BUS 590-001 - Strategic Management FoundationsFall 2011 Nelson Hall 2403 2 January 2012 Peter Janca Office: Nelson

Hall 1341 Email: pcjanca@ncsu.edu Office Hours: Mondays, by appointment Phone: 919 513 3941 Prerequisites: You must have an engineering, technical or scientific undergraduate degree. Prior job experience is helpful but not required. Course Focus: This course is designed to help students with an engineering or scientific undergraduate degree understand the world of business. The class will include: 1. Information about the key components present in a business, such as finance, marketing, operations, strategy, organizational behavior. 2. Class discussions to better understand how these components work and how they interact with each other and with the outside world. 3. A semester-long group project to design and plan for a new company or new product within an existing company. 4. Discussions with current practitioners in business, many of whom also come from an engineering or other technical background. 5. An opportunity to learn how businesses think, which is considerably different from the style of systematic thinking and problem-solving typical in the engineering disciplines. Text: The Ten Day MBA, 3rd Edition, by Steven Silbiger. This costs about $15. Required: Subscribe to at least 1 business periodical, such as the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times of London, or the Triangle Business Journal. We have special student rates for WSJ and TBJsee information in the intro note. WSJ is primarily US, FT is global (including US), TBJ is local (Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill). There will also be one or more outside readings and/or research required for each class session: This will be assigned no later than the prior class session.

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This course is not: 1. an MBA program condensed into one semester, or 2. a test of how well you can calculate (finance, market analysis, payroll, etc): I expect that you already have these skills due to your background. Expectations: The course requires learning from books, references, participation, and team project result. You must stay current with the video lectures, and participate actively in class and within your small team. Your team will meet weekly at a day and time of your choosing. I will provide more information about this just after the beginning of the semester. This also will be the vehicle for the semester-long project. You must understand how to use the Library to look up articles and do research on topics. In some cases, I will assign you a general topic, and you will be expected to find, read, and be prepared to discuss articles which relate to that topic. You need to let me know if you have special needs or are otherwise having difficulty in class. For example, I realize that English is a second language for many students so please see me if you are having difficulty and I will try to adjust to meet your needs. If there is any student in this class who, due to a disability, has need for non-standard note taking, test taking , or other course modification, please describe your needs, and we will make arrangements. It is up to you to contact me about any situation which would keep you from getting preparation done. I realize that an emergency situation can happen to any of us, and promise to listen and help meet your needs. In most cases, I expect you to figure out a way to work around the problem in a way that it does not affect your work in the class. Active participation is required. True collaboration and teamwork will be required for the semester-long group project. This will affect both your grades and the grades of your team. Details will follow. Your success in the class depends on a mix of learning from others and developing ideas and concepts of your own. You must fairly identify any work of others contained in your work and will be expected to follow the University policies on academic integrity which appear in sections 7 through 13 of this document: http://www.ncsu.edu/policies/student_services/student_discipline/POL11.35.1.php Please note that I do not expect this to be a problem, but am only including it to be sure that everyone has a clear understanding.

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Written assignments must in printed form, double spaced, font size 10, 11, or 12. These must be handed in at the beginning of class on the assigned due date. Communications: You may reach me via email or phoneemail is preferred. I promise to get back to you within four working days. You are also welcome to arrange a face-to-face meeting at my office in Nelson Hall. I am usually on campus most Mondays. Grading: Class participation Team project Examination results Individual written assignments 200 possible points 250 possible points 300 possible points 250 possible points 1000 total possible points

The team project is worth a possible 250 points (25%) of the grade. The grade is earned by the team, so each team member receives the same team score. Your class participation counts heavily worth up to a possible 200 points (20% of the grade). I evaluate this by observing how you work with others and how your comments help contribute to the discussions. I evaluate based on quality and amount of participation. Note: Class discussions are not graded based on knowing the right answer. There are often multiple ways of addressing a question or problem: I want to see that you are thinking about the problem and are listening to what others say as you present your ideas. Scale for Grades A+ = 980-1000 A = 920-979 A- = 900-919 B+ = 880-899 B = 820-879 B- = 800-819 C+ = 780-799 C = 720-779 C- = 700-719 D+ = 680-699 D = 620-679 D- = 600-619

The +/- grading is the University's official grading scale, and hence will be used in this class.

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BUS 590-001Topic ScheduleSpring 2012 Planned course schedule (may be updated during the semester). Session Module 1: January 9 January 16 Module 2: January 23 Module 3: January 30 Module 4: Module 5: Module 6: Module 7: February 6 February 13 February 20 February 27 Topic What is Business Holiday, no class Marketing Product Management / Lifecycle Finance Concept Presentations Economics Organizational Behavior Spring Break, no class Examination, Other topics (Legal, International, etc) Strategy Accounting Ethics Operations Special Topics Final Presentations - Plan Reading Day-no lecture Final Examination Assignments-due prior to beginning of Module See intro email Text 1-60, Levitt, Marketing Myopia Text 1-60, Short Paper, Teams present project focus Text 199-255 Teams present Concept plans Text 287-324 Text 119-159, 258-259, Short Paper Text 371-383 Text 324-364, Text 71-119, Text 60-71 Text 255-287, Short Paper Teams prepare Plan presentations

March 5 Module 8: March 12 Module 9: March 19 Module 10: March 26 Module 11: April 2 Module 12: April 9 Module 13: April 16 Module 14: April 23 April 30 May 7

Course Evaluation: You will have an opportunity to evaluate this class at the end of the semester. This is voluntary, and your privacy is protected. Online class evaluations will be available for you to complete during the last two weeks of class. All evaluations are confidential; I will never know how any one student responded to any question. Copyright Notice: This course web site contains copyrighted materials and was developed for instructional purposes to be used by graduate students in BUS 590. Students currently registered in this course are permitted to print or make copies of parts of this material for their own personal use in conjunction with completing the course. Text, audio files, images or design of the associated web site may not otherwise be distributed or modified in any manner without the prior written permission of the instructor.

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