis of complex organizational issues, simulated decision making, and participation in class discussions. Since a major portion of the course material involves working in teams, it is imperative to develop an understanding of the characteristics of the individual class members and be part of a team that compliments your individual skills and capabilities. Within the course context, we will attempt to simulate real business problem situations and you will deal with these situations as an individual and/or as a member of a team.

Components of the course include:
Semester project (analysis of an industry and tracking firms in that industry)
Top Management Game (computer based simulation including Business Plan and Strategic Assessment Report)
Final exam (Concepts and Applications)