Seminar of Business Strategy

Contenu du cours

This seminar is an applied learning experience. Students work on real corporate finance and strategy questions, in direct interaction with senior practitioners: strategy consultants, business executives and investment professionals. The course spans corporate strategy, value-creation arbitrages, competitive positioning, distribution, M&A execution and funding.

One idea runs through the whole seminar. A competitive advantage is real only if it shows up as a financial return that exceeds the cost of capital, and only for as long as that spread persists behind a moat. Students are therefore never asked for a strategic assessment and a financial model as two separate deliverables: they are two views of the same claim, and the seminar develops the capability to address them together..

The seminar is botj intensive and coaching-heavy. It is particularly relevant for students aiming at a career in corporate strategy, consulting, investment banking, private equity or entrepreneurship.

Objectifs (et/ou acquis d'apprentissages spécifiques)

The seminar develops the ability to apply advanced corporate strategy and corporate finance concepts to high-stakes, complex business problems. On completion, students should be able to:

Master the fundamentals of shareholder value creation — growth, profitability, capital intensity, multiple evolution — and explain the cost of capital as an opportunity cost, not as the output of a formula.
Understand the private equity investment model and leveraged buy-out valuation logic: how leverage drives returns, and what makes a good LBO candidate.
Assess the strategic robustness of a business opportunity: identify the real sources of a competitive advantage, judge whether it persists and what would erode it, and run a strategic due diligence that tests the thesis rather than decorates it.
Estimate market sizes, revenue pools and addressable markets — TAM, SAM and SOM — with the SOM defended rather than asserted, and build unit economics from the cost stack.
Translate qualitative insight into a quantified business plan in which every driver traces back to a strategic claim that survives scrutiny.
Form independent opinions, using AI tools where relevant, and defend them under challenge.
Articulate crisply, in writing and orally, an investment thesis and a value-creation plan to senior stakeholders.

Pré-requis et Co-requis

Connaissances et compétences pré-requises ou co-requises

Students need a robust command of accounting and corporate finance, in particular:

The links between balance sheet, P&L and cash flow statement, and the ability to derive free cash flow from them.
The core concepts behind discounted cash-flow valuation.
Financial ratio analysis.
Working comfort with Excel — the main assignment requires building a financial model.

These prerequisites are typically covered in the Business Engineering BA at Solvay, but students joining from other universities should make sure they master these basics.

Méthodes d'enseignement et activités d'apprentissages

Recap sessions on key finance and strategy concepts, with the whole classroom.
Short business cases and individual or group assignments, corrected and debriefed in class.
Sessions with external practitioners: investors, executives, due diligence professionals.
A live corporate finance business game.
One major assignment for a corporate partner: a written report with recommendations and supporting analysis, a financial model, and a presentation to executives — with an interim presentation and feedback at mid-course.
Students work in groups of four for the business cases and the main assignment, and individually otherwise.

The detailed timetable and the description of the year's main assignment are shared with students at the start of the academic year, in September.

Références, bibliographie et lectures recommandées

Reading lists are provided at the beginning of the year.

Autres renseignements

Informations complémentaires

AI tools are encouraged for the main group assignment: forming an independent, defensible opinion faster is part of the job. Students remain fully accountable for every output they submit, and must be able to explain and defend any analysis, number or claim under questioning. Reproducing AI output that the team cannot defend is heaviy penaled. AI tools are not allowed for the individual assignments, in-class exercises and the assessment of learnings.

Contacts

Stefan.dab@ulb.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Méthode(s) d'évaluation

Evaluation continue
Travail de groupe
Présentation orale
Rapport écrit

Evaluation continue

Travail de groupe

Présentation orale

Rapport écrit

Construction de la note (en ce compris, la pondération des notes partielles)

Final grading is a weighted average of:

The group grade for the final assignment — 70%.
The individual grade for the assessment of learnings — 30%.

A minimum grade of 10/20 on the assessment of learnings is required to pass the course. Students who do not reach it sit the assessment again; If they fail to the second test, they fail the class.

Individual bonuses and maluses of up to ±4 points are applied on top of the weighted average. They reward the quality of the intermediate individual and group assignments and of class participation, and they penalise free-riding, absence, or non-compliance with the AI usage rules. Mistakes made while contributing in class are not penalised;. A peer evaluation may be run at the end of the group project and feed into the individual bonus or malus.

The main assignment is holistically assessed on analytical rigour, depth of analysis, judgement and relevance of the recommendations, and the quality of the written and oral presentations.

Class attendance is mandatory, including coaching sessions and Q&As.

At the discretion of the teachers, students may be asked to complement their written assessment of learning with an oral assessment, on the basis of which the final grade will be decided.

Langue(s) d'évaluation

anglais

Recherche