A business’s strategy defines its goals, plan for achieving them, and metrics for tracking success. As a business professional, understanding strategy formulation and execution is critical to helping your organization perform at its best.
Harvard Business School Online offers two courses to equip you with those skills: Business Strategy and Strategy Execution.
While both can help hone your strategic decision-making and prioritization skills, they have different focuses. Here’s a breakdown of each to help you decide which is best for your goals.
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DOWNLOAD NOWCourse Comparison: Business Strategy vs. Strategy Execution
Business Strategy
Business Strategy is a seven-week online course designed to simplify and demystify the strategic process. Taught by HBS Professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee, it equips you with the value stick framework, a tool for assessing business opportunities and crafting strategies that create value for stakeholders.
In this course, you learn how to:
- Formulate strategies with maximum value creation in mind
- Sharpen your strategic decision-making skills
- Build and implement strategies with sustaining value
- Master the language and tools of business strategy to contribute meaningfully to conversations and your team’s success
"As strategists, we really ask three questions,” Oberholzer-Gee says in the course. “‘How can my business best create value for customers? How can my business create value for employees? And how can my business create value by collaborating with suppliers?’ Think of a company's strategy as an answer to these three questions.”
Barka Bassi, CEO and director of design operations at Ecourban Nigeria, experienced the power of value creation when he took Business Strategy.
“The idea of value and how it influences both suppliers and customers is amazing and practical,” Bassi says. “Where I’m from, value is spoken of in terms less important and influential and seen as a commodity or service with fixed conditions. The idea that value can be scaled and influenced in a myriad of ways puts this course ahead.”
Whether you’re a professional aiming to contribute to strategic conversations, a manager who wants to learn how to allocate resources and prioritize projects strategically, or a consultant intent on providing strategic recommendations to clients, Business Strategy is the right course for you.
Strategy Execution
Strategy Execution is an eight-week online course taught by HBS Professor Robert Simons. Whereas Business Strategy is a foundational primer on the entire strategic process, Strategy Execution dives deep into its final stage: implementation.
In this course, you learn how to:
- Apply frameworks, tools, and goal-setting exercises to strategic initiatives
- Balance strategy execution’s core tensions: growth, profit, and control
- Design measurement systems to track and reach goals in various facets of business performance
- Identify and manage risks that could derail strategy execution
- Use proprietary tools and frameworks to empower employees and drive results
- Establish an environment that fosters successful implementation
According to research by Bridges Business Consultancy, 48 percent of companies fail to reach at least half of their strategic targets, and just seven percent of business leaders believe their organizations excel at strategy implementation.
“The ability to implement business strategy is one of the most critical skills for leaders at every level of an organization,” Simons says about the course. “Unfortunately, this skill is often lacking. We created this course to give you the knowledge and tools to help your organization meet its strategic goals and, ultimately, achieve long-term success.”
Related: 5 Strategy Execution Skills Every Business Leader Needs
One professional who experienced these results is Jemma Martin, an outcomes manager at staffing and recruiting firm Jobs Statewide.
“I've utilized the knowledge I gained from Strategy Execution by regularly reviewing my notes to tweak my approach when making decisions at work for optimum outcomes,” Martin says. “Strategy Execution provides learners with tools and frameworks based on real-life business situations. This directly affects the value of the course, as the takeaways are applicable—not just theories you can learn in other courses.”
Whether you’re an experienced or aspiring manager, entrepreneur, or consultant, Strategy Execution can equip you with the knowledge and skills to tackle what many consider the strategic process’s most difficult part. After all, even the most well-formulated strategies can’t succeed without strong execution.
Types of Strategy Certificate Courses
Business Strategy and Strategy Execution are just two of the courses HBS Online offers in the strategy subject area, which also comprises:
- Economics for Managers: Learn about strategy formulation’s economic facets, including pricing strategy, relative cost analysis, demand creation, and competitive advantage.
- Global Business: Gain fundamental knowledge of macroeconomics to understand and craft international business strategies.
- Disruptive Strategy: Assess your industry for disruptive threats and opportunities and discover how to craft strategies while maintaining a disruptive scope.
- Sustainable Business Strategy: Develop and advocate for purpose-driven business strategy to make a positive impact on the environment and society.
If multiple courses align with your goals, consider pursuing a Learning Track. By taking three courses in the strategy subject area, you can earn a Certificate of Specialization in Strategy and signal your commitment to lifelong learning to employers.
The HBS Online Learning Experience
No matter which course you choose, you can experience what makes HBS Online unique. All courses feature:
- World-renowned HBS faculty
- Self-paced coursework with deadlines
- Engaging, interactive content
- Social interaction with fellow learners
- Examples of real business challenges faced by experts
- The HBS Online Community, a global network of business professionals
- Career growth and a positive return on investment
A recent City Square Associates survey found that 42 percent of HBS Online learners earned a $17,000 average salary increase after earning their certificate—a 10-times return on their investment.
HBS Online learners also changed careers (36 percent), earned promotions (31 percent), and reported that their experiences positively impacted their careers (91 percent).
Build Your Strategic Skill Set
Taking a strategy course is an investment in your capabilities, career, and organization.
Whether you learn how to create value and drive strategic decision-making with Business Strategy or smoothly navigate the complexities of implementation with Strategy Execution, you can build your strategic skills and propel your career forward.
If you still aren't sure which HBS Online strategy course is the right fit, download our free course flowchart to determine which best aligns with your goals. If multiple programs interest you, consider pursuing a Learning Track, which enables you to take three courses within the strategy subject area.
