Management Strategy - Professor Jill R. Kickul DePaul University

This course is designed to integrate multiple areas of specialization within an international business environment. Students will have the opportunity to formulate, develop, and implement strategic issues and concepts for a "simulated" company. In addition, cases will be examined and analyzed that focus on how multinational organizations sustain their competitive advantage within their respective industries.

Throughout the course, we will explore the factors that contribute to the design of an effective strategy and the criteria for making intelligent choices from the many options facing today's organizations. Some of these factors include:

• Defining the mission statement of an organization
• An analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses
• An assessment of competitive position
• Environmental analysis and appropriate reactions
• Setting objectives and targets
• Formulating organizational and functional strategies
• Implementation and control

COURSE OBJECTIVES:

1. To understand the factors that contribute to the strategic management process within a multinational business environment.
2. To recognize (a) the relationship of functional business operations to competitive success, and (b) the role of business processes in achieving organizational performance.
3. To learn how to objectively evaluate an organization's capabilities and competitive position and thereby make intelligent choices to establish strategies that achieve defined objectives.
4. To examine alternate strategic management concepts, models, and systems.
5. To develop one's interpersonal abilities by interacting as a team within an organizational setting.
6. To enhance writing skills through a formal analysis of several case studies.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Capstone^®; Simulation:

Most strategic decisions, especially crucial ones, are made after consultation with key executives and colleagues in an atmosphere of committee deliberations and discussion. To simulate this procedure, each student has the opportunity to select his/her team.

Each team has to manage and analyze their own Capstone^®; company and has to develop and implement strategic concepts. The management team will make decisions about various aspects of an assigned company's management for a given period of "simulated time." It is expected that all management teams meet regularly to analyze the strategic position of the company and discuss the issues, problems, etc.

The game is, thus, played over several simulated periods to maximize the firm's objectives. The objectives are, of course, achieved much more systematically and successfully by considering and applying concepts previously developed in lectures and discussion.

The business simulation is graded as the joint effort of the entire team whose members will receive the same grade, unless performance difficulties occur among one or more students. This approach is designed to foster teamwork, a highly valued requirement for success in business. If you are not a team player but you wish to acquire the necessary skills, this could be a good first step toward that end. The performance of your group in the simulation is worth 10% towards your final course grade. Students will be evaluating their team members at the mid-term and at the end of the class (See evaluation form at the end of the syllabus and on the instructor's web page). Key note: Peer evaluations are worth 10% towards your final course grade.

At the end of the simulation, all teams will prepare a Stockholders' Debrief. In addition, a written report of your individual contribution and performance in your group (individual assessment) will also be prepared.

Simulation Evaluation Criteria:

To evaluate the firm's performance seven criteria were developed. The criteria include profit, market share, ROA, ROS, ROE, asset turnover, and stock price. Each of these performance measures are then calculated in one of three ways: average value, ending value, or cumulative value. Then all of these performance measurements are ranked in each category score 6 to the firm with the highest value, 5 to the next highest, and so on. Finally, these scores are multiplied by the percentages (as assigned by the team) to arrive at an overall composite score. Each team has to assign percentages to each of the seven performance measures. The most that can be assigned to any one performance measure is 30%, and the total must equal 100%. The company will be evaluated using the team's percentage. Before the first decision, please submit the assigned weights your firm chooses to use for each criteria.

For example, suppose your team performed as follows in a six firm industry:

Criteria	Method	Score	Weight	Composite
Profit	Cumulative Value	6(1st Place)	.10	.60
Market Share	Ending Value	5(2nd Place)	.15	.75
ROA	Average Value	3(4th Place)	.15	.45
ROS	Average Value	5(2nd Place)	.15	.75
ROE	Average Value	4(3rd Place)	.15	.60
Asset Turnover	Average Value	4(3rd Place)	.15	.60
Stock Price	Ending Value	5(2nd Place)	.15	.75
Total Score			1.00	4.50

SMALL GROUP AND CLASS PARTICIPATION:

The success of this course depends not only on your attendance, but also on your participation. The more you participate, the more fun and valuable the course will be for all of us. For every class, students are expected to read the assigned text and supplemental readings and cases. Participation is measured using several criteria. These include actively participating individually during the "discussion" part of our sessions, in small group meetings (including interactions on the web site), and in group presentations.
The instructor's evaluation of your participation is worth 15% towards your final course grade, and will be evaluated using these criteria:

• When questions or cases were presented to the class, how active (as opposed to inactive) was your participation?
• When you answered questions or commented on reading-related or discussion-related material in class, how accurately (as opposed to inaccurately) did you use concepts previously discussed?
• When you asked questions or commented on reading-related or discussion-related material in class, how creative (as opposed to redundant or repetitive) was your thinking?
• When you were asked to answer case questions to solve organizational problems (a career as an organizational consultant offers big buck ($$$!), by the way), how specific, hence implementable (as opposed to vague, hence useless), were your suggested remedies to problems raised in class?
• When you criticized others' ideas (including the instructor's), how constructively (as opposed to destructively) did you state your criticism?
• How many times were you absent when your small group was working on in-class and live case (so that your group missed your contributions)? One group absence may not adversely affect your participation grade; more class absences will lower your final grade.
  

BREAKDOWN OF COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Requirements	Percentage
Simulation Performance	15%
Stockholdersâ„¢ Debrief (Team)	10%
Individual Assessment	15%
Simulation Presentation	10%
Peer Evaluations	15%
Strategy Article Write-ups (2 @ 10% each)	20%
Class Participation	15%

PLAGIARISM:

DePaul University has issued guidelines for student responsibilities, provided in the Undergraduate Bulletin: "Plagiarism is a major form of academic dishonesty involving the presentation of the work of another as one's own." Students should be familiar with this policy and the consequences of its violation.

Criteria	Weight
Profit
Market Share
ROA
ROS
ROE
Asset Turnover
Stock Price
Total Score	1.00

Additional Learning Points of the Simulation
(Individual Assessment):

• From your experience in playing this simulation, what key areas or points did you learn in managing your company?
• Was this experience different than reading about another organization? That is, how useful was this simulation in understanding strategy and how all the key functional areas are interrelated?
• Playing this simulation (managing an organization) is a conjunctive task whereby all input and KSAs from all team members is important in achieving success. What key role did you play in your team's decision-making process?

Please type and double-space your answers. Your ideas and comments are used to understand your learning experience of managing your team and organization.