The Business Strategy course focused on organizing people and resources to gain a competitive advantage in the creation and delivery of products and services. It explores how companies can effectively structure and acquire resources to optimize the delivery of their product portfolios to customers. To support informed decision-making in business management, the course provided a foundation in analytical methods, offering students a conceptual framework to understand the relationship between a company’s operations and its ability to meet market demand. The course also deepened the strategic questions, such as assessing a company’s current position, defining its mission and vision, determining which areas or activities to operate within, and identifying ways to improve efficiency. It covered both strategy formulation, addressing what the company’s strategy should be, and strategy implementation, focusing on the actions required to execute that strategy successfully.

The primary goal of the course was to develop an understanding of the practical aspects of business strategy. I learned how to conduct strategic analysis, suggest informed decisions and actions to create sustainable competitive advantages. Emphasis was placed on both internal organizational conditions and the necessary operational strategy adjustments required in response to a changing business environment.

Key take-aways

The course deepened my understanding in active involvement in strategy development within our organizations, problem identification, analysis, and the formulation of action alternatives, grounded in strategic theories and models. The course provided theoretical and hands on skills in using the leading methods for business strategy analytics.
The course also provided deep insight into operational process modeling as a method for change strategy development and implementation.

• Analytics and strategy method explored and used
• McKewown Quick Start Strategy
• SWOT
• Porter’s 5 Forces
• McKinseys 7S model

In my examination report I focused on the application of generative AI in operational asset maintenance processes. The business strategy was developed based on (non confidential) Maximo Application Suite customer needs, IBM corporate AI strategy and Asset Management market analysis. A traditional maintenance processes compared with new agentic AI network implementations. Operational improvement KPI were discussed to validate the operational process improvements. An agentic AI network was conceptualized to implement the intelligent asset management solution. The examination report was presented to the course examiner and a group of fellow students for critique.