The Strategy of Teaching Strategy

Most strategy textbooks aren’t organized for how undergraduates actually learn. Concepts are arranged into overarching frameworks that appeal to strategy professors—asking students to consider how shifts in the global socio-political environment impact industries and firms before they understand what differentiation is or how firms create value. And because so much of strategic management is interrelated, the framework-first approach constantly borrows from future chapters to explain the current one. Some of that is unavoidable, but excessive anticipatory previews confuse more than they clarify.

This book optimizes for learning instead. We move from foundational concepts to frameworks, from smaller to larger scope (firm → industry → external environment), and from the entrepreneur’s perspective to the corporate executive’s. Each concept builds logically on the last, with as little redundancy and as few anticipatory previews as possible. It’s a deliberate departure from tradition—and one that proved more effective in the classroom throughout development.

Textbook Organization

Course Prep Made Easy

Import an entire Strategic Management course into Blackboard including PowerPoint slides, reading assessment quizzes, in-class activities, relevant YouTube videos, suggested business cases, and even premade exams (and extensive question pools for future exams).

The text is also built for instructor flexibility. Compact chapter sections let a typical semester course cover two sections per class meeting with room to spare for exams and group presentations. Within a single class, instructors can pair one section with experiential activities or case discussion—or move through several when a lecture-focused day fits the goals.