Heather Hollick - Curriculum Vitae -

Highly energetic and intensely stimulating, this course is another in my top 5 courses from Berkeley. Through a diverse section of case studies we learned how to analyze and design profitable business strategies. The net result was a highly honed ability to review a business situation; assess its strengths, weaknesses and viability; and recommend strategic direction.

The course drew heavily on microeconomics and game theory as its conceptual foundations. Through more than a dozen case studies, the course provided keen insights into the following major questions:

How do the fundamental economic forces of an industry affect a company's ability to make profits?
How can a company produce economic profits in the long run?
What are the legal constraints on the methods a company uses in pursuit of profit?
How can a company choose profitable strategies when it must compete with competitors?
How can a company generate value, and how can it capture that value as profit?
How should a company choose the scope of its activities?
How can a company profitably enter new markets, and how can it preserve profitability in the face of entry into its existing markets?