Seminar on the Economics of Strategy and Innovation
[ECON2476]
[30h] 10 crédits
Enseignants : Francis Martin
Langue d'enseignement : Anglais
Niveau : Second cycle
Objectifs (en termes de compétences)
- to illustrate to students how the skills of an economist are used in a company in the fields of strategy and innovation
- to force the students to analyze an industry and two companies active in this industry while prac-tically working with a set of methodologies and frameworks (described below)
Objet de l'activité (principaux thèmes à aborder)
- how to understand/translate the strategy of a company
- how to take the helicopter view, bringing the industry into the picture
- how to understand/analyze the innovations developed by a company in the context of a specific strategy
Résumé : Contenu et Méthodes
- During the first two courses, the professor explains the methodology, recaps the basics of strat-egy and innovation at a company level. He also describes the main frameworks to be used by the students.
- Students are asked to work in pairs (could be extended to groups of three people maximum, de-pending on the number of students) and to choose an industry as well as two companies, listed and active in this industry. Choice has to be made at the end of the second course.
- The main methodologies to be used by the students are Era analysis, Forces at work (Porter), Portfolio of innovations (McKinsey) and comparison of financial ratios.
- The students work in groups and have to present their findings at the end of the seminar (e.g. powerpoint presentation). In order to prepare these presentations, two coaching sessions are or-ganized by group with the professor.
Autres informations (Pré-requis, Evaluation, Support, ...)
Preferably and introduction to accounting and/or finance.
Preferably an introduction to strategy.
Evaluation
Based on the final presentation:
- 10 points for the quality of the presentation (including proper sourcing)
- 10 points for the quality of the individual speaker (including Q&A)