John Sperling Sch hool of Business

Co ourse S Syllabu us
sion 2 MMPBL/590 Vers Strateg gies for Com mpetitive Ad dvantage

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Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

Course Description
This course focuses on creating the value proposition as a driver of sustainable competitive advantage. Topics include translating key emerging trends into business opportunities; strategic challenges of global expansion; opportunities and constraints posed by regulatory change; competitor intelligence; scenario planning/planning for multiple futures; maximizing core business value; differentiating the value proposition; distribution channel development and integration; tailoring the value chain; building successful strategic alliances; and off-shoring models and approaches.

Course Topics & Objectives

Week One: Mission, Vision, and Values Distinguish between strategy and tactics. Explain the essential components of the strategic management process. Analyze the relationship among leadership, culture, stakeholder interests, and strategic outcomes. Create vision, mission, and values statements.

Week Two: Environmental Analysis and Long-Term Objectives Perform an environmental analysis using appropriate tools. Assess the remote, industry and operating environments. Create a set of long-term objectives from the environmental analysis. Align the vision and values of an organization to meet its long-term objectives.

Week Three: Grand Strategies Formulation and Selection Differentiate among the generic and grand strategies. Evaluate organizational strengths and weaknesses for meeting long-term objectives. Apply strategic choice to achieve long-term objectives.

Week Four: Goals and Action Plans Identify critical success factors for plan implementation. Create a strategic roadmap to outline the implementation process. Develop a tactical plan based on the roadmap.

Week Five: Financials and Control Forecast financials and other measures to validate selected business strategies. Establish an effective strategic planning and control cycle.

Week Six: Best Practices in Strategic Planning Analyze best practices in strategic management. Evaluate real-world applications of strategic management.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

Course Materials
Pearce, J., & Robinson, R. (2004). Strategic management: Formulation, implementation, and control (9th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. All electronic materials are available on your student Web site.

Recommended Weekly Point Values

Week One Individual Assignment: Mission, Vision, and Values Paper Week Two Learning Team Assignment: Forces and Trends Research Week Three Individual Assignment: Environmental Analysis Week Four Individual Assignment: Strategic Issues Paper Week Five Individual Assignment: Strategic Plan Alignment Week Six Individual Assignment: Strategic Plan Paper and Presentation Learning Team: Strategic Plan Critique All Weeks Participation & Discussion Questions Point Total

8 15 12 12 6 20 15 12 100

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

Week One
Mission, Vision, and Values Distinguish between strategy and tactics. Explain the essential components of the strategic management process. Analyze the relationship among leadership, culture, stakeholder interests, and strategic outcomes. Create vision, mission, and values statements.

Course Assignments
1. Readings Read Ch. 1 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 2 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 10 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings. 2. Discussion Questions How do values and the underlying organizational culture of an organization frame its response in the execution of strategic plans?

Howcriticaldoyouthinkhavingamissionstatementisrelativetotheoverallsuccess ofanorganization? First,thinkabouthowimportantavisionandmissionstatementistoyourown organization.Thenexplainthattousandthinkabout(andalsoexplain)how manyoftheemployeesinyourownorganizationknowsthevisionandmission. Cananorganizationhaveaneffectivestrategyandbeoperationallyineffective?Make suretoexplain"why"inwhateveransweryougivetothisquestion.

3. Individual Assignment: Mission, Vision, and Values Paper Submit a 700- to 1,050-word paper in which you complete the following: o Identify the organization for which you would like to complete or are considering completing a strategic plan. You may focus this study on a specific department, group, division, or function, within the organization. Provide a brief background of this organization, including its products/services and customers. Look for the organizations mission and vision statements. Modify or improve them to achieve as much clarity as possible. How do the mission, vision, and values aid the organization in reaching its desired end state?

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2 o

What components of the strategic management process need to be analyzed in light of the new strategy? What effect will the outcomes of the new strategy have on the leadership and culture of the organization? How will the outcomes affect stakeholders?

4. Learning Team Instructions: Form Learning Teams. Form Learning Teams. These teams will work together throughout the course. Review the objectives from Week One, and discuss additional insights and questions that may have arisen. Create the Learning Team Charter.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

Week Two
Environmental Analysis and Long-Term Objectives Perform an environmental analysis using appropriate tools. Assess the remote, industry and operating environments. Create a set of long-term objectives from the environmental analysis. Align the vision and values of an organization to meet its long-term objectives.

Course Assignments
1. Readings Read Ch. 3 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 4 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 6 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.

2. Discussion Questions What are two major environmental changes that you expect to have an impact on your organization over the next 5-10 years? How has your organizations primary competitor taken advantage of favorable conditions in its internal and external environment? Has this created competitive advantage for them? Why or why not? What are some of the preliminary objectives that you can think of for the organization that is the subject of your plan? How did you receive these objectives? What are the key success factors for achieving these objectives? How do the long-term objectives identified in your plan relate to inputs from your environmental scan?

3. Learning Team Instructions: Learning Team Meeting Review the objectives from Week Two, and discuss additional insights and questions that may have arisen. 4. Learning Team Assignment: Forces and Trends Research Research three forces or trends from the remote or industry environment. Use the organization you identified individually in Week One to begin your environmental scan, using the databases in the University Library. Each team member should have three 350-word synopses, one for each force or trend, which provides the information identified. Write a 350-word synopsis for each force or trend selected. Include the following information: o o A detailed description of the force or trend The relevance of the force or trend to your chosen organization

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2 o Your chosen organizations strategic adaptability for the force or trend.

Prepare a 1,050-word to 1,400-word paper based upon the information gathered from the individual work done. As a team, analyze defining strategic adaptability and its relevance to the types of issues and opportunities facing each organization. Cite all references used. Submit a final composition which consists of a title page, the teams overall analysis, the individual force or trend synopses, with the preparer of each synopsis identified, and an appropriate reference page. As a guideline, a team of five will submit roughly 1314 pages of material as well as a title page and reference page. Format the paper according to APA standards.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

Week Three
Grand Strategies Formulation and Selection Differentiate among the generic and grand strategies. Evaluate organizational strengths and weaknesses for meeting long-term objectives. Apply strategic choice to achieve long-term objectives.

Course Assignments
1. Readings Read Ch. 5 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 6 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 7 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 8 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.

2. Discussion Questions This week one of the issues were going to look at is pricing strategy. In that context, do you agree that a low-cost strategy is the same as a low-price strategy? Why (or why not)? It is said that competitive forces shape strategy. If this is true, how would you assess these forces in the selection of alternative strategies for your organization? Generally, organizational strengths and weaknesses are derived from internal environmental analysis. Does the external environment impact the organizational strengths and weaknesses? Explain your answer using one or more examples from your experience. Assume that you are a risk averse manager in an industry experiencing rapid technological innovation. Which of the generic strategies would you be inclined to favor to mitigate risk? Why? 3. Individual Assignment: Environmental Analysis Paper Complete an environmental scan and economic analysis on your selected department, group, division, function, or organization (for which you will create a strategic plan), including the remote, industry, and operating environments. Your environmental scan should describe the situation completely and accurately. You should identify any major changes that you expect to affect your remote, industry, or operating environments in the next 5-10 years. This paper must include the following subcomponents: o Refine the analysis of the forces and trends you completed for the Week Two assignment. Utilize a macroeconomic forecast of economic indicators that will affect your chosen organization in the future and should be considered part of strategic planning. Analyze the non-economic factors in the remote environment:

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2 o

Social and cultural Political Technological Demographic

Complete a competitive analysis of your organizations position from a microeconomic perspective based on the pricing of the organizations primary product or service line, an assessment of its cost structure, and an assessment of the market in which the organization competes. This should be a discussion, not a spreadsheet. Develop a summary of the organizations current situation, including its mission or business overview, its current competitive position, and the forces and trends in its industry. Based on this situation, you must identify three to six current opportunities and issues you believe should be addressed through the strategicplanning process. Identify strengths and weaknesses in the organizations operating environment that can be leveraged to capitalize on the emerging opportunities or minimize the threats that you identified in Items 1-4. Create three to four strategic long-term objectives that can be measured to determine the success of the strategic plan. Revisit the mission and vision statements you modified in Week One. If necessary, modify or improve them further to align with your long-term objectives.

Submit your finding in a 2,800- to 3,500-word paper. 4. Learning Team Instructions: Learning Team Meeting Review the objectives from Week Three, and discuss additional insights and questions that may have arisen.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

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Week Four
Goals and Action Plans Identify critical success factors for plan implementation. Create a strategic roadmap to outline the implementation process. Develop a tactical plan based on the roadmap.

Course Assignments
1. Readings Read Ch. 9 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read Ch. 10 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings.

2. Discussion Questions What factors are critical to the success of your plan? Share some examples of why you chose these factors. How is the roadmap related to the goals and objectives of your organization? Provide examples to illustrate your answer. How would you go about introducing a roadmap into your organization and ensuring successful collaboration of its completion in your organization? Based on your trying on the shoes of the planner these past four weeks, what skills and temperaments do you believe are needed for a successful career in planning? Is this something you would be interested in doing yourself? 3. Individual Assignment: Strategic Issues Paper Identify several companies that have demonstrated strategic thinking about issues that are similar to those faced by your selected organization. Provide an overview of the issues, identify a total of five different strategies utilized by those companies to address them, and discuss the outcomes. Explain how you would adopt the five strategies in your selected organization to address the issues you identified. Submit your finding in a 1,050- to 1,400-word paper. 4. Learning Team Instructions: Learning Team Meeting Review the objectives from Week Four, and discuss additional insights and questions that may have arisen.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

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Week Five
Financials and Control Forecast financials and other measures to validate selected business strategies. Establish an effective strategic planning and control cycle.

Course Assignments
1. Readings Read Ch. 11 of Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Read this weeks Electronic Reserve Readings. 2. Discussion Questions Why is contingency planning important? Explain your answer using your experience or your work environment. What are some possible challenges and limitations of financial forecasting? Should both qualitative and quantitative measures be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your plan? Is one more important than the other? Is one more effective in forecasting or planning than the other? Why or why not? What are some types of organizations that may need to evaluate strategy more frequently than others? Make sure to tell us why when you answer this question. 3. Individual Assignment: Strategic Plan Alignment Submit a 350- to 700-word analysis of your plan examining the degree of alignment between the organization's proposed published values and the following: o o o o o The leaders or managers treatment of internal stakeholders The internal stakeholders treatment of one another The organization's treatment of external stakeholders The organization's short-term plans The organization's long-term plans

4. Learning Team Instructions: Learning Team Meeting Review the objectives from Week Five, and discuss additional insights and questions that may have arisen. Provide a draft of your Strategic Plan to each member of the team during Week Five. Each Learning Team member must read, evaluate, critique, and make recommendations on the Strategic Plans drafted by individual team members, submitting a 150-word evaluation to each member of the team in Week Six. The team must combine all of the responses that have been presented to individual team members and must submit a single document to the instructor in Week Six.

Course Syllabus MMPBL/590 Version 2

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Week Six
Best Practices in Strategic Planning Analyze best practices in strategic management. Evaluate real-world applications of strategic management.

Course Assignments
1. Activities Submit the Learning Team Evaluation. Each team member must submit a separate copy to the instructor. 2. Discussion Questions None in week six 3. Individual Assignment: Strategic Plan Paper and Presentation Prepare your final strategic plan, which should thoroughly discuss your decisions and provide rationale and data for those decisions. The document should follow the Strategic Plan Outline found on your student Web site. Submit your plan as 5,000-word to 7,000-word paper. Deliver a 10-minute presentation that will advocate the adoption of your strategic plan by the organizations board of directors to the class outlining the highlights of your strategic plan. The delivery should be short, focused, and formal and contain no more than 6 slides. 4. Learning Team Assignment: Strategic Plan Critique Read, evaluate, critique, and make recommendations on the Strategic Plans drafted by individual team members. Submit a 150-word evaluation to each member of the team.

Combine all of the responses that have been presented to individual team members and submit a single document.