Tuesday, June 02, 2015

It's learning time!

Due to a lot of free time on my hand recently I decided it's time to learn something new.

I've had an account on Coursera for some time now, but so far I was only looking for programming related courses. I got the other day a newsletter on email from them, with some interesting new courses they just launched, so I picked two of them out of curiosity.

First course is called Advanced Competitive Strategy and it promises to give an overview on how companies can build up and maintain their customer base by increasing switching costs and facilitating strategic customer lock-ins. I've gone through a couple of videos and so far the topic is looking interesting. The information provided in the course can be applied not just to a possible future business but also in day-to-day activities, like choosing a mobile operator or an airline when going in vacations. So far there are not many Romanian businesses which I saw that apply principles described in this course, but I hope this will change in the near future.

The second course is called The Art of Negotiation and it promises to explore how current approaches to negotiation strategy and tactics are used, types of negotiation relationships that exists and how important is to plan and prepare for a negotiation session. When I hear the word negotiation it immediately brings into memory the image of two people bargaining in a market over a product price, but it's so much more than this. Negotiation situations are happening all around us and they are happening on a daily basis. From salary negotiations when switching to a new position at work to negotiations with children's, parents, wife or girlfriend on. We are negotiating one thing or another no matter where we are. Because of this I think this course will be very beneficial for my personal development.

Let's hope all goes well and I can go follow through with both courses until the end! ^_^

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