Harvard University Division of Continuing Education: Professional Development

Fundamentals of Strategy

June 18–19 & August 13–14, 2012

9 am to 5 pm at Harvard University
Early bird tuition: $1,800. Regular tuition: $2,100. See the early bird tuition deadlines.
Class size limited.

Two-day seminar on effective business strategy

This program introduces you to the basic concepts and tools of strategic management. We cover the overall framework within which managers make decisions. Next, you explore the notion of strategy and how it relates to competitive advantage.

You discover different strategic tools to evaluate environmental threats and opportunities, including the industry competitive forces analysis. You learn how to identify company strengths and weaknesses and how to develop competencies. Finally, you study the strategic positioning of a company in its industry and the necessary factors responsible for strategy execution.

What you will learn

• How to develop the skills to perform external and internal analyses for companies and to evaluate the dynamics of competition
• How to build strategies using appropriate frameworks and tools
• The basics of strategy implementation and control

Topics covered

• Strategic management
• Competitive advantage
• External analysis
• Internal analysis
• Competitive positioning and business strategy
• Strategy implementation

Who should enroll

Business owners or employers from any industry who are interested in developing the skills needed to analyze and create strategy. There are no prerequisites, but a basic understanding of management and accounting principles is desired.

Faculty

Mohsin Habib

Habib, who teaches the March and June programs, is associate professor of management at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and an instructor at Harvard Extension School. He received a doctorate in strategic management with an emphasis on international strategy from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Habib teaches strategy, international management, and business ethics. He offers executive education seminars on strategy and has worked as a strategy consultant.

Habib’s research explores the relationship between foreign direct investments, factors specific to a country (for example, corruption), and the strategy of multinational corporations. He is particularly interested in how multinational corporations interact with developing and emerging countries, and the different roles (including social responsibility and sustainable development) these corporations play.

He has presented his findings at numerous conferences and published in reputed journals, including the Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and the International Business Review. In 2010, he was given the JoAnne Fussa Distinguished Teaching Award by Harvard Extension School.

Sharon A. Mertz

Mertz, who teaches the August program, is a research director in the software markets research team at Gartner Inc., where she publishes research directed toward business executives, investors, and product management within the global software market. As an instructor at Harvard Extension School and Southern New Hampshire University, Mertz teaches strategic management and technology within multinational corporate environments. She is an international business professional with more than 30 years of experience in strategic consulting and management, directed toward the introduction and impact of emerging technologies.

Before joining Gartner Inc., Mertz was an associate partner at IBM, working with the global research organizations to evaluate emerging business opportunities. She held an international assignment based in Paris as practice leader for IBM’s strategic consulting organization in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Mertz also held management roles at KPMG, Hewlett Packard, Bull Worldwide Information Systems, and Digital Equipment. She is an accomplished keynote speaker and has addressed audiences at both commercial and academic conferences internationally, such as the Russian Open Source Summit, Academy of International Business Conference, International Conference on Complex Systems, and various investor events.

Mertz is a member of the Academy of International Business and the honor societies of Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and completed graduate programs in computer science and business management at Worcester State University, George Washington University, and the Harvard Extension School, and is currently completing a doctorate in business administration. Areas of research interest include technology adoption models and software market growth in emerging economies.

Questions?

Contact harvardprofdev@dcemail.harvard.edu.