Strategic Management Concepts and Applications - M. Ray Grubbs, Ph.D. Millsaps College

Course Purpose:

Strategic Management: Concepts and Applications (Core V) is the capstone course in the MBA Program. It draws on everything you have studied and learned and integrates with the study of strategic decision-making (policy). The course will explore strategic decision-making from three perspectives - corporate level strategy, business level strategy, and functional level strategy - but the viewpoint will be that of executive management. Courses that you have taken in marketing, operations, and finance and other areas of business study primarily focus on internal decision making - how to make the business more efficient - from the perspective of that particular function. The study of Business Strategy is primarily interdisciplinary and of forces outside the company, though not exclusively so. When considering forces outside

the company, you will look at the international dimension, industry forces, government forces, economic and societal forces, technological forces, and other influences on business which are less controllable by management but as critical to success as internal efficiency. Additionally, you will consider the interrelationships between primary functions in an organization in the context of strategic decision-making. According to Kenneth Andrews in The Concept of

Corporate Strategy (1980), "business policy is the study of the functions and responsibilities of the senior management in a company, the crucial problems that affect the success of the total enterprise, and the decisions that determine its direction, shape its future, and produce the results desired. The policy problems of business, like those of policies in public affairs, have to do with the choice of purposes, the molding of organizational identity and character, the unending definition of what needs to be done, and the mobilization of resources for the attainment of goals in the face of aggressive competition or adverse circumstance."

The specific objectives of this course are to:

1. Make the student aware of strategic decision-making and policies, their impact on the organization, and the differences in management that account for the success or failure of organizations.
2. Make the student aware of the complex field of action in which executives must operate and make decisions.
3. Integrate the student's knowledge in previous specialized courses. The student should learn to relate the functional disciplines to long term strategic issues.
4. Realize that a decision made by a manager is likely to affect every other area of their organization because the areas are closely and strategically interrelated.
5. Assist in developing the student's analytical ability from the executive management perspective.
6. Develop the student's awareness of the need and requirement to make decisions lacking complete information.
7. Develop the student's skills in planning, measuring and assessing organizational performance.
8. Develop the student's communication skills by reporting performance in summary form to a Board of Directors.
9. Apply strategic decision making by use of a computer simulation.
10. Apply knowledge and experience gained in the MBA Program to a Field Study Project.

Required Texts:

Strategy: A View From the Top, 2nd edition, DeKluyver and Pearce. Prentice Hall.

Capstone^®;: An Industry Simulation.

Team Member Guide (To be distributed in class)

www.capsim.com

There is a charge for registration for the Capstone^®; Simulation.

The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York.

Student Evaluation:

Class Contribution:

Each student is expected to actively engage in class discussion of the issues of strategic decision- making, The World is Flat, text chapter material and other articles distributed in class. This is a class which requires each student to contribute to each meeting.

Homework:

You will be asked to read chapters in our texts and actively engage in class discussions of text, articles, and other assigned material.

Business Strategy Simulation: Capstone^®;

You will be assigned to a team that will participate in the Capstone^®; Simulation. This team will make decisions as if you are the senior management team operating a company. You must design a strategy to compete in this industry with your grade determined by how well your company performs relative to other companies in the industry. One interesting feature of Capstone^®; is that it is each team's discretion in selecting the criteria by which you will be judged in the marketplace. In the simulation, the other companies with which you will compete will be management teams of your classmates. Capstone^®; will report your team's performance at the end of each decision period so you will know just how you are doing. This feedback knowledge will give you the opportunity to adjust your strategy as additional information about your performance becomes available. Your final grade for Capstone^®; will be the final ranking of competitors at the end of the simulation and will be judged by how well each company performs along their selected performance criteria. The procedure of calculating the final score will be discussed in detail in the Capstone^®; material you will receive. The highest ranked company at the termination of the simulation will receive an A, the second a B, and other teams will receive a C. Individual team members may have their grade adjusted for the Capstone^®; Simulation according to feedback received from their management teammates.

Additionally, you will be asked to submit your plan for each round of the Capstone^®; Simulation and an assessment of performance after receiving each round result. This is a team assignment and must be uploaded timely to your company's Yahoo Group. Finally, each Team must submit a Final Assessment of their performance at the end of the competition.

Business Strategy Simulation: Capstone^®; Comp-XM^®;

Using the knowledge and experience gained from participating in the Team-Based Capstone^®; Simulation, each individual student will be required to complete the Comp-XM^®; simulation during week 13 and 14 of the semester. The Comp-XM^®; Simulation is designed to provide individual feedback.

Paper:

You are asked to write your critique of The World is Flat in the context of the organization for which you work or have worked. I am looking for insights gained from your reading of the book rather than a summary of the book.

Field Study Project:

The same Team you will be working with in the Capstone^®; Simulation will also be assigned a field study project for the semester. The projects are selected to allow you to apply what you have learned in the MBA Program in a field setting with an organization seeking your assistance on an issue or issues of strategic importance. The details and timing of your work will be driven by the requirements of the organization with which you are assigned to work.