Please be advised: the information contained on this page is a general overview of the course. As course information is subject to change from one semester to another, please check DukeHub for the most accurate and up-to-date information about EGRMGMT courses.
At a Glance
- Instructor(s): Tony O’Driscoll
- Semester(s) typically taught: Fall and Spring
- Units: 3.0
- Grading scale: Graded (A-F)
- Required or elective for MEM degree? Elective
- If elective, applicable elective track(s): Customer Experience and Product Design, Entrepreneurship, Product Management, Technology Development and Commercialization
- Pre-requisites: n/a
- Recommended previous courses: EGRMGMT 510
Course Description/Synopsis (from DukeHub)
This course is designed to teach the elements of competitive strategy with a focus on the special considerations of technology based companies, with particular emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurial activities in ventures of all sizes. Students will gain an appreciation for the strategic considerations that affect the success of technology-based products in the marketplace through a systematic exposure to key concepts in analysis, formulation and execution of strategic options. The course is structured along the lines that a company or organization would likely follow in the development of a competitive strategy.
360° Course View (from Linkedin)
Course Syllabus (Previous)
EGRMGMT 542.01 Syllabus, Fall2024
A Word From the Faculty/TA (from LinkedIn 360° Course View)
“Strategy is about understanding how to create, deliver and capture value for the customer by finding a position that is unique and differentiated and collaborating with other organizations within the business ecosystem. At the conclusion of this course, students will have the ability to think critically about business strategy, examine the implications of strategic decisions, consider the effect of strategic decisions on people, communicate strategic recommendations clearly, concisely and compellingly in written and oral form.” –Tony O’Driscoll, course instructor
“I enjoyed this course thoroughly as a student and as a TA. The live cases introduced are based on the current scenarios. This makes it more interesting to predict and devise a strategy for that company. The Transform simulation is one of the exciting parts of the course which puts you in a pseudo real time situation of actual merger and acquisitions of the businesses. It involves a lot of teamwork and discussions overall throughout the semester which helps to learn from each other. There is a lot of improvement witnessed from the start to the end of the semester.” -Tejasvi Patil, Fall 2021 TA
Student Testimonials (from Linkedin 360° Course View)
“I took up the competitive strategies course to understand how long standing technology companies can constantly innovate and maintain their industry position. On this front, I was not disappointed one bit. The frameworks taught in the course are applied practically at technology giants and they can peek into the future and mould it as they please. The course has allowed me to broaden my mental horizon and look at the bigger picture, an idea that always eluded me as an engineer. The curriculum has allowed me to solve complex equivocal problems using structured frameworks. As an outcome of the course, I have now begun to embrace ambiguity. The pragmatic nature of the course- live cases and simulations have been especially helpful to understand how leaders at technology companies think on their feet. There was a live case about Facebook being under constant criticism. Several teams suggested that Facebook do some damage control through rebranding. A day later, Facebook rebrands itself as Meta. Such is the nature of the course, all in real-time. Lastly, the course came full circle by discussing various business models, cultures, and people. I strongly recommend that everyone take up the course and invest as much as they can in the course as it will help them develop strong mental model communication skillsets which are essential to crack interviews.” -Lorick Jain, Fall 2021 student
“Engineering managers need to learn to ‘execute strategies, not execute (kill)strategies.’ In Fall 2021, I took the competitive strategy course taught by Prof. Tony. The class opened my eyes and awakened my competitive instincts – it made me realize that in the face of many challenges, we need to think strategically about our goals and how best to achieve them. It was one of the few classes which encouraged lots of flexibility when it came down to approaching the learning materials. The end semester project is one key highlight of this course. Personally, the research and effort I put into the final project helped me crack the TPM internship interview at SiriusXM.” -Malav Shah, Fall 2021 student
Previous Course Evaluations
- Fall 2021
- Spring 2021
