Ramkhamhaeng University
Institute of International Studies
MBA Course
Strategic Management
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Course Overview
Concepts and business strategies focusing on viewing the organization as an integrated whole. Use of integrated management exercises involving student teams working on a business simulation or actual business project aimed at challenges and opportunities facing a business.
Professor
Dr. Scott Droege
Western Kentucky University—USA
Required Readings
You can access all of the required articles by clicking here.
Course Objectives
• Understand foundational principles of strategic management.
• Debate competing strategic management perspectives.
• Develop skills in competitive intelligence gathering, interpretation, and application.
• Consider emerging views in strategic management.
• Participate in strategic decision making.
Content Outline
You can access all of the articles by clicking here.
Theme A: Foundational Principles in Strategic Management
Hambrick, D.C. & Fredrickson, J.W. 2005. Are you sure you have a strategy? Academy of Management Executive, 19(4): 51-62.
Porter, M.E. 2008. The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, January: 78-93.
Collis, D.J. & Montgomery, C.A. 2008. Competing on resources. Harvard Business Review, July-August: 140-150.
Theme B: Competing Perspectives of Strategic Management
Christensen, C.M., Raynor, M., & Verlinden, M. 2001. Skate to where the money will be. Harvard Business Review, November: 72-81.
Theme C: Competitive Intelligence
Day, G.S. & Schoemaker, P.J.H. 2005. Scanning the periphery. Harvard Business Review, November: 135-148.
Theme D: Emerging Views in Strategic Management
Clayton, C.M.Christensen, Baumann, H., Ruggles, R. & and Sadtler, T.M. 2006. Disruptive innovation for social change. Harvard Business Review, December: 94-101.
Seelos. C. & Mair, J. 2007. Profitable business models and market creation in the context of deep poverty: A strategic view. Academy of Management Perspectives, 21(4): 49-63.
Theme E: Strategic Decision Making
Although listed as a separate theme, we will integrate strategic decision making throughout the course using a strategic management simulation. The progression of the simulation begins near the start of the course and concludes at the end of the course.
Simulation
The strategic management simulation allows us to go beyond merely discussing course concepts; it allows us to apply strategic decision making and implementation. The simulation will help us gain competence in each of the course objectives listed above through comprehension of cause and effect in an artificially compressed time period for an electronic sensor manufacturing firm. Specifically, student teams will compete with other teams on 10 performance metrics:
• Profits
• Margins
• Productivity
• Forecasting
• Market share
• Working capital
• Wealth creation
• Financial structure
• Customer satisfaction
• Avoidance of emergency loans
Additional details will be provided in class.
Simulation Presentation
This 7 - 10 minute presentation is scheduled for the last day of class before final simulation results are revealed but after final simulation decisions are completed. Each team should explain their:
• Initial planned strategy;
• Emergent strategic events that changed this strategy;
• The realized strategy that followed.
• In conclusion, teams should explain the specific functional tactics (R&D, TQM, marketing, HR, and finance) they would implement if we had 10 more rounds of simulation decisions (the equivalent of 10 more years as the top management team of your corporation).
Strategic Initiative
This exercise involves creating and evaluating a low-end disruptive innovation proposal. The new product development team proposes its innovation idea to the top management team. The top management team evaluates the proposal and decides whether to accept or reject the proposal. The stock analyst team evaluates whether the top management team made the best choice and issues a buy or sell recommendation for the stock.
Teams will rotate through all three roles. Firms selected for analysis must be publicly traded (they must be traded on a stock exchange). The low-end disruptive innovation proposal may be a product you develop or one the firm currently has planned. The new product development team has the majority of the workload and must include the following items in its presentation:
• The target firm’s overall strategy to date. Use the five aspects of our first Theme A article (Hambrick & Frederickson, 2005) for this portion of the presentation.
• Industry analysis. Use the five industry forces explained in our second Theme A article (Porter, 2008) for this.
• Resource requirements and the potential for sustained competitive advantage. Use the third Theme A article (Collis & Montgomery, 2008) for this.
• Description and market opportunity of your low-end disruptive innovation.
The stock analyst team is not present during this presentation.
After the new product development team has concluded its presentation, the top management team should ask detailed clarifying questions to make the new product development team justify its proposed strategic initiative. The top management team them makes a “go” or “no go” decision on the initiative.
The stock analyst team then comes back into the classroom. The top management team announces the discussion of the new product proposal and justifies its “go” or “no go” decision to the stock analysts. The stock analysts then convene briefly to determine whether to issue a “buy” or “sell” recommendation based on top management’s judgement. The professor will question the stock analyst team on the rationale for their recommendation.
Here’s the bottom line: the new product development team is held accountable by the top management team, the top management team is held accountable by the stock analyst team, and the stock analyst team is held accountable by the professor. Each team must perform due diligence in evaluating the previous team’s decisions. Although the new product development team is responsible for all the preparation, the top management team and stock analyst team must also demonstrate sound judgement and reasoned analysis based on limited information--a typical circumstance in business.
The schedule near the bottom of this syllabus shows your scheduled presentation dates.
Grading
Grading is a mix of a tiered grading system and a performance grading system. That is, students choose the grade they want at the beginning of the course and this guides them in which projects to complete (the tiered portion of the grade). However, the performance portion of the grade requires that students achieve certain levels of competence in lower grade activities (grades of C) to become eligible to raise their grade to a higher grade activities (grades of A or B).
Performance Bonus: If you are on the highest scoring simulation team (including all other student teams and the computer team), you add one letter grade to your final course grade. For example, if your team scores highest in cumulative analyst report points (explained in class) and you have completed all other necessary requirements for a B, you receive a final course grade of A without needing to complete the additional work in the A category. If you’ve completed course requirements for a C, being on the highest performing team will move you to a B without completing the additional work for a B.
Grade of C
• Attend and fully participate in all class sessions. This requires substantial and meaningful participation in class discussions. Simply being present does not count for participation. Although I will “cold call” on students to provide brief summaries of articles, providing a summary is not sufficient to receive credit for participation. Participation requires ongoing participation throughout the discussion.
• Strategic initiative presentation (all three roles)
• Score more simulation analyst points than at least one competitor.
• Team simulation presentation
Grade of B
• Satisfactorily complete all C requirements.
• Score more simulation analyst points than at least two competitors.
Grade of A
• Satisfactorily complete all B and C requirements.
• Complete a concept integration paper.
Concept Integration Paper
The concept integration paper is a 10 – 12 page single-spaced case comparing three industry competitors by explicitly integrating the concepts from each of the course themes listed above.
Simulation Safety Net (Strategic Analysis Paper)
There is a safety net for those who do not score as high in the simulation as they would like to. Completing a 5-page, single-spaced strategic analysis paper takes the place of beating one additional competitor in the simulation. For example, if you do not beat any teams in the simulation, completing the strategic analysis paper takes the place of beating one team and thus make you eligible for a B. This can raise your grade from a B to a C. To increase your grade to an A, however, you must complete the concept integration paper described above.
The strategic analysis should analyze one corporation using the following outline:
A) Address all five major components of the Hambrick & Frederickson (2005) paper.
B) Analyze all the major industry forces in the Porter (2008) paper.
C) Complete a resources analysis for each of the three rivals based on the Collis and
Montgomery (2008) paper.
D) Conclude with specific recommendations for the corporation’s long-term strategy.
Absences
Much of the learning occurs in class during the discussions and simulation debriefs. There is no way to recreate these experiences; thus, there is no difference between excused and unexcused absences. Please use your own judgment to determine whether or not your specific circumstance warrants missing class.
Given the interactive nature of the class, an absence is simply an absence regardless of the reason. However, I realize that MBA students have many competing demands on their time. Thus, the first absence does not count against your course grade. After using this first absence, subsequent absences each require a 7-page, single-spaced case due the last day of class--no late work is accepted. Both hard copies and electronic copies are required no later than the beginning of the last class.
Please use the following outline to complete the case. You can access all of the required articles by clicking here.
1. Brief introduction and key issues
2. External analysis
• Macroenvironmental analysis
• Porter’s 5 forces of industry competition
3. Internal Analysis including
• Core competencies
• Value chain synergies
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Sources of competitive advantage
• Determination of sustainability of competitive advantage
4. Financial statement analysis
• What do the firm’s financial statements say about its health? Trends? Comparison to competitors?
5. Business-level positioning strategy of each firm
• What is the overall positioning of the firm is in this particular market?
• How is the positioning strategy supported or not supported by each firm’s functional strategies
• How the positioning strategy influences (or responds to) the competitive and/or cooperative dynamics of the industry. Be sure to include any appropriate quantitative analysis of the advantage this position yields (or fails to yield) over the firm’s competitors.
6. Analysis of the corporate-level strategy of the firm
• Identify the businesses the company is in (or is considering entering), how the businesses are related or unrelated, and whether and how the portfolio of businesses creates additional value. Be specific and detailed. If it is unclear that value is created, try to assess why the firm might have chosen to enter those businesses.
• Identify and analyze the methods of entry the firm has used to enter its chosen businesses. Were the methods of entry used (or proposed) the best choice given the firm’s objectives, environment, strengths, weaknesses, and strategy? Be sure to include any appropriate financial analysis to support your assessment.
7. Recommendations
• Recommendations should respond to the key issues of the case and must be specific and actionable.
• Recommendations must not be obvious “so what” platitudes be consistent with the analysis.
Tentative Schedule for May 2009 Term
You can access all of the articles by clicking here.
Part 1
Course introduction
Brief simulation introduction (registration and rehearsal round access)
Organize teams
Part 2
Discussion: Skate to where the money will be (NOTE: This is from Theme B)
Strategic initiative exercise Q & A
Extended simulation introduction
Part 3
Discussion: Are you sure you have a strategy?
Simulation practice round 1
Part 4
Discussion: The five competitive forces that shape strategy
Simulation practice round 2
Part 5
Strategic initiative 1
• Andrews: New product development team
• Baldwin: Top management team
• Chester: Stock analyst team
Discussion: Competing on resources
Part 6
Simulation competition round 1
Part 7
Strategic initiative 2
• Baldwin: New product development team
• Chester: Top management team
• Digby: Stock analyst team
Discussion: Scanning the periphery
Part 8
Simulation competition round 2 (HR module added this round)
Part 9
Simulation competition round 3 (TQM module added this round)
Part 10
Strategic initiative 3
• Chester: New product development team
• Digby: Top management team
• Andrews: Stock analyst team
Discussion: Disruptive innovation for social change
Part 11
Discussion: Profitable business models and market creation in the context of deep poverty
Simulation competition round 4 (Marketing module added this round)
Part 12
Strategic initiative 4
• Digby: New product development team
• Andrews: Top management team
• Baldwin: Stock analyst team
Part 13
Simulation competition round 5
Part 14
Simulation round 6
Part 15
All papers due at the beginning of class
Simulation round 7 (due by 11:30 a.m.)
Simulation presentations
Simulation round 7 results