MOR 588 - Corporate Strategy and Competitive Dynamics

This is a good course with interesting cases. All strategy classes talk about similar content so if you have taken a lot of strategy classes then this might feel redundant

Very big picture, less about specific, concrete skills. Arvind does bring in amazing guest speakers.

Great strategy class and great professor! Lots of really good cases that the class goes over.

This class is completely case and lecture based. If you enjoy discussing cases and learning qualitatively about strategy this is the perfect class. The class work load is light; two memo's, group project and participation.

Professor Bhambri is a genius, but very dry, especially for 3 hours. He has AMAZING connections, and great guest speakers...but dry. Group project is...dry. It's a great class from a Harvard dude - just dry

A lot of case studies. Be prepared for being cold-called in class for discussion. There was 1 group project that required you to work with 1 real-world client, and some case reports to write. Some materials on strategy concepts could be a bit dry. Who is this class for? Anyone interested in business strategy Final Thoughts: One of my favorite courses so far because I learnt so much about corporate strategy concepts. The professor is knowledgeable, and fair on grading. He also provided detailed feedback on your case analysis.

If you've already taken Kyle Mayer's Alliances & Cooperative Strategy class then you probably don't need to take this. It's a subpar version. Overall the topics, readings, discussions, and takeaways are all very valuable and practical no matter what industry. But I feel like I learned more in Kyle's class and could have taken a different type of strategy course this time around (Fiss doesn't do as good of a job as Kyle managing the discussion and pulling out the key points). He cold calls so definitely do the readings.

If you want to emerge from the semester being able to regurgitate facts from HBS cases, this is the class for you! Fiss is a nice guy and has a good reputation, but this is not the class to take with him.

Peer Fiss is very detailed with the run throughs of the cases. We get to work with an actual non-profit to provide strategy which is interesting and applicable to my future career. Also if you are on the top teams in the case competition you don't have to do the final so that is great.

Peer Fiss is certainly one of the best professors at USC. He leads a dynamic class and great class discussion. No MBA at Marshall is complete without at least one class from Fiss.

This is a great class. The flow and rhythm of the class is very balanced: Fiss introduces a topic in competitive strategy (e.g., M&A) and then uses several cases to illustrate that topic. Workload outside of case prep is fairly light.

Great class and excellent professor, would definitely recommend for anyone interested recruiting for consulting. Fiss teaches using the case method and provides several frameworks to analyze corporate strategy. Concepts are reinforced through a capstone group project where students present a growth strategy recommendation to a client.

More in-depth version of core strategy class. Provides good frameworks applicable to real world. This class is helpful to develop strategic thinking.

Seems like a repeat of core consulting class. Project is interesting but depends on what the company is (chosen by Fiss for the whole class)

I definitely recommend this class. This class is entirely case-based but Fiss teaches really applicable frameworks that will be helpful for anyone going into consulting. I think everyone should take at least 1 class with Fiss during their MBA

Heavy workload with cases each week, short reflection papers, and a couple of "worksheets"/assignments, but would still recommend this class if you liked Core Strategy with Fiss. The professor's lecture slides are awful and he tends to draw frameworks on the board that look like a stream of consciousness diagram, but he leads really great discussions and brings in higher level guest speakers with lots of experience.

This class is a lot of work for a 1.5 credit class but is absolutely worth it. Lots of useful strategy frameworks at taught and great guest speakers.

If you want to learn how to approach strategy aside from the Porter's 5 Forces and other typical frameworks, take this class! You will learn a methodology and mindset to take into your strategy work post-MBA. The guest speakers are mostly great and the professor does an awesome job of building the course around the industries your class is interested in. This is the first class at Marshall where I have had very recent/relevent cases and I sincerely appreciated it and actually read the cases b/c they were genuinely interesting. The slides and communication of the Professor aren't great but you will learn a TON and the workload is not bad. This is one of the few classes at Marshall I would recommend to future students.

One of the best classes I've taken at Marshall. Prof. Bhambri is engaging and brilliant and provides meaningful and useful ways to think about strategy. He also tailors the class to the interests of the students each term.