Carnegie Mellon University

MBA Strategy Concentration

Strategy encompasses a range of functions within both the corporate and the entrepreneurial landscape. A popular concentration for Tepper MBAs, strategy provides the underpinning for helping students develop the fundamental skillset for formulating and executing strategies for competitive business advantage.

The elective and core coursework provides exposure to companies’ operating environments (both within the firm and in the external competitive environment), approaches to sustaining competitive advantage, methods for generating value for customers and shareholders, and a framework for balancing the opportunities and risks associated with dynamic and uncertain changes in industry attractiveness and competitive position.

This concentration utilizes a range of analytical tools and the ability to take an integrative point of view within a framework of decision-making that focuses on multiple disciplines. Students will understand how to integrate functions such as finance, law, operations, marketing, etc., all within the context of strategy.

Tepper MBA students will become comfortable integrating coursework from other areas/concentrations to use their analytical skills to perform in-depth analyses of industries and competitors, predict competitive behavior, and analyze how firms develop and sustain competitive advantage over time.

Topics among various concentrations include, but are not limited to, consulting and conflict resolution, managing intellectual capital and knowledge-intensive business, strategic corporate management, technology strategy, trade, and investment strategy.