Inside the Strategy Room: Driving Competitive Advantage

Driving Competitive Advantage was led by our Professor Ralf Boscheck, also senior faculty member at IMD Business School and former Dean of IMD’s MBA Program. With more than three decades of experience teaching strategy, economics, and public policy to senior executives and MBA participants worldwide, Professor Boscheck brought a highly analytical yet practice-oriented approach to the joint-program classroom.

The course provided participants with an integrated set of tools to assess business-unit and corporate strategies, focusing on how competitive advantage is created, sustained, and challenged over time. Students were encouraged to apply strategic frameworks directly to their own organizations or professional contexts, ensuring that analysis remained closely tied to real managerial decision-making.

One highlight of the course was the examination of strategy sustainability through classic and contemporary cases, including Walmart Discount Store Operations, as well as role-play exercises on automation and professional services. These sessions pushed participants to consider how pricing, organizational structure, regulation, and technological change interact to shape long-term performance.

The course concluded by shifting focus from analysis to leadership and execution. Through discussion of cooperation, delegation, and change management, participants reflected on the realities of implementing strategy in complex organizational settings. For students from MBA, EMBA, and exchange programs, the course offered a demanding and intellectually rigorous opportunity to sharpen strategic thinking within an international, discussion-driven environment.