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BPS 6310.521
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Tuesday 6:00pm – 10:00pm SOM Building Room 2.904
Text: Dess, G.G., Lumpkin, G.T. and Taylor, 2006—Strategic Management: Creating
Competitive Advantages, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. (Soft back version)
BPS 6310 Readings Packet: Michael D Oliff, Available at Campus Books
Note: This is a demanding course. If you are unable to commit approximately two hours
of work outside of class (on average) for every hour in class (or eight hours per week),
please drop the course.
Course Overview
The primary thrust of this course is general management. It will be different from most of
the courses you have had in functional subject areas (e.g., accounting, marketing) in the
MBA program because you are required to use a wide range of business knowledge and
exhibit diverse skills. Therefore, it will be demanding and challenging because you must
perform in topic areas where you have both strengths and weaknesses.
This course has historically been referred to as “Business Policy” and its sole purpose
was to help the student “integrate” the knowledge he/she had developed in other courses
in the undergraduate business program. Business policy traditionally had little content of
its own. However, in recent years it has become increasingly apparent that general
managers (including top executives) not only apply knowledge from a wide variety of
functional areas (e.g., accounting, marketing, finance), but also perform activities that
require knowledge and skills not addressed in those areas. Therefore, it has become
acknowledged that there is a unique body of content material that is not taught in
functional area business courses that should be taught in a course such as this. Topics
such as the nature of managerial work, strategy formulation and implementation, and
organization design are examples. Also, the development/refinement of skills in oral and
written communication and the enhancement of conceptual/integration skills are major
course objectives.
Course Objectives
2. Integrating the business skills you have already developed and knowledge you
have obtained. In the immediate future this should give you a better understanding
of how your position(s) relate(s) to the overall performance of your organization.
Also, much of this course is structured to simulate the job that many of you may
have or will have in the near future—an executive responsible for helping to
develop/implement recommendations on the strategic issues that face your
organization.
3. Developing skill in using your knowledge to solve the actual problems that are
being experienced by today’s organizations.
By the end of this course, you should be able to (1) analyze a particular business
situation, (2) identify the significant problems, and (3) propose and justify explicit
solutions that are realistic, effective, and efficient.
Overall, it is extremely important to keep up with assigned material. The course will
cover a large amount of material and I will bring in a wide variety of subject matter
outside of the assigned chapters. I will spend only a relatively short amount of class time
addressing reading materials. Thus, it is vital to carefully read and make summary notes
of the chapter materials and other materials in advance of class to get the most out of the
course.
You will be required to complete three activities in order to achieve the identified
objectives:
Attendance is required at all class sessions. That being said, at times, professional
and personal emergencies may arise which may prevent one from attending class.
Please contact me in advance (via telephone or, preferably, e-mail) if you must
miss a class. No “no-shows” please.
Please make a copy of your written assignment for yourself. I will keep the original in my
files. You also need to submit a “soft” copy via email. We will use a team formation
exercise on day one to help you “self-select” into your groups.
Note: Only a maximum of two groups may analyze a given industry and only one
group may analyze a given company. “First come, first served!”
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
The industry analysis includes two interrelated parts. The first part provides a broad
overview of the industry, its boundaries, and its evolution over time, with particular
emphasis on the key dimensions that have shaped its condition in the last ten years. It
establishes who the participants in the industry are, the nature of the markets, key
strategic issues for the industry, growth rates, profitability, market shares, the products,
financial trends, takeovers, the uncertainties in the environment, the distribution channels,
etc.
The second part of the report analyzes the current state of the industry in terms of the
“five forces” framework proposed by Porter. In addition, the key points to be developed
are the nature of competition, various segments in the industry, the general environmental
trends that affect the industry, diversification efforts by participants and probably likely
scenarios for the future.
• Demographics
• Technology
• Political, social, and economic trends
• Internationalization
COMPANY ANALYSIS
The company analysis, in keeping with the pattern that we followed for industry analysis,
consists of two interrelated parts. The first part should provide a broad overview of the
firm, its evolution over time with particular emphasis on it strengths and weaknesses, its
financial performance, its product lines, its distinctive competencies, its structure, its
culture, and key executives who have shaped the company’s policies in the last ten years.
The second part of the analysis identifies the current strategy at corporate, business, and
functional levels, labels these strategies, and identifies any changes in strategy in the 10-
year period. Further, the report analyzes the company’s performance in the light of the
strategy followed and your own evaluation of the current strategy. The report concludes
with the key issues that the company is currently facing. The insights developed from the
industry analysis should be of particular help in identifying the key issues/choices that the
company is faced with, recommended actions, and implementation considerations.
• Product lines
• The scope of the firm (geographic, target customers, technologies, etc.)
• The size of the firm (sales, assets, personnel, etc.)
• The firm’s distinctive competencies
• Key strategic managers
• The company’s culture and philosophy
4. CURRENT STRATEGY
Each group is to provide a 20-25min presentation. All group members must participate in
the presentation. RATHER THAN ATTEMPT TO “COVER” THE ENTIRE
PAPER—FOCUS ON THE MOST “INTERESTING,” “INSIGHTFUL,” AND
“RIGOROUS” ASPECTS. The oral presentation (along with Power Point slides) will
count 50% of the assignment grade. (Do not solicit class participation/discussion during
the 15-20 minute presentation.)
GRADING
The three activities in which you will be participating will be combined to determine your
final course grade. Their respective weights are as follows:*
Total 100%
* Peer Evaluations (to be completed at the end of the final class meeting).
** Students may earn a maximum of 5 “bonus points” for outstanding class
participation/contribution.
All group members are expected to do their fair share of work on the assignments.
Fortunately, in about 85 to 90 percent of the groups this is the case. Unfortunately, that
leaves (historically) approximately 10-15 percent of the groups in which inequities occur.
Since I do not know which groups have such a problem, I will use peer evaluations for all
groups. For such a system to work, everyone must be honest and fair. Additionally, if a
group member(s) is making only a nominal contribution and/or is overly difficult to work
with, the other group member(s) may expel them/her/him from the group and this
individual must complete the assignment individually within one week after the due date.
SCHOLASTIC DISHONESTY
The university has policies and discipline procedures regarding scholastic dishonesty
Detailed information is available at
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html. Students are expected to maintain
a high level of responsibility with respect to academic dishonesty.
Students who violate university rules are subject to disciplinary penalties, including the
possibility of failure in the course and/or dismissal from the university. Since such
dishonesty harms the individual, all students and the integrity of the university, these
policies will be strictly enforced.
Session 4 Strategic Intent - Combining “Forces” Bally S.A. from Core Competencies to
June 6 and “Resources” to attack Chosen Markets Capabilities
Strategic Info. Mgt at Bally
Session 5 Business and Corporate-Level Strategies Chapters 5 and 6
June 13 Preliminary Team Project Reviews
Session 6 International Strategy Chapters 7 and 8
June 20 Wal-Mart – Strategy for the 21st Century
Nokia-Creating New Markets, UTD, 2004
Session 7 Strategic Implementation Chapter 9 and 10
June 27 Team Project Development Bahlsen GMBH., Developing KPI’s to Guide
Transformational Change, UTD, 2004
Session 8 Strategic Implementation Chapter 4 and 11
July 11 Sustaining Change/Stretch Culture CMB Packaging, IMD, 1992
Employee Value and Human Systems
2020 Framework for Future Dominance
Session 9 Case Presentations Presentations
July 18
Session 10 Case Presentations Presentations
July 25
Session 11 Final Exam
Aug 1