Strategic Advantage

The energy sector faces huge challenges and great opportunities in meeting the various demands placed upon it by competition, customers and regulators. These dynamics mean that all energy companies must have a clear long-term strategic direction that embraces the scope and performance of the organisation and its role in the industry.

Strategy is fundamentally concerned with managing the long-term direction of an organisation and its parts. This module will help you understand 'strategy' both at the level of the individual business, or business unit, and at the corporate level. We will draw on various disciplines to provide you with good foundations for making strategic decisions, using the global business environment to provide context.

You will be equipped with the basic analytical concepts, frameworks and methods used in setting long-term direction. Taking the example of the energy industry, you will analyse the strategic forces at play across the industry. Strategy is relevant only in context, and you will constantly relate the theory and practice being discussed to you own particular national and organisational context in order to design appropriate courses of action.

Topics covered include:

Competitive strategy and the business environment across the energy industry
The macro-economic context of strategy
Adding value in multi-business firms
Corporate failure and turnaround strategies
Mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances
Global strategies and international business
Strategy and forecasting in a changing business environment.

By the end of this module you will:

Analyse the strategic positioning of firms and evaluate their necessary competencies and resources
Develop alternative strategies contingent on the demands of the organisation and its energy industry context
Understand the key elements of strategic advantage for energy organisations, against the demands of the industry
Use business resources to achieve sustained, superior performance
Take an integrated approach to business.