Educational objectives

This course aims to give students a mastery of all aspects of competitive advantage to make them more effective at diagnosing and developing great strategy. The course examines the role and structure of competitive advantage; how it interacts with growth, competition, and change; the different sources of competitive advantage and their properties; the creation and evolution of competitive advantage; and the determinants that make competitive advantage sustainable or not. In the process, the course also pays attention to the role of organization and leadership in the creation of competitive advantage and how that affects the general manager's role in formulating and executing strategy.

Course Content

The course starts by exploring the structure of competitive advantage and how the key drivers of advantage interact to determine a company's ability to deliver superior returns over the long term. We address questions such as: How do you measure competitive advantage? What levers can your company use to build a competitive advantage? How does competitive advantage affect competition? How does it relate to growth? When does being a first mover give you a competitive advantage or disadvantage? Why exactly does it matter to ‘be different’ and what does that imply? Is competitive advantage that is rooted in economies of scale or in the learning curve sustainable? While the focus is mostly on value creation, we also look at the strategic aspects of value capture – esp. pricing and bargaining.

As the course progresses, attention shifts from the structure of advantage to the process of creating, sustaining, and changing advantage. We ask questions such as: How does advantage develop over time? When should a company give up flexibility and commit to a strategy? What limits growth and what are its downsides? What limits a manager's degrees of freedom when developing strategy or changing strategy? When should you change your strategy? How do all these considerations affect a company's choice of competitive advantage?

Course Format

The class sessions will be 2 hours – except for the first and last, which will be regular length (80 min). The number of sessions will be proportionally reduced to reflect the longer class times.

Grading will be based on class participation and a project (in small groups) that analyzes the competitive advantage and position of a company of your choice.

Note that this course and Strategies for Value Creation (SVC) have some overlap.

Career Focus

The course is intended for students who expect to be actively involved in developing, advising on, or assessing a company's strategy, and should be of interest to leaders of both established firms and new ventures.

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