MGT 498 On Campus
Strategy & Policy
Overview
This course explores the links between firm performance and corporate/business strategy and presents the basic concepts and tools of strategic analysis.
Text and Required Materials
Strategic Management. 2009. Carpenter, M. 2nd Edition. Prentice-Hall. ISBN# 0-13-607931-8.
Capstone Strategic Management Simulation® including CompXM®.
Business Core Learning Objectives
MGT 498 addresses the following core learning objectives of the Gordon Ford College of Business.
Objective 1: Students will demonstrate communication skills in written and oral forms. Students will be evaluated on coherence and organization, delivery, grammar and syntax, and proper use of materials and mechanics in their communication samples.
Objective 2: Students will demonstrate an awareness of ethical issues in business and society.
Objective 3: Students will demonstrate the ability to strategically employ information technology.
Objective 4: Students will demonstrate the ability to solve problems through critical, reflective, and integrative thinking.
Objective 5: Students will demonstrate an awareness of the global business environment.
Objective 6: Students will demonstrate knowledge in each of the basic business disciplines including accounting, business statistics and quantitative methods, economics, finance, information systems, management (organization and management, operations, legal environment) and marketing.
Assessment
Quizzes = 60%
Strategic innovation presentation = 10%
Team strategic management simulation = 5%
Individual strategic management simulation = 25%
The following sections provide an overview of each type of assessment. Additional details will be provided in class.
Quizzes
Quiz dates will be announced in class. Although quizzes can be made up in case of absence, there is a 10% late deduction regardless of the reason for the absence. The grade becomes a permanent 0 if the quiz is not made up within one week.
Strategic Innovation Presentation
This is a 10 - 15 minute team presentation with a 5-minute question and answer question following the presentation. The presentation focuses on innovation in emerging markets as part of corporate strategy. Additional details will be provided in class, but the following is the basic outline of each presentation:
A. Executive summary
B. Innovation description
C. Characteristics of the target emerging market
D. Explanation of how the innovation can convert consumers into producers
E. Financial projections
F. Summary
Assume your audience is the top management team of a multinational enterprise; the professionalism of the presentation should reflect this.
All team members must participate to receive a grade. However, if you are absent from your scheduled presentation time for any reason, you can turn in a written make-up assignment using the above outline in a 8-10 page (single-spaced) paper. The highest grade possible for a make-up assignment is 65%. The make-up assignment must be turned in within one week of the scheduled presentation date to receive credit; presentation grades become a permanent “0” after this.
Team Strategic Management Simulation
The simulation applies course concepts, compresses time to illustrate cause and effect of strategic decisions, and provides practice in strategy implementation. Grading is based on a “balanced scorecard” composed of (a) financial, (b) internal business process, (c) customer, and (d) learning and growth corporate perspectives.
Student teams compete for balanced scorecard points with other teams. The team with the highest cumulative points receives a 100% for the simulation grade, the second place team receives 94%, the third place team receives 88%, the fourth place team receives 82%, the fifth place team receives 76%, and the sixth place team receives 70%.
Notice, though, that the impact on the final course grade is only 5%. The rationale for this is that we will use the simulation as a strategic lab experiment during the course. Students should strive to gain competence in strategic management during this lab because the last week of class is devoted to an individual strategic management simulation (described next).
Individual Strategic Management Simulation
Once the lab portion of the simulation is complete, students will illustrate their competence by completing CompXM®, a simulation that is similar, but not precisely, the same as the lab simulation. The individual simulation is thus an assessment of the knowledge and skills gained in the lab.
The reason the individual simulation is not precisely the same as the individual simulation is that an exact replica of the lab experiment might lead to the temptation to try memorizing the “correct” decisions. The individual simulation instead presents similar but not exact replication of conditions, thus better reflecting the dynamism of real-world competition. Assessment, as in the team strategic management simulation, uses a balanced scorecard.
The last week of class is reserved for completing the individual simulation.