CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO College of Business Administration MBA 501 Advanced Strategic Management

Transcription

1 CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, SACRAMENTO College of Business Administration MBA 501 Advanced Strategic Management Instructor: Dr. Jeff Niu Office: Tahoe Hall 2034 Office Phone: Office hours: Monday 3:00PM to 5:00PM or by appointment Required and Recommended Text & Material Essentials of Strategic Management by Charles Hill and Gareth Jone, ISBN: Various articles and case readings will be posted on SacCT. Course Description This course focuses on the competitive strategy of the firm, examining issues central to its long- and short-term competitive position. Students act in the roles of key decision-makers or their advisors and solve problems related to the development or maintenance of the competitive advantage of the firm. The primary objectives of the course are: To acquire familiarity with the principal concepts, frameworks and techniques of strategic management. To gain expertise in applying these concepts, frameworks and techniques in order to - understand the reasons for good or bad performance by an enterprise, - generate strategy options for an enterprise, - assess available options under conditions of imperfect knowledge, - select the most appropriate strategy, - recommend the best means of implementing the chosen strategy. To integrate the knowledge gained in previous and parallel courses. To develop your capacity as a general manager in terms of - an appreciation of the work of the general manager, - the ability to view business problems from a general management perspective, - the ability to develop original and innovative approaches to strategic problems, - developing business judgment. To improve your skills of oral and written communication. Course Conduct The course will be conducted as a seminar. Class participation is essential to the seminar format. Students are expected to attend classes or arrange absences in advance. More than TWO absences will result in failing the course. The following are the requirements for this course:

2 1. Assigned Readings and Class Participation. To aid the learning process, students are required to participate in class discussion. Class participation will be graded according to their logical contents rather than personal opinions. Students are advised to think carefully through the implications of their position in advance of contributing to the discussion. 2. Exercises. Each student is required to submit exercises and the number of exercises are yet to be determined. Dr. Niu will fill you in after the semester begins. 3. Business Case and Reading Presentation. Prepare PowerPoint (but not limited to) presentation to explain the assigned case first. At least show some research evidences (include sources in your presentation: academic journal articles, video streams, magazines, news papers, interviews, ). Each case, long or short, needs to have at least 4 provocative questions for the class to discuss. Your primary job is to give an overview of the case and lead the class discussion, and thus, the provocative questions are crucial. 4. Final Research Project. Each student team is required to submit a final project report on managing global business operations. The contents of the report must 1. Ask the research questions (e.g., what, why, who, where, when and how): Identify issues or problems, which are interesting and significant to the management of global business operations. 2. Review existing literatures and discuss why the current writings were unable to address the (research) questions comprehensively. 3. Develop a framework for analysis and synthesis a. What elements or factors and why they should be included in your analytical framework in order to address the research questions and explain the phenomena? b. What are the relationships among the elements or factors you identified to build the analytical framework? (e.g., use a flow chart to illustrate the cause-and-effect relationships) c. How the existing literatures or publications support or enhance your argument? d. How to synthesize the result of your analysis? (i.e. put together the information in new or original ways to produce a unique solution or original plan of action) 4. Present empirical evidences (i.e., identify real world business data or cases to support your analysis) 5. Provide implications for managerial decision-making and practices 6. Provide references from credible sources Case reports and final research project will be graded on the quality and consistency of the analyses as well as the contributions to the practices of global business. As a member of an assigned team, each student is expected to contribute significant amount of efforts to the case analyses. A peer evaluation will be accomplished for the case analyses at the end of the term. Written Report Grading Criteria All written reports will be graded on content (70%), readability (15%), and format (15%). Late submission s will be downgraded by 25 percent. Content: 1. Comprehend basic concepts/theories/models (discuss in the assigned readings) and must be able to apply them appropriately to support the analysis

3 2. Use a balanced approach to organize the report content 3. Contents that have no immediate relevance to the subject should not be included in the report - All information that is needed is there, and all that is there is needed! 4. Conclusion and recommendations must be derived from the analysis in a logical and consistent manner 5. Recommendations must be feasible a. Technical feasibility technologies exist or available for the proposed applications b. Economic feasibility total benefits (tangible and intangible as well as strategic and operational) expect to gain from the solutions is greater than the total (lifecycle) costs c. Organizational feasibility dominant managerial logic and/or organizational culture and behavior may hinder the implementations 6. Managerial implications should include both case-specific and generic lessons (i.e., learning outcomes or examples that could be applied to organizations across industries). Readability: 1. Present ideas and findings in a clear and concise manner 2. Use tables and figures to present ideas and to summarize research findings are highly recommended 3. Tables and figures presented in the report must be discussed 4. Free of spelling and grammatical errors (one percentage point will be deducted for each misspelled word) 5. Do not use a conversational (subjective) writing style Format: All reports should be submitted in the form of both printed paper copies and electronic files (MS Word and PowerPoint presentations) and be formatted as follows: 1. Cover page, executive summary (one-page, single-spaced), and table of contents 2. Executive summary should contain the following information: a. background b. (organizational) issues, problems, and/or challenges c. analytical framework or theoretical concepts to support the analysis d. conclusion, managerial implications, and/or recommendations 3. Letter-size paper with 1-inch left-right and top-bottom margin and page numbering 4. Times New Roman or Courier 12-point type face 5. Table of contents (and report sections) must use the following format. A brief introduction is required at the beginning of each section. 5. Section Title ---- A brief introduction of this section is required Subsection title Subsection title Footnotes/endnotes and bibliographic references. Using a formalized writing style guideline is MANDATORY, including the Internet or other on-line sources. The College of Business Administration adopted the following writing style as the preference:

4 Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5 th ) Edition, 2001 (ISBN: Course Evaluation Reading and Case Presentations : 100 Business Research Project : 200 Exercises : 100 In-class Contribution and Participation : 100 Total : 500 Late submissions will be downgraded by 25 percent. Grade Distribution 90% or above: A/A- 80%-89%: B+/B/B- 70%-79%: C+/C/C- 60%-69%: D+/D/D- 59% or below: F Course Policies: 1. Turn-off your cell phone before the class starts. 2. Assignments should be submitted at the beginning of the class unless otherwise announced. Don t be late for the class. 3. A schedule of text material to be covered is presented on the first day of class. Students are expected to read the material in advance of each week. 4. Academic dishonesty (such as cheating and plagiarism) will not be tolerated and appropriate disciplinary actions will be taken. Specifically, anyone determined to have received assistance on graded work will automatically receive a zero for the evaluation at hand.

5 Schedule of Events Week Date Topics and Assignments 1 Jan 26 Topics: Course Overview Presentation Sign Up In Class Discussion 2 Feb 2 Topics: The nature of strategic management eharmony 3 Feb 9 Topics: The business mission, vision, and strategy Disney 4 Feb 16 Topic: 5 Feb 23 Topic: 6 March 2 Topic: 7 March 9 Topic: 8 March 16 Topic: The external perspective of strategic management Best Buy The internal perspective of strategic management The Big 3 Roar Back Competitive advantage of a firm RedBull Business level strategy Jamba Juice Innovation and strategic entrepreneurship Samuel Colt 9 March 23 Spring Break! 10 March 30 Online Exercise.

6 11 April 6 Topics: Strategic alliance, joint venture, M&As, and networks Teva Pharmaceutical Industries 12 April 13 Topics: Global strategy Green Mountain Coffee 13 April 20 Topics: Strategy Implementation Zara 14 April 27 Final Case Discussion 15 May 4 Group Work Day 16 May 11 Final Research Project Report Due