Explore how macro environmental factors influence strategic direction

How do you develop a winning business strategy, and how does the macro environment influence a company’s strategy formulation?

In this two-week course for business students and managers, you’ll explore the definition of business strategy and unlock the potential of the macro environment.

Discover the power of macroeconomics

You’ll have the opportunity to discuss the concept of strategy and globalisation and examine the macro environment in detail, using a series of in-depth case studies to help determine where a firm should position itself in a globalised environment.

Understand globalisation pros and cons

Globalisation is a huge economic theme of the past 30 years. The course will look in-depth at the benefits and costs of globalisation for business, and what the barriers to global business are.

Perform your own PESTLE analysis

Explore the macro environment using the PESTLE framework. PESTLE (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) is an important business-analysis tool that allows you to uncover the key factors influencing an organisation from the outside.

Syllabus

Week 1
Contexts of strategy and decision making
- Welcome to the course
  Strategy plays an important part in many areas of business, but is strategy alone enough to guarantee that an organisation will achieve its corporate goals?
- Origin of strategy
  Explore the origin of strategy and examine how strategy helps companies gain competitive advantage.
- Globalisation and its impact on strategy
  Learn about the benefits and drawbacks of globalisation and explore how globalisation might impact on a company's strategy
- Summary of the week
  Reflect on the activities that you have done this week and find out what is coming up next.
Week 2
Macro Analysis
- Welcome to Week 2
  How does globalisation drive a firm’s strategic decision-making? We will cover the concept of macro analysis along with PEST frameworks and institutional analysis.
- Introduction to the PEST model
  The PEST consists of the political, economics, social-cultural, and Technological aspects of environment
- Understanding institutions
  Institutions are the ‘rules of the game’ and are the humanly devised constraints to guide human behaviour (North 1990).
- Summary activities
  How can a firm gain competitive advantages in a highly attractive industry? Micro analysis helps us to identify the key success factors in the industry.

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Learning on this course

On every step of the course you can meet other learners, share your ideas and join in with active discussions in the comments.

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you‘ll be able to...

Demonstrate a good understanding of the concept of strategy
Explore the effects of globalisation on a firm’s strategy
Explain the concepts of a Macro environment

Who is the course for?

This ExpertTrack is designed for intermediate-level business managers and students to gain more knowledge about strategy and globalisation. This course aims to equip you with the concepts, framework and techniques needed for better environmental scanning.

Who developed the course?

Coventry University

Coventry secured 5 QS Stars for Teaching and Online Learning in the QS World University Ranking 2020 and has received No. 1 in the world for Massive Open Online Courses in MoocLab’s World University Ranking 2021.

Established
1992
Location
Coventry

About this ExpertTrack

Discover the fundamentals of business strategy, business models and strategic management, and work on your decision-making skills.

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