Best Free MOOCs In Business In February

Business Growth Strategy

School: University of Virginia

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link:  REGISTER HERE

Start Date: February 5, 2018

Workload: 2-5 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Michael Lenox and Jared Harris

Credentials: Professor Lenox is responsible for teaching the core MBA strategy course at Darden, where he also serves as Associate Dean and Director of the Batten Institute For Entrepreneurship and Innovation. He also serves as President of the Alliance For Research on Corporate Sustainability (ARCS) and made the list of Poets and Quants’ “Top 40 Under 40” professors.

A faculty member at Darden since 2006, Harris teaches first year ethics and strategy courses in the MBA program. His research, which focuses on ethics, corporate governance, and entrepreneurship, has been published in academic journals ranging from the Strategic Management Journal to Corporate Reputation Review (as well as cited in national outlets like the New York Times and the Washington Post). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.

Description: The third course in Darden’s Business Strategy specialization, Business Growth Strategy uses a case model to show how companies like JetBlue, Zappos, and Tata Motors built their businesses, including the strategies they employed, the hurdles they faced, and the tradeoffs they made. In particular, the course examines how organizations “build value by scaling existing markets, entering established markets and creating new markets through innovation and acquisitions.” In doing so, students will develop tools that will enable them to develop, analyze, and execute strategic plans to help them grow and scale their operations.

Review: “I learned a lot about the different approaches to grow a business. I specially paid attention to the challenges to Merges and Acquisitions, which is very common between firms, and also the failure of them. Today I have a different perspective on companies growth, and confirmed someone accountable for growth strategy cant be in “paralysis by analysis”, meaning it needs to formulate it very quick, implement with lots of uncertainty but also adjust quickly as the results generate some information or data, a great challenge!” For additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: Students can choose to explore course videos, discussions, and ungraded assignments for free, but they won’t be able to submit graded assignments, earn a certificate, or complete a specialization without paying a $79 fee.