Build up your management skills through free courses from world-renowned universities through the Coursera platform. The following are some programmes which will be commencing soon:
Competitive Strategy
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitate Munchen (Free). Commencing on 11 April 2014.
This course is about the behaviour of companies in competitive markets. This course introduce the basic concepts of game theory as a toolbox with which a person can use to analyze strategic “games” in real-life settings. Participants will learn to use the toolbox to address and analyze different decisions firms take: How do price wars happen and when do they end? When should I enter a market in which firms currently make high profits? What makes strategic partnerships work? This six-week course will require 2-3 hours work per week.
On Strategy: What Managers Can Learn From Great Philosophers
Ecole Centrale Paris (Free). Commencing on 14 April 2014.
In the expression “creative thinking”, the keyword is not creativity; the keyword is thinking. With the help of great philosophers, rediscover the art of thinking. Creativity demands the ability to unshackle ourselves from conventional ways of thinking, to “think outside the box”. But we need to go a step further. Once outside the box, we need to construct a new box or boxes (that is, new intellectual frameworks or models) to help us structure our thinking. Only once we have done so can we generate truly game-changing ideas. This six-week course will require 2-3 hours work per week.
An Introduction to Marketing
University of Pennsylvania (Verified Certificate). Commencing on 21 April 2014.
This Wharton course teaches the fundamentals of marketing by getting to the root of customer decision making. It focuses on branding strategies, customer centricity and new market entry. Branding: given a very disparate world in which new startups are emerging constantly, brand equity is one of the key elements of keeping customers so that they have a trusted source for their needs. The second topic is customer centricity, which is taught in a global context where students learn how to gather needs and focus on the customer via discussion forums and empirical examples which are advanced by the mix of cultures in the course. Finally, the course explores practical, go-to-market strategies to help students understand the drivers that influence customers and see how these are implemented prior to making an investment. This 9-week course features on-location videos and debates between the three professors which will require 5-6 hours work per week. If you take up the Verified Certificate (US$49.00) version, you will usually have to completed a required work and receive a certificate upon completion of all the conditions.