How can you build a career in business strategy without a business degree?

Every corporate function, be it HR or IT requires strategic planning. On similar lines, every business, be it non-profit or SME, requires strategy development and execution. And then there are corporate strategy roles in large enterprise. There are no right or wrong approaches to building a career in strategy. Its also ok to not have clarity around really long term goals, say 10 years down the line. A lot of people move from strategy to general management or operations and vice-versa. Optimizing the available options, having a north star, and working towards 1-2 year goals can lead to long term success.

The article suggests that you need to have a clear idea about what areas you want to develop your career. In my case, I got into business strategy exactly for the opposite reason. When I was about to graduate, I was not clear about the industry or the function I wanted to have a career in. I knew I was interested in business, and the course in Corporate and Business Strategy I had done left me with a lot of curiosity on how to apply those frameworks to real-life business challenges. I also knew that I wanted to rotate to see as many different facets of a business as possible. When I looked for opportunities that gave me exposure to the highest variety of issues, graduate programmes with rotations and consulting firms struck my attention

Es importante conocer las #metas #profesionales y #personales que quieres conseguir a la hora de buscar oportunidades de #estrategia empresarial. La #especialización es necesaria, ya que abre puertas acerca de tu #segmento de mercado al que te quieres dirigir. Con esto claro, y valorando las #oportunidades #laborales que se presenten, así como la inquietud propia de fundar una compañía, hemos de valorar nuestra capacidad de asumir #riesgos e iniciativa personal y empresarial. Nunca es lo mismo, trabajar para una compañía pequeña, que para una compañía grande, y menos si la pequeña es propiedad del emprendedor. Hemos de tener una idea clara sobre ella.

Business strategy is like any other strategy and really has nothing to do with "business". Its about coordination, goal setting, relationship building, branding, emotional intelligence and dozens of other things.

Coursera is a great place to find courses about business strategy. It's an affordable online option, which is more convenient than going back to school.

Nowadays, there are many courses offered by leading universities that you can leverage to get your understanding of what business strategy is. I would recommend to create a curriculum of topics, find material (online courses, youtube videos, books) and self learn those skills. I would also recommend doing 2 other things: 1. try to apply those concepts to real life cases 2. try to understand whether the lifestyle that working in business strategy gives you is ok with you. It is a fast pace environment, which entails the need to quickly upskill yourself, design the strategy and then either implement it or submitting it to other departments or the client for implementation. It keeps the mind stimulated, but requires a high level of energy

Coming back to what I mentioned before, if you are just starting out in the business strategy area, try to apply theoretical frameworks to real-life cases. Document the process. If you repeat that for different cases, you'll notice not only that you will start acquiring a mindset inclined towards business strategy, but also you'll become quicker, and the quality of your work will improve. For me, business strategy is now so ingrained into my way of reasoning, that I ended up strategising with my barber over last weekend (I wrote a poste about it!). Once you are happy of that, you can use that work to showcase what you are capable to do and use it as a portfolio for potential employers.

Networking nowadays happens fundamentally online. It is easier than ever to identify potential good connections. It is not as easy to get on a call with these good connections, but you can always try and request a connection, being candid about your interest and the reason behind your request. Don't neglect live events as well. Probably the fact that are now rarer, makes the connections that you do during these events more vivid and powerful. If you attend those events, make sure to follow up with a request connection on LinkedIn and a note from time to time to keep live the interest. It will lead to positive interaction.

Trabajar y ganar experiencia en primera instancia, asegura la #excelencia en tu #desarrollo profesional posterior. Es por ello, que #focalizarte un tema, para adquirir la máxima #experiencia, tanto estudiando, como de ejercitando el desarrollo profesional, es clave para avanzar en tu experiencia. Yo pienso, que la #experiencia de ser eminentemente #práctica, enfrentándote a los problemas reales, que es lo que realmente marca tu desempeño #profesional, así como tus #capacidades de #resolver problemas en la vida real.

Education without experience can be bad thing, but experience without education can be used to your advantage. Any knowledge not being applied slowly disappears. However, if you use your business analyst skills in a work capacity, you will gain what you need to succeed as a business analyst. Then, if you want to get a certificate later, it will be easier for you because you have experience in the field already.