Strategic management looks at organizations as a whole and adopts an integrated top-management perspective to understand and analyze them. In this course, we will examine the goals and plans of an organization, study the environment within which it operates, investigate the competitors in the marketplace, and assess the ways in which value-generating activities are carried out by the organization. An important part of the course is the study of the competitive environment in which firms operate. We will look at the dynamics of competing in a marketplace that has small & medium enterprises (SMEs) and large firms in it, the moves and countermoves, strategies and tactics, undertaken to stay ahead of competition. The focus of the course is to understand how strategy is formulated and implemented in SMEs to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. We will discuss topics such as diversification, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance that are relevant for all business organizations. We shall also look at areas that are especially relevant for SMES such as niche strategy, entrepreneurship, partnering, and innovation.

The objectives of this course are to:

• introduce participants to concepts and tools to systematically analyze the business environment and organizational operations;
• understand interactions between various competitors, SMEs and large firms, and consider ways to respond to, and anticipate, competitive moves;
• provide participants with opportunities to apply business concepts and tools to examine real companies using business cases and in-class exercises;
• aid participants in examining important, and current, strategic issues that are relevant for SMEs; and
• enable participants to develop strategies that will lead to competitive advantage for their firms.