Strategy Formulation taught you how to identify a competitive advantage. But how do you create a competitive advantage when you don’t have one—such as when you’re starting out a new company or in a new market? How do you do it in the face of considerable uncertainty, with few resources, and cognizant of how much initial choices matter? Should one achieve it only through experimentation? Focus on execution and simple ‘go for it’? Invest in early planning?   This course provides a strategy framework for growth entrepreneurship. It is particularly focused on helping students create a sustantiable competitive advantage and understand how to do so in the early uncertain stages of a startup. The class is meant for all students, not just entrepreneurs: while entrepreneurs and startups are the main actors of the entrepreneurial story, the skill of developing entrepreneurial strategies is critical for anyone who will lead and succeed in the innovation-driven economy of today.

Students that might particularly benefit from this class include students that
(a) Are or will be entrepreneurs.
(b) Plan to work at a startup.
(c) Plan to invest in, acquire, or sell startups.
(d) Will be a consultant around innovation or entrepreneurship to larger firms.
(e) Will develop new product lines or novel technologies at larger companies.
In short, if you know the skills to start and grow businesses will matter your career, this class is probably for you.

Jorge Guzman

Assistant Professor of Business

Dr. Jorge Guzman is an assistant professor at the Management Division in Columbia Business School. Jorge received his PhD from the Sloan School of Management  at MIT, and was previously a postdoc at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a lecturer at MIT Sloan.  His research focuses on entrepreneurship policy, regional entrepreneurship, and entrepreneurial strategy.  He was previously involved...

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