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Strategy and the Macro Environment: An Introduction

Discover how strategic management has evolved and how the external environment drives strategy.

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  • Duration

    2 weeks

  • Weekly study

    8 hours
Overview
Requirements

Explore strategic management and the business environment

This course aims to enable you to develop your knowledge of strategic management: the set of decisions and actions made to create and implement plans and strategies in order to realise the organisation’s objectives.

You will have the opportunity to explore the structure of modern organisations and how the macro environment influences the strategic direction from which new business models emerge.

What topics will you cover?

  • Strategy as a concept and its historical development
  • The planning vs emergent approach to strategy
  • Contemporary issues and business models that have resulted in new corporate structures
  • Strategy statements and its strategic intent
  • The macro environment of an organisation in terms of Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental (PESTLE) factors
  • Key drivers of change and the importance of forecasting and scenario planning

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...

  • Define and critically evaluate strategy as a concept
  • Identify contemporary issues and business models that have resulted in the emergence of new corporate structures
  • Evaluate an organisation’s strategy statements and identify its strategic intent
  • Identify levels of strategy and discuss the three horizons of strategy
  • Apply the PESTLE framework to assess an organisation’s position in its macro environment and identify the key drivers of change
  • Understand how the PESTLE analysis can be used for forecasting and scenario analysis and how this can impact business model design

Who is the course for?

Aspiring managers wanting to work in business and management careers in multinational organisations, management consultancies, government organisations or management education and training.

Please note that the staff described in the ‘Who will you learn with?’ section below may be subject to change.

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

Learning on FutureLearn

Your learning, your rules

  • Courses are split into weeks, activities, and steps to help you keep track of your learning
  • Learn through a mix of bite-sized videos, long- and short-form articles, audio, and practical activities
  • Stay motivated by using the Progress page to keep track of your step completion and assessment scores

Join a global classroom

  • Experience the power of social learning, and get inspired by an international network of learners
  • Share ideas with your peers and course educators on every step of the course
  • Join the conversation by reading, @ing, liking, bookmarking, and replying to comments from others

Map your progress

  • As you work through the course, use notifications and the Progress page to guide your learning
  • Whenever you’re ready, mark each step as complete, you’re in control

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