Students learn that the strategic actions taken as a result of understanding a firm's resources, capabilities, and core competencies have a direct link with the company's ability to establish a sustainable competitive advantage and achieve success. Students are exposed to the rigors of industry and competitive analysis, to the ingredients of an attractive strategic plan, the special demands of operating in an increasingly global competitive environment and to the varied administrative tasks associated with implementing and executing a chosen strategy as circumstances permit. Students also learn that strategy formulation and implementation must be integrated carefully if a firm is to achieve strategic competitiveness. In the first approach, teams of students, working with a faculty supervisor, serve as consultants to small businesses who apply and are accepted as Small Business Institute cases. Student consulting teams complete cases over a 10-week period, after which students prepare a comprehensive written report.
Students present the report to the client with their recommendations at a final meeting.
BUAD 492 may also be designated a capstone course , in lieu of BUAD 493 and BUAD 494, with permission of the Department Chair and SBI Director, provided the course is taken in the student's final spring semester at the college. The second approach engages students in a real-life entrepreneurial venture where students conceive of a business idea, develop a plan for its implementation and go on to implement it. If taken as a capstone course , a research paper and the comprehensive exam will be included in the grading criteria. BUAD 490 is now BUAD 493 and BUAD 494. A senior capstone course that requires students majoring in accounting, business administration, or economics to synthesize knowledge and skills acquired in their major discipline over the course of their studies at UVa's College at Wise.