Business Strategy

This course addresses the key topics of understanding and developing a business strategy. The first part of the course will teach you effective strategies and the concept of industry attractiveness. You will learn to define and articulate strategy and its application in delivering value. At the end of the course, you will be introduced to the concept of a “Lean Start Up” that helps you develop a fast and efficient approach to growing your business.

Private

Faculty

Prof. Phillip Leslie

Prof. Phillip Leslie

Professor

Phillip is a business economist with expertise in strategic management, the applied econometrics of data analytics, demand pricing and information disclosure. His work on pricing has examined how firms can implement practical strategies for consumer-specific pricing. Much of this work has been in the context of event ticketing, making Phillip a leading expert on ticket pricing.

Phillip has also written a series of papers on information disclosure as a policy tool. For example, in one study he shows that restaurant hygiene grade cards caused a 20% decrease in the number of people admitted to hospital with food-related illnesses. Another study shows that consumers at Starbucks reduced calorie purchases by 6% due to calorie posting on the menus.

In other research, Phillip has written about managerial incentives in private equity, consumer boycotts, inspection design and the behavior of inspectors, and the returns to education. His research is published in the American Economic Journal, American Economic Review, Journal of Labor Economics, Quantitative Marketing and Economics, Quarterly Journal of Economics and the RAND Journal of Economics.

Phillip is a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. At Anderson he teaches strategic management and he is an experienced executive education teacher.

Education

Ph.D. Economics, 1999, Yale University

M.Phil. Economics, 1996, Yale University

M.A. Economics, 1994, Yale University

  1. Comm. Economics, Honors 1993, University of Melbourne
  2. Comm. Economics, First Class Honors 1991, University of Melbourne
Prof. Al Osborne

Prof. Al Osborne

Professor

Alfred E. Osborne, Jr. is senior associate dean of UCLA Anderson.  In this role, he oversees a variety of key areas and initiatives within the school, including development, alumni relations, marketing and communications, corporate initiatives, and executive education.

Dr. Osborne is also professor of Global Economics and Management and founder and faculty director of the Harold and Pauline Price Center for Entrepreneurial Studies.  The Price Center serves to organize faculty research, student activities and curricula related to the study of entrepreneurship and new business development at UCLA Anderson including the Management Development Entrepreneurs Program.  He has been at UCLA since 1972.

Course Learning Objectives:

  • Compose a draft strategy statement for a start-up company, stating how it will create, capture, and deliver value.
  • Based on research, create a value map comparing the relative strengths of two competitors that shows six to eight characteristics.
  • Adjust Total Cost, Price, and Firm Profit for a specific customer, focusing on capturing maximum value.
  • Use Five Forces Analysis to determine the attractiveness of a given industry.
  • Build on an existing draft to refine a strategy statement so that it expresses in detail how the company is unique in its approach to creating, capturing, and delivering value.
  • Propose at least one way to improve the situation so as to deliver more value, given circumstances describing how a company is failing to deliver maximum value to its customers.
  • Explain how the principles of “lean startup” might apply to a new business.
  • Analyze the economic realities of an industry so you can find a strategy for your business that gives you a strong competitive advantage.

Syllabus

Learning Objectives:
  • Compose a draft strategy statement for a start-up company, stating how it will create, capture, and deliver value.
  • Based on research, create a value map comparing the relative strengths of two competitors that shows six to eight characteristics.
  • Adjust Total Cost, Price, and Firm Profit for a specific customer, focusing on capturing maximum value.
Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Understanding Strategy – Art and Science
  • Creating Value
  • Capturing Value

Readings:

  • Porter’s Strategy Framework
  • Capture More Value

Case Study:

  • Drastic Publishing

Quiz:

  • Understanding Strategy
Learning Objectives:
  • Use Five Forces Analysis to determine the attractiveness of a given industry.
  • Build on an existing draft to refine a strategy statement so that it expresses in detail how the company is unique in its approach to creating, capturing, and delivering value.
  • Propose at least one way to improve the situation so as to deliver more value, given circumstances describing how a company is failing to deliver maximum value to its customers.
Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Industry Attractiveness
  • Strategy Articulation
  • Delivering Value

Readings:

  • Porter’s Five Forces – Strategy Framework
  • Rethinking Strategy for an Age of Digital Disruption

Case Study:

  • Drastic Publishing

Quiz:

  • Developing Strategy
Learning Objectives:
  • Explain how the principles of “lean start up” might apply to a new business.
  • Analyze the economic realities of an industry so you can find a strategy for your business that gives you a strong competitive advantage.
Module Components:

Video Lectures:

  • Understanding the Lean Start Up Principles
  • Business Model Development with Lean Start Up

Readings:

  • Lean Startups – a live discussion with Eric Ries and Dave McClure
  • Why The Lean Start-Up Changes Everything
  • Understanding the Business Models Landscape
  • The Case for The Fat Start-Up

Case Study:

  • Wii Arcade

Quiz:

  • The Lean Start Up Framework

Support

Please email [email protected] for any support required with respect to the program, course or platform.