Skip to main content

Competitive Strategy Courses

Take professional online courses in business and competitive strategy from top universities and institutions. Learn how to thrive in a competitive business environment. Enroll in online courses from Wharton, Catalyst, UBC and other top schools.

learn competitive strategy

learn competitive strategy

What is Competitive Strategy?

Competitive strategy refers to the research, planning and tactics performed by a company to increase market share and gain a leading edge over competing businesses. Companies seek ways to differentiate their products or services in the market through innovation, quality or other key factors.

The three core means of gaining a competitive advantage, known as Porter's Competitive Strategies, include producing the product or service at a lower cost, differentiating the product from others and focusing on a narrow segment of a market. Each of these play an important role in the overall competitive strategy of a business.

Competitive strategy planning and development requires strong market research, critical thinking and data analysis skills and can involve many business functions including product development, product innovation, advertising, sales and customer service.

Online Courses in Competitive Strategy

Developing a long-term plan to gain and maintain a competitive edge is no easy task. It requires fundamental business skills as well as the ability to always stay one step ahead of the pack. Wharton offers a Professional Education course that focuses on how to develop and execute strategies to gain a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. The 6-week, self-paced online course will expose you to the essential tools and frameworks needed to create your strategy. Learn how to evaluate the competitive environment, map out the core activities of your business, identify barriers to strategy implementation and engage in a successful strategic planning process. The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania is a business education leader and this course offers you the opportunity gain valuable graduate-level skills, training and insight in a flexible online learning environment with video instruction, learning assessments and much more.

A key step toward the development of a successful competitive strategy is the in-depth analysis of the market for your product or service. The University of California at Berkeley offers a 4-week online course that teaches you how to analyze your competition. Learn the fundamentals of market analysis and segmentation that will guide your business development strategies toward greater focus and precision. This self-paced course is also an excellent introduction to strategic marketing and offers skills that will be beneficial to anyone in a business development field.

The ability to analyze markets and define goals and strategies relies heavily on your problem solving skills. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, an online course from RIT, is an excellent course to train your mind for competitive thinking and strategizing. Learn how to analyze a situation, design a solution, overcome obstacles and win in a competitive scenario. This 3-week online course is a great way to improve core skills required for business or almost any profession.