MBA Fundamentals Strategy (Kaplan Test Prep)

Strategy is the cornerstone of any MBA program, and a critical part of any company's growth.

In this Kaplan MBA Fundamentals guide, two Columbia professors who have consulted with Fortune 500 companies make strategic planning easy to understand and implement. With real-world examples and guidance on the tools and techniques of strategy development, planning, implementation, and measurement, this is the only guide you’ll need to put your department or business on the right track for growth.

Thomas P. Ference, PhD, has been a member of the faculty of the Columbia Graduate School of Business since 1966. He was the Director of the Columbia Executive MBA Program for 20 years. Ference has also been a member of the faculty of the Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University since 1994 and has taught in the school's Executive Master of Public Health Program since its inception.

A graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, where he received his BS, MS, and PhD, Ference taught in executive programs in the UK, Northern Ireland, China, Japan, Colombia, Malaysia, Brazil, France, and Spain. His principal interests include strategic management, leadership, the management of professionals, career development and management, and the management of not-for-profit organizations. He is a founder and managing partner of The Riverside Group, a consulting firm that specializes in strategic management and in the design and delivery of executive development programs. Ference has worked with a broad array of firms in the pharmaceutical, financial services, consulting, and communications industries among others.

Ference is also the founder and past director (1976-1993) of the Columbia Business School Institute for Not-for-Profit Management. He has consulted with numerous prominent not-for-profit and public sector institutions in the criminal justice, human services, health and hospital, education, and philanthropic sectors among others. His clients have included national and local agencies, all levels of government, and non-US NGOs. He also serves on several not-for-profit boards.

Paul W. Thurman, a Columbia MBA valedictorian, service award winner, and multiple teaching-award recipient, has extensive management consulting and line management experience helping a variety of start-ups and Fortune 500 companies realize value from innovative and coordinated business, operations, and technology strategies.

Spanning a broad range of for- and not-for-profit entities, Thurman’s clients include several global mass-market and luxury retailers, consumer electronics manufacturers, pharmaceutical firms, and financial services and multi-line insurance concerns. He has also consulted to the US Government (Departments of Defense and Health and Human Services). He is also on several not-for-profit boards and has advised several educational and public health institutions. Thurman has also served as an expert witness in support of business valuation, statistical modeling, and financial analysis claims.

Thurman currently teaches strategic management and data analysis courses at Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and at its Mailman School of Public Health. In addition to his full-time faculty appointments, Thurman serves as a clinical professor and affiliated researcher at the National Cancer Institute's Center for Cancer Research at the National Institutes of Health. He is also a visiting professor at several international business schools including the Hellenic American University in Greece, and the Skolkovo Moscow School of Management in Russia.

Thurman is also the author of Kaplan’s MBA Fundamentals Statistics. He lives in Scarsdale, New York, and is pursing a doctorate in public health.