Critical Business Skills for Success

Gain a complete foundation in the five disciplines of business—strategy, operations, finance and accounting, organizational behavior, and marketing—taught in every MBA program. This course equips you with the tools to make smarter decisions, lead effectively, and grow sustainably.

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What You’ll Learn in This Course

Strategy

• 01: Strategy Is Making Choices – Understand the essence of strategy and its drivers: industry structure and competitive advantage. (32 min)

• 02: How Apple Raises Competitive Barriers – Explore five forces shaping business strategy with Apple as a case study. (30 min)

• 03: The Danger of Straddling – Learn why straddling between positions weakens competitiveness. (33 min)

• 04: What Trader Joe’s Doesn’t Do – Discover the power of trade-offs in creating unique success. (31 min)

• 05: First Movers versus Fast Followers – Weigh advantages of pioneering vs. learning from others. (31 min)

• 06: When Netflix Met Blockbuster – Study disruptive innovation in action. (30 min)

• 07: Anticipating Your Rival’s Response – Gain insights from competitive battles across industries. (32 min)

• 08: Why Did Disney Buy Pixar? – Explore corporate strategy through vertical and horizontal integration. (31 min)

• 09: The Diversification Discount – Learn smart vs. risky diversification strategies. (30 min)

• 10: Forward and Backward Integration – Analyze vertical integration through Disney and Zara. (31 min)

• 11: Mergers and Acquisitions – The Winner’s Curse – Understand risks and opportunities in M&A. (32 min)

• 12: Launching a Lean Start-Up – Key entrepreneurial lessons for building new ventures. (33 min)

Operations

• 13–24 – Topics include superior operations, production efficiency, service quality, matching supply and demand, inventory management, supplier relationships, logistics, business process improvement, performance measurement, margin analysis, supply chain leverage, and risk management. (30–35 min each)

Finance & Accounting

• 25–36 – Core lectures cover accounting fundamentals, interpreting balance sheets, income statements, and cash flows; financial ratios; cost-volume-profit analysis; time value of money; risk-return trade-offs; valuation methods; and investor decision tools. (30–34 min each)

Organizational Behavior

• 37–48 – Learn leadership, emotional intelligence, communication, motivation, teamwork, coaching, power dynamics, conflict management, ethics, change management, and lifelong learning for career growth. (30–33 min each)

Marketing

• 49–60 – Develop marketing mastery with segmentation, targeting, positioning, branding, pricing, customer experience, communications, social media, and innovative research techniques. (28–32 min each)