The Capstone Strategy Course: What Might Real Integration Look Like?

Abstract

The traditional master of business administration (MBA) capstone strategy course is intended to integrate the prior course work of the MBA program but is doing this less and less well in today's high-velocity and complex business environment. The traditional strategy course structures, emphasizing formulation— implementation and the internal—external environments, do relatively well at developing theoretical and applied integration skills but do poorly in developing practical integration skills—the very skills increasingly demanded by employers. The authors do not believe that the traditional organization of and pedagogies for the capstone strategy course develop the level of integrated thinking necessary for managers to make good decisions in today's business environment. They suggest reorganizing the strategy capstone course along the levels of managerial decision making and emphasizing pedagogies that employ rich-enough cases and business simulations to better develop integration skills—particularly practical integration skills—in MBA students.