Michael Christensen

All Courses

• MGMT2230 - Business Strategy

  This course introduces concepts and analytical techniques for creating sustainable advantage in challenging competitive environments. Students examine strategic decisions faced by managers responsible for the performance of a firm or business unit, who must diagnose the basis for current results, identify internal and external changes likely to threaten the firm’s position or create opportunities, and formulate and implement strategies to compete successfully. Through readings, case-based discussions, and theory, the course develops students’ ability to analyze competitive environments, evaluate the strengths and limitations of firms, and make strategic choices at both the business and corporate levels. Special emphasis is placed on first-order forces shaping competition, including advances in artificial intelligence, platform-based business models, and rapid innovation in science- and technology-intensive industries. A solid understanding of strategy is essential not only for top managers, but also for external consultants, financial analysts, and capital allocators responsible for valuing and growing firms.

• MGMT7010 - Strat & Compet Advantage

  This course is concerned with strategy issues at the business unit level. Its focus is on the question of how firms can create and sustain a competitive advantage. A central part of the course deals with concepts that have been developed around the notions of complementarities and fit. Other topics covered in the course include the creation of competitive advantage through commitment, competitor analysis, different organizational responses to environmental changes, modularity, and increasing returns. An important feature of the course is a term-length project in which groups of students work on firm analyses that require the application of the course concepts.

• MGMT7820 - Strategic Implementation

  Much more is known about strategy formulation than its implementation, yet valid, sensible strategies often fail because of problems on the implementation side. This course provides you with tools to turn good strategy into successful reality. It covers the choices, structure, and conditions that enable the successful attainment of strategic objectives. Students learn from rigorous academic research on successful implementation, as well as a series of seasoned business leaders who will visit to share their own experience from the front lines.

• MGMT8320 - Bus Mod Innov Strategy

  The purpose of this course is to provide senior managers, executives, consultants, investors, and entrepreneurs with a toolkit to understand how to formulate successful strategies in highly uncertain and dynamic environments. Firms in dynamic environments face substantial technological change, rapidly evolving competitive threats, and uncertainty around customer needs and demands. This course provides a set of frameworks and theories which provide clarity and perspective to otherwise difficult and complex business decisions. The course will address critical questions for managers of all types of firms facing complex and dynamic environments, such as: • How do I understand if I am at risk of being disrupted, and what can I do about it? • How can I create a successful strategy in new markets? • What do my customers actually want? • What does a good business model look like? • How might new technologies impact my business and business model? • How should I think about growth and profitability when building a new business? We begin the course by diving head-first into one of the most widely discussed yet widely misunderstood business theories of the past 30 years – disruptive innovation. We will examine the two dominant types of disruption—low-end disruption and new market disruption—and seek to understand the unique characteristics and conditions which give rise to each. We will then explore a variety of perspectives related to disruptive innovation—what type of strategy to apply when approaching new markets, how to make profitability vs. growth trade-offs, how to think about the nature of an industry’s technology evolution, and how to consider specific demand-side factors which impact which products gain traction in both new and existing markets.

• MGMT8900 - Advanced Study-Ind

  Course offered for advanced study projects for group projects and activities. Course is comprised of various topics and points of focus, ranging across multiple concentrations of Management, (i.e., Entrepreneurial, Strategy, Organizational Business, etc.).