Business Growth Strategy (Coursera)

Business Growth Strategy (Coursera)

Get the tools you need to analyze, evaluate and recommend specific actions organizations can take to grow their value and avoid common growth pitfalls. In this course, developed at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and taught by top-ranked faculty, you will learn to determine how best to build value, whether by scaling existing markets, entering established markets or creating new markets through innovation and acquisitions.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

What You Will Learn

  • How to identify and evaluate opportunities to scale an organization
  • How to enter new markets and apply game theory to analyze, assess, and respond to competitors
  • How to assess the impact of a potential merger and acquisition and avoid common pitfalls of this type of growth
  • How to unlock the keys to innovation, from building an innovative capability to adding value from innovation to determining an innovation strategy

Course 3 of 5 in the Business Strategy Specialization.

Syllabus

WEEK 1
Growth through Scaling
Strategic growth is intentional, proactive, and consistent with a company's purpose. Taking advantage of economies of scale--growing a business by doing more of what it's already doing--is a conceptually easy but operationally complex approach to business growth. In this module, you will learn the Scenario Planning tool to identify and evaluate opportunities to scale an organization. With this tool, you'll have an effective means to understand when and where to grow and how to get there.

WEEK 2
Growth through Entry
Growth through entry--whether by offering new products in existing markets or offering the same products in new markets--doesn't happen in isolation. Multiple firms compete for these markets and so any discussion of growth through entry has to look at the impact of rivalry. In this module, you'll learn how to apply game theory to analyze, assess, and respond to competitors. With the payoff matrices tool, you'll be able to evaluate options and determine an effective position.

WEEK 3
Growth through Acquisition
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are common--but rarely successful--ways firms attempt to grow their business. In this module, we'll show you the pros and cons of M&A, suggest valid alternatives,

WEEK 4
Growth through Innovation
Introducing new ideas, processes, and products that disrupt the market is another common growth strategy. In this module, we'll unlock the keys to innovation, from building an innovative capability to appropriating value from innovation to determining an innovation strategy. Using the Real Options Analysis tool, we'll show you how to grow through innovation and good practices for doing so. The Intel Corporate Venturing case provides an opportunity for you to practice this tool and apply course concepts to a real-world scenario.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Corporate & Commercial Law II: Business Forms, Financing & Governmental Regulation (Coursera) Coursera
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Corporate & Commercial Law II: Business Forms, Financing & Governmental Regulation (Coursera)

This course is the second course in a two-part series on corporate and commercial law. In this part, we focus on three main topics: business organizations, business financing, and governmental regulation. In the first module, we discuss the characteristics of a number of the most common forms of business entities, such as corporations and LLCs.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Entrepreneurship Strategy: From Ideation to Exit (Coursera) Coursera
HEC Paris

Entrepreneurship Strategy: From Ideation to Exit (Coursera)

This course covers in the chronological order each defining step of an entrepreneurial project. It begins with very personal considerations related to getting to better know yourself better so as to decide if you are ready for the multiple challenges of entrepreneurship. It then deals with creativity in order to provide the right set of tools to find an idea with the right potential to disrupt an existing business.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Challenges of Agribusiness Management (Coursera) Coursera
Università Bocconi

Challenges of Agribusiness Management (Coursera)

The goal of this course is to understand the challenges and opportunities of agribusiness nowadays. From farms to retailers, from input providers to traders, all the diverse players of this value chain interact a complex business environment in which nature, policy, technology and management strategies have to be considered to overcome future challenges and seize upcoming opportunities.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Launch Your Online Business (Coursera) Coursera
The State University of New York

Launch Your Online Business (Coursera)

Learners who complete the course will: gain an understanding of different business models; learn strategies for naming their business; create customer personas; create their brand identity; create their Unique Value Proposition and learn how to make their business stand out from their competitors; know every step needed to build their website including best practices; production do's and don'ts for copywriting, photography and video; have a pre-launch checklist and website maintenance; gain foundational knowledge of marketing and pr; create a Pitch Deck about their business that they can deliver to potential partners and investors

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Alternative Approaches to Valuation and Investment (Coursera) Coursera
University of Melbourne

Alternative Approaches to Valuation and Investment (Coursera)

In this course, participants will develop an understanding of the intuitive foundations of asset and investment valuation, and how alternative valuation techniques may be used in practice. This is part of a Specialization in corporate finance created in partnership between the University of Melbourne and Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon).

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
Negocios Internacionales II (Coursera) Coursera
University of New Mexico

Negocios Internacionales II (Coursera)

Vivimos en un mundo cada vez mas globalizado, en el cual el éxito en los negocios internacionales se ha convertido en el factor determinante del desarrollo económico y la prosperidad. Esta materia, Entorno Global de Negocios, Parte II, sigue a la primera materia (Entorno Global de Negocios, Parte I) e introduce al alumno a una comprensión fundamental de como administrar una organización o empresa internacional.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Leading Innovation in Arts and Culture (Coursera) Coursera
Vanderbilt University,National Arts Strategies - NAS

Leading Innovation in Arts and Culture (Coursera)

Developed by David Owens at Vanderbilt University and customized for the cultural sector with National Arts Strategies, this course will help arts and culture leaders create an environment where new ideas are constantly created, shared, evaluated and the best ones are successfully put to work. One of the toughest challenges for any leader is getting traction for new ideas. Winning support can be a struggle. As a result, powerful new ideas often get stuck. This is especially true in the cultural sector. People involved in arts and culture often have little time and even less money for experimentation and risks. This course will help those in the performing arts, museums, zoos, libraries and other cultural organizations build environments where new management and program ideas flourish.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing (Coursera) Coursera
Copenhagen Business School

An Introduction to Consumer Neuroscience & Neuromarketing (Coursera)

How do we make decisions as consumers? What do we pay attention to, and how do our initial responses predict our final choices? To what extent are these processes unconscious and cannot be reflected in overt reports? This course will provide you with an introduction to some of the most basic methods in the emerging fields of consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing. You will learn about the methods employed and what they mean. You will learn about the basic brain mechanisms in consumer choice, and how to stay updated on these topics. The course will give an overview of the current and future uses of neuroscience in business.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Managing Responsibly: Practicing Sustainability, Responsibility and Ethics (Coursera) Coursera
University of Manchester

Managing Responsibly: Practicing Sustainability, Responsibility and Ethics (Coursera)

Managers are increasingly confronted with issues of sustainability, responsibility and ethics. Managing responsibly is an integrative approach to sustainability, responsibility and ethics, which allows you as a manager to deal competently with such challenges. This course will facilitate your learning process to engage in changing practices to make them more sustainable, responsible, and ethically informed.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
International Business II (Coursera) Coursera
University of New Mexico

International Business II (Coursera)

This course, Introduction to the Global Business Environment II, focuses on managing organizations in the international economy. Building on Introduction to the Global Business Environment I, this second course focuses on organizational level and management issues in international settings. The course prepares students with practical as well as research-based knowledge and skills necessary to successfully operating an organizational across borders.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Introduction to Financial Accounting (Coursera) Coursera
University of Pennsylvania

Introduction to Financial Accounting (Coursera)

Master the technical skills needed to analyze financial statements and disclosures for use in financial analysis, and learn how accounting standards and managerial incentives affect the financial reporting process. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to read the three most common financial statements: the income statement, balance sheet, and statement of cash flows. Then you can apply these skills to a real-world business challenge as part of the Wharton Business Foundations Specialization.

Nov 16th 2026
4 Weeks
From Idea to Startup (Coursera) Coursera
Technion - Israel Institute of Technology

From Idea to Startup (Coursera)

How do you implement ideas? This course provides practical proven tools for transforming an idea into a product or service that creates value for others. As students acquire these tools, they learn how to tell bad ideas from good, how to build a winning strategy, how to shape a unique value proposition, prepare a business plan, compare their innovation to existing solutions, build flexibility into their plan and determine when best to quit.

Nov 16th 2026
5-12 Weeks