Boğaziçi University Executive MBA · Summer 2026
Instructor: Hakan Göral
Corporate Strategy, Portfolio and Investment Leadership
ADEX 547 examines corporate strategy through a governance-centered, capital-allocation lens, focused on publicly listed and multi-business organizations. It draws corporate portfolio management, mergers and acquisitions, investment decision processes, regulatory oversight, ESG accountability, and AI governance into a single framework for strategic decision-making.
Governance here is treated not as a compliance checkbox but as the structural mechanism that shapes how strategic and investment decisions are evaluated, approved, disclosed, monitored, and defended in capital markets — grounded in the realities of Turkish capital markets (SPK oversight, minority shareholder rights, fiduciary duty) alongside international theory and practice.
By the end of the course, you will be able to:
| # | Topic | In-class activity |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Corporate Strategy and Investment Foundations | Portfolio mapping & capital allocation exercise |
| 2 | Executive Dialogue I — Capital Allocation, M&A Governance and Board Accountability | Guest executive session & moderated board discussion |
| 3 | Capital Markets Law, SPK Oversight and Disclosure in Material Corporate Actions | Regulatory scenario analysis |
| 4 | Executive Dialogue II — Activist Investors, Portfolio Restructuring and Governance Tensions | Guest executive session & governance negotiation exercise |
| 5 | ESG Integration, AI Governance and Investment Monitoring | ESG & AI investment-risk workshop |
| 6 | Final Board-Level Portfolio and Investment Strategy Presentations | Board simulation & CEO evaluation panel |
Sessions 2, 4, and 6 bring in guest executives and the CEO panel, and are where group deliverables are presented and defended.
ADEX 547 runs as a crash course: six tightly packed sessions covering a large amount of ground. The format depends on completing each session's assigned pre-readings in advance — class time is used for case discussion, simulation, and direct engagement with guest executives and the CEO panel, not for first exposure to the material.
The course builds on established theory — the Resource-Based View, Agency Theory and fiduciary responsibility, Transaction Cost Economics, Corporate Portfolio Theory, capital allocation and internal capital markets, and corporate governance — but the emphasis throughout is application: every framework is tested against a live case or a board-level decision you have to defend out loud.
| Component | Accountability | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Group Works — Portfolio Diagnostic; Activist Simulation | Group | 30% |
| Individual Works — M&A Governance Memo; Reflection Paper | Individual | 40% |
| Final Board-Level Portfolio & Investment Strategy Presentation | Group | 30% |
Sessions 2, 4, and 6 are where group deliverables are presented and defended.
You are welcome to use AI tools while preparing for this course — to explore a framework faster, stress-test an argument, or pull together background research. But the judgment behind your portfolio diagnostic, your governance memo, and your board-level recommendation should be yours. In the executive dialogues, the CEO panel, and any in-class cold call, you will be asked to defend your reasoning directly — that reasoning needs to be something you can stand behind.