Strategy
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| 3 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| Examination | Includes residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
Success in strategy depends on matching an organisation’s distinctive assets and capabilities to its external relationships. This course will help you to develop a better understanding of what business strategy entails, both theoretically and in practice. It will improve your strategic thinking skills and develop your own view of your role in making strategy in the organisation. If you register for an MBA, you must take this as your first Stage 2 course after completing the University’s Professional Diploma in Management or Fundamentals of senior management (B713). This course provides the framework of strategic issues on which the other masters courses build.
This course is offered with a combination of face-to-face and online tuition. If you would prefer entirely online tuition please use the course code BZX820.
Course content
Strategy is often seen as one of the key tasks of senior managers, and this course will be particularly helpful to middle managers preparing themselves for more senior positions. It will contribute to your practical development as a manager by providing insights into the theory and practice of managing the process of strategic decision-making and strategy implementation in organisations. Strategies can affect whether an organisation survives, prospers or dies. Survival and prosperity depend on the solutions to questions such as: which products or services to offer; whether to pursue single or multiple lines of business; which markets or clients to aim for; whether to limit activities to local markets or expand internationally; how to acquire appropriate technologies, knowledge, finance and human resources; and which skills and capabilities to develop that will be relevant to your competitive strengths now and in the future.
The course helps you to understand the structure of the industries and markets and the general government and business context that your organisation operates in. We will teach you how to analyse relationships with suppliers, customers, competitors and collaborators. You will be helped to identify and evaluate your organisation’s resources and capabilities, including financial resources, human resources, physical resources (such as control over buildings, equipment or transportation networks) and intangible resources (such as brands, knowledge or informal networks with collaborative partners).
We emphasise the importance of developing potential sources of strategic advantage over competitors (both existing and future) and explain how successful organisations manage this process. You are shown how to identify sources of potential advantage within your own organisation’s resources and capabilities and what might make those resources and capabilities distinctive and long-lasting. Not-for-profit organisations as well as commercial organisations have to compete with other organisations for resources and achieve their objectives with limited resources. In many industries, effective strategies are based not on competition but on collaboration. Indeed, often organisations may be your competitors in some circumstances and your strategic partner in others. Managers therefore increasingly need to understand how to make such alliances work well over time.
Effective strategic management requires an understanding of stakeholders: who they are, their sources of power and influence, their objectives, and the reasons why they are likely to have an impact on your organisation. It will also be important to look outside your own national context and appreciate the impact that international competition and multinational corporations can have on your own organisation and its strategic options.
The course approaches strategy as a process, stressing that the assumptions upon which strategies are based must be continuously rethought and revised as industry conditions change. There are no permanently safe and long-lasting strategies. Managers also need to understand how strategies are affected by organisational politics and organisational culture and why strategies may go wrong over time. Often, the most difficult task is that of strategy implementation. That is the stage at which even the best planned strategies can fail, since it is dependent on the ability to manage change within your organisation.
For most middle managers, strategy presents a shift in the level of complexity with which they have to deal. It involves bringing together the sometimes narrow views of technical, functional, departmental and support activities, and at the same time to recognise which of the issues facing the organisation are truly important. The course promotes the skill of strategic thinking by supplementing your practical experience with appropriate theories, frameworks and concepts that aid understanding of strategic issues. You are given the frameworks with which to analyse the situations and problems that face organisations as they grow and change over time. You will then apply these tools in practical examples, in case studies and in your own organisation.
The course includes online forums as a basic activity for tutor groups. Informal online forums are used for interaction between you and other students and also with you and your tutor (in web-based tutor group areas), so that you can keep in touch and share ideas with other course participants and tutors. A wide variety of information resources are available to you via online access to the OU Library, as well as dedicated information resources for students taking the strategy course.
Vocational relevance
The course is related to the N/SVQ in operational management at Level 5.
Residential school
At the residential school (three and a half days) you will take part in intensive case study discussions and practical simulation exercises. Attendance at a residential school is compulsory for satisfactory completion of the course. The cost of the school is included in the course fee. See our Residential Schools website for more information.
Entry
You can take this course on its own, or include it in a number of our postgraduate programmes including our MBA programme. To register for the MBA you must have an honours degree or equivalent, and have a minimum of three years’ experience in a managerial, professional or technical role. Usually this means that you are at least 25 years old.
Although Strategy (B820) is a strong course on its own, it is particularly aimed at those aspiring to an MBA or management-related postgraduate study. You must still meet the same entry requirements whether you are studying this as a standalone course or as part of a postgraduate qualification. If you are taking the course as part of your MBA you must complete Stage 1 first (see MBA (F02)). If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Qualifications
B820 is a compulsory course in our
B820 is an optional course in our
- Postgraduate Certificate in Systems Thinking in Practice (C72)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Development Management (D37)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Information Systems (E10)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Systems Thinking in Practice (E28)
- Master of Public Administration (F44)
- MSc in Development Management (F11)
- MSc in Information Systems (F37)
- MBA (Technology Management) (F03)
- MSc in Strategic Management of Information Systems (F54)
- MSc in Systems Thinking in Practice (F47)
B820 is the compulsory first course in Stage 2 of our MBA programme.
Some postgraduate qualifications allow study to be chosen from other subject areas. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
Excluded combinations
Sometimes you will not be able to count a course towards a qualification if you have already taken another course with similar content. To check any excluded combinations relating to this course, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
The course depends heavily on reading and writing text on computer screens. Written transcripts are available for the audio-visual material and the television programmes are subtitled. The course materials are available in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). Some Adobe PDF components may not be available or fully accessible using a screen reader. Large print versions of the course materials can be provided on request. Other alternative formats of the course materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
You will need to spend considerable amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet. After you have registered you will receive detailed information about the residential school site and the facilities available to help with the academic programme.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklets Meeting Your Needs and Meeting your residential school needs, which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, tutorials, online forums, course website, downloaded software.
Computing requirements
This course has online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. You will contact your tutor by telephone, correspondence, email and online forums. We may be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where tutorials are held depends on the distribution of students taking each course. Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You must use the online eTMA system to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs).
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in November 2009 and May 2010. We expect it to be available twice more, in November 2010 and May 2011.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
A postgraduate course in Business and Management and Health and Social Care.
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