Strategic Management - Robert T. Cline Binghamton University School of Management
Text and Materials:
Optional: "The Eagle & The Monk" - Jenkins & Oliver
"Jack - Straight from the Gut" - Jack Welch
"All in the Family...Business" - George Raymond
1. Course Description:
A. Strategic Management - Enhance the ability to think strategically both personally and professionally through the use of appropriate concepts, tools, and exercises. Applications to both specific business problems and for long-term performance improvement. Determination of target markets and strategy development in contexts meaningful to the participants. Includes fundamentals of strategy, ethical questions, and international contexts. Integrates the concepts taught in all the functional areas of management.
B. Introduction - 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.
2. Course Objectives:
3. Capstone®; Team Assignments
Vision and Strategy Statement (Copy for the Chairman of the Board (me) is due February 8. In outline format summarize your company's vision and intended strategy. Your statement should include:
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 suggested. 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 is due May 4. 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 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.
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 typed double-spaced, ten-page maximum report, not including attachments and appendices.
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:
Simulation Performance - 50% (Inc. Final Report)
Class Participation - 15%
Live Case Analysis - 20% (Team Pres. - New Co.)
Grading:
Simulation Performance - 50% (Inc. Final Report)
Class Participation - 15%
Live Case Analysis - 20% (Team Pres. - New Co.)
*Analysis of Choice - 15%
*Choices are: - Company of your identification
- Crowley Foods, LLC
- Application of "Eagle & Monk to change of your choice
- Review of Welch or Raymond book
- Critical comparison of CEO Panel inputs
Class# Date Activities Assignments
1 Jan. 11/12 a. Introductions
b. Class structure
c. Overview of strategic
management
d. Change inevitability
e. Capstone®; Intro.
2 Jan. 25/26 a. External scanning - W&H - Chap. 1-3 (esp. 1, b. Strategic Analysis - 3, pages 20 & 21)
Capstone®;
c. Sample Round - Member Guide-Chap. 1-4
3 Feb. 8/9 a. Internal Scanning - W&H - Chap. 4 & 5 (esp.
4.2, 4.6, 5)
b. Decision Round 1
4 Feb. 22/23 a. Strategy Formulation -W&H - Chap. 6 & 7 (esp.and techniques 6.3, 7.1)
- W&H - Chap. 10.1, 10.2
b. Decision Round 2 - W&H - Chap. 12.1, 12.2
c. Business Plan Presentation - Team Identification of 1
d. Business Plan Discussion Current Strategic story
5 Mar. 8/9 a. Current issue discussion - W&H - Chap. 8 & 9
b. Preparation for Coffaro Case - Identification of Choice
c. Decision Round 3 paper
6 Mar. 22/23 a. Coffaro Case Presentation - W&H - Chap. 10.3, 11.3,
and Discussion 11.4, 12.5, 12.7
b. Team "Retreat & Plan" Critique - Team Identification of
Current Strategic Story
7 Apr. 5/6 a. Specific Strategic Issues - Coffaro Paper due
b. Decision Round 4 - W&H - Chap. 13
c. Current Issue Discussion
8 Apr. 19/20 a. CEO Panel - W&H - Chap. 15
b. Decision Round 5 - Choice Paper due
9 May 3 / 4 a. Decision Round 6 - Final Board Presentation
b. Final Presentations c. Course Critique
WE'LL ALL LEARN A LOT!!!!