Strategic Management MBA + Online Options

Learning how to be a strategic manager and leader is an important part of any MBA program. But did you know that you can earn an MBA specifically in strategic management, or strategy and leadership?

This unusual but popular MBA concentration preps students to direct their business career into strategic management and organizational leadership. Earning your degree in strategic management will provide you with a deep, broad skill set that you will be able to apply to many business disciplines. In this type of program, you will learn how to best recognize, respond, analyze and plan strategically for many different factors that affect business today across the globe:

• Changing domestic and international laws
• Accounting, financial and economic challenges
• Changes in technology
• Complex organizational and sociocultural problems
• Shifting domestic and international trends

Strategic Management MBA Curriculum

Your coursework will vary depending upon the online MBA program you choose, but you can expect to take classes such as these offered at Pace University:

• Organizational Behavior and Leadership
• Managerial Economics for Decision Making
• Financial Strategy and Business Decisions
• Managing Business Operations
• Managing Innovation
• Competitive Business Strategy
• Negotiations and Bargaining
• Business Plan Development
• Organizational Development
• Advanced Topics in Management

Other programs may offer other choices. For example, the MBA in strategic management at the University of Chicago offers these classes and programs:

• Competitive Strategy: This type of class applies business tools from industrial organization, microeconomics and competitive decision making. You learn how to understand the economics of industry, as well as the individual position of a single company. You also will study issues that relate to vertical and horizontal scopes of companies. This type of class also teaches game theory.
• Strategy Symposium: In this setting, a group of students meet business executives and professors to look closely at ideas, approaches and questions about business strategy. The goal is to come up with much better ways to understand techniques and methods of strategic business thinking.
• Technology Strategy: This type of course is valuable for learning about strategic decision making in industries that are highly focused on new technology. You learn about conceptual models that help you to decide which technologies to invest in, when you should make such investments, and how respond to customers and competitors with new technology.

Why Earn an MBA in Strategic Management?

In the modern business world, strategic problems that business managers face are often ambiguous. Many of them do not lend themselves easily to off the shelf solutions or models. By learning how to think about management challenges strategically, you will have a better grasp of the practical realities that lead to organizational decisions that make sense.

An MBA in strategic management will help you to answer mission-critical questions:

• What products should the company make?
• What new markets should the company enter or not enter?
• What sort of new organization or division should be built?
• How should the company respond to consumer and competitor behavior?
• What operations at the company would be better served to be outsource?

A strong MBA in strategic management program will use psychology, sociology and economic ways of thinking that helps you to develop analytical frameworks that help you to solve many of the problems that managers face.

This kind of three pronged approach will help you to learn how managers create practical solutions to many business problems. Some of the most common challenges that have to be confronted today are:

• Business pressures from mass globalization
• Acquiring and keeping a good, strong workforce
• Using technology and social media effectively

Job Possibilities with an MBA in Strategic Management

Many professionals decide to earn their MBA in strategic management because of the many excellent job opportunities available to seasoned, experienced business professionals with this MBA. Consider the following careers:

Business Development Managers

A business development manager is a type of management analyst or consultant who proposes new, innovative ways to increase the proficiency of many types of businesses. Basically, they provide ways for company management to make organizations enjoy better profits. They do so through suggestions to reduce costs and increase revenue. This type of job requires excellent skills in strategic management.

For example, business development managers and management analysts have to do these things well, which are taught in this sort of MBA program:

• Collect and organize a large amount of business data to learn about the problem that needs to be improved
• Conduct interviews of personnel to determine the types of personnel that need to be added or removed to improve the situation
• Analyze large amounts of financial information, including financial reports on revenues and expenditures.
• Make business strategy recommendations through in depth presentations and reports

Management analysts will see an 11% increase in jobs by 2029, and the median wage is $87,660, and can rise to $156,840 or more for highly talented MBAs in the top ten percent of the profession.

Market Research Managers and Executives

Market research managers or executives conduct or oversee market studies to determine what the potential sales could be of a product or service. They often serve as full time or contract employees or consultant to understand the sort of products that a certain segment of population wants.

Many professionals with an MBA in strategic management work in this field and do the following:

• Monitor and forecast sales and marketing trends
• Measure how effective marketing strategies and programs are
• Come up with new methods to evaluate and collect data – surveys, opinion polls and questionnaires
• Analyze sales and survey data with advanced statistical software
• Prepare reports and present results to top level company and product management

Holders of strategic management MBAs are going to see strong demand in this role for years to come, with an 18% increase in demand expected. Professionals with an MBA in strategic management can expect to earn more than $65,810 per year, which is the median for the role where only a bachelor’s degrees are required. The top ten percent earn closer to $127,410, which is much more likely for anyone with MBA qualifications.

May 2020 Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and job growth figures for Management Analysts and Market Research Analysts represents national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data Accessed May 2021.

Online Strategic Management MBA

Business professionals who want to gain strong strategic management skills should weigh the benefits of earning the Rutgers University MBA in Strategy and Leadership. This two year, online degree program will prepare you to move into a strategic management and/or organizational leadership position.

Students have the option of choosing from the following two tracks:

• Strategy Track: Will prepare you to develop and execute organizational and business strategies. It also will help you to learn how to create or extend new product lines, and to deal with market and technology changes. Managing mergers and acquisitions also are covered.
• Leadership Track: This track will ready you to manage teams, people and organizations. You will focus on classes in executive leadership, HR management, creative ways of making decisions, management consulting, and negotiations.

Your required classes include the following:

• Corporate Strategy
• Executive Leadership
• Global Management Strategy
• Management Consulting
• Management of Innovation and Technology
• Managing Strategic Transformations
• Mergers, Acquisitions, and Alliances

More information:

• Campus: Brunswick NJ
• Type: Non-Profit
• Accreditation: Higher Learning Commission
• Tuition: $786 per credit hour
• GRE/GMAT Required: No
• Minimum Time Commitment: 24 months
• On Campus Requirements: Yes
• Programs Offered: MBA in Strategy and Leadership

Summary

A large number of business management professionals are choosing a strategic management MBA. It is clear that this type of MBA is providing business leaders with new skills that they can use to leverage their existing talents and skills in upper management and executive level roles.