Strategic Management from a Practice Perspective: A Day in the Life of a CEO - Period 5

The course aims to familiarize the student with three important themes relevant for the strategic management of a firm from a behavioral perspective. It discusses protocols for strategy (scenario planning), for investing and for performance management. It aims to put students into the position of a CEO and expose them to those issues a CEO needs to deal with in a strategic manner. The session making up this course will each deal with a particular strategic question that addresses a broader theme, such as: How to gain an sustain a competitive advantage? (strategic positioning); In which markets to compete? (internationalization strategy); How to grow and expand our business? (M&A strategy); How to be successful and sustainable? (sustainability strategy); How to meet the challenges of the digital age? (digitalization strategy); How to manage relations with the board of directors? (corporate governance strategy); How to be a good leader? (leadership strategy). Students will learn to take a birds-eye point of view and discuss how these strategic issues are interrelated and together comprise the building blocks of corporate strategy. Three practical tools help accomplish this goal: Scenarioplanning, value based investing and Organizational Behavior Management (OBM). Invited guest speakers (CEOs) will allow students to be further exposed to real-life challenges of strategic management. Students will further be asked to examine critically the work (and strategy making) of one famous CEO of their choice (such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, etc.) based on publicly available data such as speeches and videos, and relate the CEOs behaviour to the strategic management approaches discussed in class. Findings will be presented during classes in teams.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU Amsterdam) awards credits based on the ECTS system. Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.