Operations Strategy & Competitive Priorities is a structured track of 12 lessons that build a complete, interview-ready understanding of the topic. Work through them in order, then use the quiz and flashcards in each lesson to revise.
What this course covers
- What an Operations Strategy Is and Why It Fails - The difference between an operations plan and an operations strategy.
- Competitive Priorities: Cost, Quality, Speed & Flexibility - The four priorities, and why claiming all four means having none.
- Trade-Offs and the Idea of Operational Focus - Why focused operations outperform, with examples of focus won and lost.
- Aligning Operations With Business Strategy - Deriving operations priorities from how the business intends to win.
- The Product-Process Matrix and Choosing a Production System - Matching process choice to volume and variety, and the cost of a mismatch.
- Capacity Strategy: Lead, Lag or Match Demand - Three capacity postures, and the risk each accepts.
- Make, Buy or Partner as a Strategic Choice - Deciding what to own, with the capability and control implications.
- Vertical Integration and Outsourcing Decisions - When integrating creates advantage, and when it just adds fixed cost.
- Global Footprint and Localisation Choices - Deciding where to make and where to source, and what drives the answer.
- Operations Excellence Models and Maturity Assessment - Assessing maturity honestly, and choosing the next realistic step.
- Using AI to Model Operations Strategy Options - Testing footprint and capacity options with models, and verifying the output.
- Applied: Building an Operations Strategy From a Business Plan - A full operations strategy derived from a growth plan, with priorities ranked.