CBI 512 · Global Strategic Management
Choose where to compete, how to win and what to say no to
In about seven weeks at nine hours a week, learn to read your industry, test what your advantage is worth, compare ways to grow and enter a new market, and hold one strategy together through tariffs and disruption.
For owners and managers choosing between growth moves: a new market, a new site, an acquisition or outside money.
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What you'll learn
Everything you will learn in Global Strategic Management
37 topics, taught at graduate level and explained from first principles.
- 37 topics
- 57 hours of study
- 13-chapter textbook
- Graduate level
01What a strategy is
- Tell strategy from operational effectiveness
- Write a strategy statement: mission, objectives, scope and advantage
- Name the trade-offs, the things the business refuses to do
- Map an activity system and test its fit
- Tell stated, emergent and realized strategy apart
02Reading the industry
- Draw an industry's boundary and see why it decides the answer
- Score the five forces and find the force that takes the profit
- Place an industry in its life cycle and know the question each stage asks
- See how substitutes and complements redraw an industry
- Use market data and AI as inputs, and know what they cannot tell you
- Gather competitor intelligence within the law
03Advantage and position
- Separate resources from capabilities
- Run the VRIO test and read the result: parity, temporary or sustained advantage
- Draw the value chain and find the margin at each step
- Decide when to own an activity and when to buy it
- Choose cost leadership, differentiation or focus
- Test a premium or a cost saving with numbers before committing
- Judge whether data and AI are a capability or a bought tool
04Rivals, new markets and growth
- Draw a strategy canvas and an eliminate, reduce, raise, create grid
- Test whether a new market space can be defended once rivals copy it
- Predict a rival's reply and plan the counter
- Understand network effects, multi-homing and switching costs on platforms
- Apply the parenting test and the better-off test to a portfolio
- Choose build, borrow or buy by speed, control, cost and risk
- Value an acquisition and set a walk-away price
05Going global
- Rate a market's distance with the CAGE framework
- Understand the liability of foreignness
- Compare export, licensing, franchising, joint venture and wholly owned entry
- Stage entry and change mode as you learn
- Decide what to standardize and what to adapt, and cost each adaptation
- Draw a decision-rights table between headquarters and the foreign unit
06Disruption and execution
- Build a scenario table with weights and early signals
- Compute tariff pass-through and its effect on margin and debt cover
- Apply the shift test to AI and electrification
- Keep real options open and set a trigger to act
- Write OKRs and a balanced scorecard linked to the strategy
- Set board rules for an outside investor: reserved matters, information and exit rights
All 37 topics for $149. One-time payment, lifetime access.
Requirements
What you need to start
Very little. The course is built for people who have not studied this before.
- No experience required. The course starts from the question of what a strategy is.
- No strategy or consulting background needed. Every framework is explained the first time it appears.
- No paid software required. A free spreadsheet such as Google Sheets is enough.
- No financial calculator needed. Every calculation is done in a spreadsheet.
- No programming knowledge needed.
- No advanced math. Percentages and basic algebra are all you use.
- No degree required. You do not need to have studied business before.
- A phone, tablet or computer. Any device with an internet connection.
- English. Every class has captions.
Is this for you?
Who this course is for
- Owners weighing a new site, a new market or an acquisition
- Founders deciding whether to take outside investment
- Managers asked to write or present the company strategy
- General managers taking on a business unit for the first time
- Export and international managers choosing the next market
- Operations leaders deciding what to make and what to buy
- Marketing leaders defending a premium position
- Product leaders who must pick a position against rivals and platforms
- Engineers and technical leads moving into general management
- Consultants and analysts who advise on growth
- Family-business successors planning the next decade
- Finance staff who review growth proposals
- Board members and advisers to growing companies
- Students preparing for graduate business study
- Career changers who want graduate-level strategy
Not for you ifyou want live lectures or a study group. Everything here is self-paced.
Look inside
See a class, a study card and the marking before you pay.
Watch the opening of class one, flip a real study card, and see exactly how your work is judged.
One of 48. Each returns just before you would forget it, so the course stays with you.
Case 2: One Brand, Three Paths. You see the rubric before you start, and get written feedback on every criterion.
The full textbook and the study guide written to it, so you can look anything up after you finish.
The classes
Every class, in the order you will need it.
01What Strategy Is and Is NotSeparate strategy from operational effectiveness, write a one-sentence strategy with a stated trade-off and map how the activities fit
- Three pieces of advice and one coffee roaster
- The big idea and the five parts
- Why firms must choose
02Reading the IndustryScore the five forces for your industry, name the force that takes the profit and place the industry in its life cycle
- From what a firm chooses to where it competes
- One percent of a cost the firm does not set
- The big idea and the five parts
03Resources, Capabilities, and the Value ChainDraw the value chain, run the VRIO test on your resources and decide which activity to own and which to buy
- From the industry to the firm
- Same industry, different returns
- Why a firm cannot buy an edge
04Cost, Differentiation, and FocusChoose cost, differentiation or focus, and test the premium or saving each needs before you commit
- From a lasting advantage to a position
- Two proposals on the owner's desk
- The big idea and the four parts
05Blue Oceans, Rivals, and PlatformsDraw a strategy canvas and an ERRC grid, predict a rival's reply and judge whether a blue-ocean or platform move can be defended
- From a chosen position to a new space
- A rival cuts its price by ten percent
- The big idea and the five parts
06Corporate Strategy and Growth ModesApply the parenting test, value an acquisition as standalone value plus synergies minus price, and choose build, borrow or buy
- From one contest to the choice of what to own
- Two offers on one desk
- The question, the big idea and the five parts
07Going Global, Distance, and Entry ModesRate a country's distance with CAGE and compare export, licence, joint venture and wholly owned entry by return per dollar at risk
- From growth modes to going abroad
- A coffee roaster with two doors
- The big idea and the five parts
08Integration, Responsiveness, and Global StructureDecide what to standardize and what to adapt, cost each adaptation and draw a decision-rights table between headquarters and the foreign unit
- After entry, the real work begins
- A furniture store that sold biryani
- The big idea and the five parts
09Strategy Under DisruptionBuild a three-scenario table with probability weights, run a tariff pass-through and apply the shift test to AI and electrification
- From organising abroad to shifting ground
- The forecast says six hundred seventy-two thousand
- The big idea and the five parts
10Choosing the Path, Integrated Case, Ethics, and Individual AssessmentChoose among real options in a decision table, write OKRs and a balanced scorecard, and set governance rules for an outside investor
- From a chosen strategy to a run one
- A good business with three offers
- The big idea and the four parts
When you will see results
You will use it at work before you finish.
- After class 1
You write a one-sentence strategy for a business you know, name two things it refuses to do and mark which of its activities are strategy and which are only efficiency
- After class 4
You state a position as cost, difference or focus and show with numbers whether the premium or the saving pays
- After class 7
You rate two foreign markets on distance and compare at least three ways in by gross profit per dollar at risk, with a staged plan
- After class 10
You put every growth option in one decision table, choose, fund and sequence it, and set the OKRs and board rules to run it
Your time
Built to fit around a full-time job.
About 57 hours in total, at whatever pace your week allows. Nothing is live, the portal remembers exactly where you stopped, and study cards take about five minutes a day.
Two case assignments
Diageo and the Price of Saying No
You analyze Diageo from its public information and write a strategy diagnosis of what it chooses not to do. It is marked against this rubric, with written feedback on every criterion, usually within the hour. You finish with work you can show.
Each criterion is judged Exemplary, Proficient, Developing or Beginning.
Before you decide
You don't need a strategy background or consulting experience. If you can read a simple income statement and work out profit per unit, you can start.
- Each class ends with a short quiz, so you know it stuck before you move on.
- Study cards bring back what you would forget, five minutes a day.
- The portal always shows your next step, so a busy week never becomes a lost month.
What $149 gets you
The complete course, for one price.
- Video classes you can fit around workPause anywhere and pick up on any device. Captions on every class, so you can study with the sound off.
- The full Global Strategic Management textbook, yours to keepPDF and EPUB, so you can look things up long after you finish.
- A study guide that covers every classThe key ideas, models and worked examples in one place, so you never write your own summary notes.
- 11 quizzes and exams, marked fastQuizzes are marked the moment you submit and exams usually within minutes, with the reasoning behind every answer, so you know what stuck and what to revisit.
- Two real-company cases with written feedbackStarting with Diageo. You finish with analysis you can show, marked against a published rubric.
- 48 study cards that keep it freshFive minutes a day. Each card returns just before you would forget it.
- Your progress, saved everywhereThe portal remembers exactly where you stopped, so a busy week never sets you back.
- Lifetime access and updatesIt is there when the real decision arrives, including every future improvement to the course.
One payment. No subscription, no hidden fees.
What one better growth decision is worth
If the entry-mode comparison steers one $400,000 foreign launch into a $60,000 licence while you learn the market, that is $340,000 of cash you did not put at risk. The course costs $149, once.
One-time paymentInstant access14-day money-back guarantee
Questions
What people ask before they buy.
How much time will it take?
About 57 hours in total: the video classes, the readings, the quizzes and exams, and the case assignments. At nine hours a week that is about seven weeks. Nothing is scheduled, so you set the pace.
Is this right for beginners?
Yes. The course starts with the question of what a strategy actually is and builds one idea on the last. You should be able to read a simple income statement and work out profit per unit; a short preparation unit with practice questions covers that. No prior strategy or consulting experience required.
What if I'm too busy?
Nothing is live and nothing expires. Each class stands on its own, the portal remembers exactly where you stopped, and your study cards take about five minutes a day. Pause for a month and pick up where you left off.
I've started online courses before and never finished. Why is this different?
It is built so you finish. Every class ends with a short quiz, study cards bring back what you would otherwise forget, and the portal always shows your next step. Two graded cases give you a reason to apply it, not just watch it.
When will I see results?
After class 1 you can write a strategy statement with a stated trade-off. After class 2 you can score an industry's five forces, and after class 4 you can show with numbers whether a price premium or a cost saving pays.
Why is it worth $149?
You get the complete course: every video class, the full textbook and study guide, a quiz for each class, a final exam, and two real-company cases with written feedback. One growth move you refuse, or enter the right way, can be worth far more than $149.
What if it isn't right for me?
If the course isn't right for you, ask within 14 days of buying for a full refund. It applies as long as you've watched fewer than three classes and haven't submitted an assignment.
Is this only for companies going abroad?
No. Classes 1 to 6 are about strategy in any market: the industry, your advantage, your position, your rivals and how to grow. Classes 7 to 10 add distance, entry modes, what to standardize abroad and strategy under tariffs and disruption. A business that never leaves home still uses the first six and the scenario method.
Which companies does the course use as examples?
Each class works through one documented case, among them Uniqlo, Swatch, BYD, Ryanair, Nintendo's Wii, Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover, Starbucks in China, IKEA in India, Huawei and Emirates, using facts from company filings and reports. The running example is one growing specialty coffee roaster weighing a UK launch, a Gulf entry, an automated third site and a private-equity offer.
How much math is involved?
Percentages and a spreadsheet. You compute margin per unit, payback, break-even volume, return per dollar at risk and a probability-weighted scenario table, always from a worked example first.
How do I get access?
Straight after checkout you are signed in to the CBI student portal and can start class one. We also email you a sign-in link so you can come back from any device.
CBI 512 · Global Strategic Management
Choose where to compete, how to win and what to say no to
Start tonight. If it isn't right for you, ask within 14 days for a full refund.
One-time paymentInstant access14-day money-back guarantee
Our students work at