Majors and Requirements

The Management and Strategy curriculum develops the student's ability to assume the role of a general manager and to think constructively about the strategic focus and direction of his or her organization.

Four broad issues are central to the curriculum:

• Given that general management coordinates the organization's administration, its line operations, and its strategies, what are appropriate criteria and processes for general management decision making?
• What strategies can a firm follow in order to gain competitive advantage when entering into, competing within, and exiting from individual markets, and how do these strategies interact when the firm competes in several markets?
• What are the optimal boundaries of the firm, and what are the advantages and disadvantages its unique history and resources give it?
• How do the ethical, political, and regulatory relationships between the firm and society affect its choices of strategies, administrative design, and its operations?

Of particular value is the curriculum's effort to consider these issues as a whole through integrative cases, for the essence of general management is defining and communicating in terms of these issues what the firm is and will be.

The Management and Strategy major is appropriate for students who plan to pursue careers in general management, management consulting, new venture management, venture capital, corporate planning, and the mergers and acquisitions side of investment banking. It complements particularly well majors in marketing, finance, and operations for students who plan careers in those functional areas.