Strategic Management - Dr. C. Marlena Fiol University of Colorado, Denver

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Course Description

Just a few decades ago, senior managers could plan corporate strategies, implement them over a period of years, and not be overly concerned about having to change them. The 21st century presents a different reality, one of rapidly changing markets, globalization, shifting government policies, new technologies and increasingly fickle consumer tastes, all of which make the task of strategic management more difficult and critical over time. This course is about the strategic management process-how strategies are developed and implemented in organizations. It examines senior management's role in formulating strategy and the role that an organization's managers play in implementing strategy. We will discuss (1) how different industry conditions support different types of strategies, (2) how industry conditions change and the implication of those changes for strategic management, and (3) how organizations develop and maintain capabilities that lead to sustained competitive advantage.

This course consists of two essential parts - knowing and doing. The "knowing" part involves learning concepts and techniques applicable to strategic management. The readings, lectures, and case discussions are designed to help you understand strategic management concepts. The Fortune readings provide an opportunity to see how the concepts apply in the "real world."

The "doing" part of the course involves your participation in Capstone®; , a strategic management simulation. This simulation provides you with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in running a business as a member of a senior management team. Management teams are required to evaluate situations and make decisions, evaluate outcomes, and compete with other management teams for resources, opportunities, and markets. Each team will have the opportunity to set corporate strategies, and apply strategic concepts and techniques within a practical decision-making framework. In this way, you will have the opportunity to see how a firm's production, marketing, R&D, HR, and financial operations interact, and to observe the impact of key decisions on business performance within a competitive market.

Course Objectives

The objectives of this course are to:

  • Develop your understanding of concepts and approaches to the formulation and implementation of strategy
  • Enable you to recognize the most-important internal and external influences on an organization's strategy
  • Increase your skills in identifying strategic issues and options
  • Understand the benefits and drawbacks of different strategies

Course Materials

  • Readings packet
  • Capstone®; Student Guide
  • Fortune magazine (I will provide student subscription forms during the first class)

Capstone®; Team Assignments

Vision and Strategy Statement (Copy for the Chairman of the Board [me] is due October 2nd). In no more than four typed, double-spaced pages (outline format is fine), summarize your company's vision and intended strategy. Your statement should include:

  • the strategic objectives your company has set for itself
  • a description of the product(s) you have chosen to pursue
  • a summary of the concrete functional level strategies (e.g., marketing, finance, production, R&D, and HR) you intend to use in support of your company's strategy
  • a summary of your planned decision processes, including approaches/techniques for making sales forecasts, decision rules to determine investments (e.g., R&D, advertising), approaches for raising capital, and justification for choice of indicators to determine the success of your strategy.

Don't be generic! What makes your firm unique? What is its identity? In what fundamental ways will you distinguish yourself from your competitors?

Please enclose a copy of the performance criteria and weights that your team has selected. Also enclose a list of your top management team members and their role (e.g., Marketing VP, Finance VP, Operations VP, Human Resources VP, CEO) in your organization.

Final Board Report (copies for Board Members and the Chairman are due November 13th). Each team will maintain a record of its activities including such things as strategic postures taken, assumptions employed, decisions made, the outcomes of those decisions, and changes felt necessary. Based on this information, each team will report on its Capstone®; experiences in the form of a report to the Company's Board of Directors and shareholders. Each team will be assigned a Board of Directors (from the members of the other industry) that will serve as an advisory group for the Chair. These Boards will evaluate the performance of their assigned team over the six-year time period of the simulation and will submit their advisory evaluations to me following the presentations. (The evaluation criteria are attached.)

Your Board Report is not intended to be an academic paper. It should be a truthful sell-job to the Board illustrating your company's effectiveness. It should be a formal typed, double-spaced, ten-page maximum report, not including attachments and appendices. This final written Board Report is the basis for your presentation to the Board of Directors during the last two weeks of class.

The Board Reports should include, at a minimum:

  • Your company's initial Vision and Strategy statement.
  • A comparison of your emergent strategies with the original intended strategy.
  • An evaluation of intended and emergent strategies within the context of the company's external environmental threats and opportunities and your organization's internal strengths and weaknesses over time.
  • An analysis of your market and competition
  • A description of the strategic decisions you made over time, why you made them, and how you implemented them.
  • A discussion of what you learned from your experience, what worked well, and what you will do differently in the future.

Grading
Your grade will be determined as follows:

40% - Two exams (20% each)
40% - Capstone®; performance (see the attached Capstone®; Evaluation Form)
20% - Participation

The purpose of the first exam is to determine whether you are intimately familiar with the Capstone®; Team Member Guide. It includes about 30 multiple choice, 30 True/False, and 12 Matching questions. The questions are quite detailed and require that you thoroughly study the guide, not simply read it.

The final exam will contain between 6 and 8 short essay questions and cover material from the readings, lectures, and class discussions.

The learning experience in a course like this one depends heavily on each student being prepared to actively participate in every class session. We all have experiences that will enrich the topics and direction of discussion in the course. This means that you need to be fully acquainted with the readings for a given session. Positive participation includes attendance, active involvement in all in-class discussions, and maintenance of a classroom demeanor that encourages the participation of others. You will be evaluated on the quantity as well as QUALITY of your contribution and insights. Quality comments possess one or more of the following attributes:

  • *Offer a different, unique and relevant perspective on the issue.
  • Contribute to moving the discussion forward.
  • Build on other comments (too often we fail to listen to the comments of others).
  • Transcend the "I feel" syndrome; that is, they include some evidence or analysis of inherent tradeoffs. In other words, they demonstrate some reflective thinking.
  • Relate to the topic at hand.

Note: Occasionally there are free riders on the teams, people who don't carry their weight in getting the work done. I will differentially assign Capstone®; performance grades to team members if a majority indicates that there have been problems in getting some members to contribute.

BUSN 6710

Course Schedule & Assignments

8/21
What Is Strategy?

Porter, M. "What is strategy?" Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1996, pp. 61-78.

8/28
Capstone®; Introduction

Capstone®; Student Guide
Student Data Cards with Photo DUE

9/11
Leadership & Vision
T1
Upload decisions by midnight 9/16

Ireland, R.D. & Hitt, M.A. "Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership." Academy of Management Executive, 1999, pp. 43-57.

Collins, J.C. & Porras, J.L. "Building your company's vision." Harvard Business Review, 1996, pp. 65-77.
9/18
Cost Leadership, Differentiation & Focus
T2
Upload decisions by midnight 9/23
Porter, M. "How competitive forces shape strategy." Harvard Business Review, March-April, 1979, pp. 137-145.

Porter, M. "What is strategy?" Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1996, pp. 61-78.

9/25

Threats & Opportunities

T3
Upload decisions by midnight 9/30

Hitt, M.A., Keats, B.W., & DeMarie, S.M. "Navigating in the new competitive landscape: Building strategic flexibility and competitive advantage in the 21st century." Academy of Management Executive, 1998, pp. 22-42.

D'Aveni, R.A. "Coping with hypercompetition: Utilizing the new 7S's framework." Academy of Management Executive, 1995, pp. 45-60.
Situation Analysis (Team Member Guide Chapter 4) DUE
10/2
Strategic Capabilities
R1
Upload decisions by midnight 10/7
Stalk, G., Evans, P. & Shulman, L.E. "Competing on capabilities: The new rules of corporate strategy," Harvard Business Review, 1992, pp. 57-68.

Marino, K.E. "Developing consensus on firm competencies and capabilities." Academy of Management Executive, 1996, pp. 40-51.

Select & Input Performance Criteria
Vision/Strategy Statement & Performance Score Sheet DUE
10/9
Exam #1
R2
Upload decisions by midnight 10/14

Exam covers only material from Capstone®; Team Member Guide

10/16
Emergent Strategy & Organizational Culture/

Labor Negotiation Prep
R3
Upload decisions by midnight 10/21
Mintzberg, H. "Crafting strategy," Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1987,
pp. 66-74.

Clement, R.W. "Culture, leadership, and power: The keys to organizational change." Business Horizons, 1994.

10/23
E-business

R4
Upload decisions by midnight 10/28
Hamel, G. & Sampler, J. "The e-corporation." Fortune, December 7, 1998, pp. 80-92.

Porter, M.E. "Strategy and the Internet." Harvard Business Review, March, 2001, pp. 63-78.

Labor Negotiations
10/30 
Diversification
R5
Upload decisions by midnight 11/4
Markides, C. "To diversify or not to diversify," Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1997, pp. 93-99.

11/6
Strategic Alliances, Mergers & Acquisitions
R6
Upload decisions by midnight 11/11
Kanter, R.M. "Collaborative advantage: The art of alliances," Harvard Business
Review, July-August, 1994, pp. 96-108.

"The new M&A." Fortune, November 8, 1999, pp. 163-184.

11/13
Global Strategies

Thomas, H., Pollock, T., & Gorman, P. "Global strategic analyses: Frameworks and approaches." Academy of Management Executive, 1999, pp. 70-82.

Hitt, M.A., Tyler, B.B., Hardee, C., & Park, D. "Understanding strategic intent in the global marketplace." Academy of Management Executive, 1995, pp. 12-19.

Board Reports for all Board Members DUE
(Round 6 Results will be available after Reports are submitted.)
11/20
Capstone®; Board
Presentations


11/27
Capstone®; Board
Presentations


12/4
Exam 2

Exam covers lectures, assigned readings, and class discussions.


Capstone®; Evaluation Form

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Name of Company you are evaluating: Your name:

Your Board's evaluation is one source of input for my assessment of this team's performance in the Capstone®; simulation. Your charge is to evaluate the overall performance of this team, not just the final year. The first set of questions focuses on this team's performance during the full six years of the simulation and accounts for 40% of the team's Capstone®; score. The second set of questions focuses on the firm's positioning for the future, accounting for 30% of the team's Capstone®; score. A financial performance score (calculated using the weighted criteria the team selected) will be provided to you by the instructor and accounts for 30% of the Capstone®; score. Please complete the forms, add any comments, and return them to the instructor immediately following the Board presentations of this company's industry.

Ratings: Please indicate the effectiveness of the company in the following areas with a rating of 1 to 5, with 5 indicating that they did an excellent job in this area.

Six Year Summary

  1. Were the market segments in which the company operated consistent with the its strategy?
  2. Were the company's R&D and product positioning within market segments congruent with its strategy?
  3. Was the company's financial strategy consistent with its overall strategy?
  4. How successful does the company's promotion and sales force management appear to be?
  5. How well were inventories and stock outs controlled?
  6. How effective was the team's use of capacity and automation within the context of the company's overall strategy?
  7. Was the company's management of human resources consistent with its strategy?
  8. If the company got into trouble, did it make reasonable decisions to overcome the problem?

    Positioning for the Future
  9. If the simulation were to continue for another five years, is this company in a good position to do well in the future?
  10. Has the management team struck a good balance between short- and long-term concerns?
  11. Have they been thorough and realistic in identifying potential future threats and opportunities?
  12. Have they made decisions that position the company to minimize the threats and maximize the opportunities?
  13. Have the members of this management team shown that they have the competencies required to manage this company successfully in the future?
  14. Have the members of this management team shown that they have learned to work together to utilize the talents of each member?


Financial Performance (all criteria - the instructor will provide you with a score for criteria and weights this team selected)

Cumulative profits
Overall market share in $$$ (final)
Return on assets (average)
Return on equity (average)
Return on sales (average)
Asset turnover (average)
Stock price (final)

Total points out of 30 for Financial Performance __________

Total Points __________