MGMT 471 Strategic Management

							                     MGMT 471: Strategic Management

               Spring 2006, Tuesday & Thursday – University Park
                             Instructor: Bret R. Fund
                     Office: Business Building ­ Room 418A
                Telephone: (814) 865­6651, E­mail: brfund@psu.edu
                         Office Hours: T, Th 1:00 – 2:30



COURSE OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

Regardless of what field we each choose for a career, it will take place in the context of
an organization. Beyond work and career, many of us (if not all) are involved in other
informal or formal organizations as well. This course is concerned with providing the
learner with more sophisticated mental models of understanding the intersection of
people, processes, and performance that occur in all of these organizations.

The first key step in this process is to understand people. Every individual can be
thought of as a composite of characteristics and social relations that help define
individual personalities. In order to deal effectively with people we need to understand
at least some of these characteristics and relations in order to adequately perceive
motivations and intentions to certain actions. This becomes the basis of helping us to
understand how to appropriately manage both process and performance.

The second step is understanding specific social processes that occur within the context
of a firm. These processes can be thought about as a series of actions, changes, or
functions that bring about a result. The process view introduced in this course is a
horizontal and dynamic view of an organization and enables the development of a rich
perspective of how actions get taken inside organizations. A deeper understanding of
the design, direction, and functioning of such processes allows managers to influence
the organizations ability to embrace strategic and organizational change.

Finally, we will examine the performance of organizations, or rather the way in which
someone or something (organizations in this case) functions. Throughout both my
academic and work­related experiences one message has rang clear; Output is
everything! Similarly, in organizations, output is simply a measure of performance.
Therefore, in order to maximize performance it is necessary to comprehend all the
elements that make up a process (people included) and then to execute that process in
the most efficient and effective manner possible. This course will discuss many
organizational performance issues and how to effectively manage them.
Course Requirements

The requirements for this course will combine reading, analysis, and assignments with
opportunities to apply basic concepts and analytic approaches to a series of actual
businesses and other organizations. The course will combine a mix of cases, in­class
exercises, lecture/discussion, multimedia presentations, group projects, and an
individual project. Your basic objective is to develop your own understanding and
strategic management skills. My primary objective is to stimulate this process.
Specifically, the course will attempt to help you develop your knowledge and skills in
the application of advanced frameworks, concepts, and methods for making strategic
and organizational choices at the business level. At the end of the course, you should
have a working knowledge of the approaches that organizations use to resolve
organizational issues to make them more effective in formulating and implementing
effective strategies.


Course Materials

“Management Strategy,” by Alfred A. Marcus – McGraw­Hill [ISBN: 0­07­295187­7]

“Winning Moves,” by Alfred A. Marcus – Marsh Publications [ISBN: 0­9713130­2­4]

A course packet should be available in the campus bookstore and is required reading for
this class. 

Additional materials and information will be placed on the course ANGEL website or 
handed out in class.


Purpose of Readings
To provide an overview of ideas, theories, and research directed to the understanding of
organizational behavior and design. Random quizzes will be given (especially on days
with case readings) that will count for participation points at the end of the class.

Purpose of Cases and In­Class Exercises
To provide an opportunity to develop analytic and problem­solving skills in order to be
able to better lead interpersonal, group and organization phenomena.
To provide an opportunity to apply one's developing knowledge of strategy, structure
and processes in “real” situations.
EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT


You will be evaluated on the basis of the following:

                          Activity                                 Points            Percentage
 Midterm I                                                          100                 20%
 Midterm II                                                         100                 20%
 In­depth Case Analysis (Individual Assignment)                     100                 20%
 Engagement Proposal (Group project)                                100                 20%
 Engagement Proposal Presentation (Group project)                    50                 10%
 In­Class Case Discussion Participation                              50                 10%
                                                                    500                 100%


Midterms I & II 

This course will have two midterms.  The first will cover the material presented in the 
first­half of the semester and the second will cover the material for the latter­half.


Criteria for the In­Depth Case Analysis (Individual Assignment) 

The  individual  project  is  an  opportunity  for  each  student  to  wrestle  with  some  of  the 
concepts  discussed  in  class.    The  assignment  serves  to  assess  the  student’s  ability  to 
critically  analyze  a  firm’s  actions  and/or  decisions,  based  on  a  case  example  that  I  will 
provide,  and  to  react  to  it  and  then  to  present  possible  solutions  for  the  firm.    This 
assignment counts for 20% of your grade and will take the place of the class final.  The 
objective of the case analysis is to give you the opportunity to sit in an executive’s chair 
and decide what course of action a firm should take, weighing the benefits and drawbacks 
associated with that particular decision. 

Specific output should be no more than 5 pages long.  Please put additional background 
in separate exhibits and also a bibliography of the relevant readings that you used.


In­Class Case Discussion Participation

This portion of your grade will be assessed by your active involvement in the case
discussion and analysis that we will have in our class sessions. Some days I will hand
out a short quiz that asks for some content related information from the case, while
other days I will base my evaluations on the participation of the individual in the case
discussion and analysis.
Criteria for the Engagement Proposal and Presentation 

The  group  project  is  a  major  part  of  the  course,  and  will  count  for  30%  of  your  grade 
(20% for the written portion and 10% for the in­class presentation). The objective of the 
group project is to develop a consulting engagement proposal for a firm that incorporates 
specific actions and changes that need to take place within a firm in order to enable it to 
increase  its  performance.    Thus,  the  project  should  focus  then  on  a  particular 
topic/decision problem.

The steps in the project are as follows:

1) Pick a topic from the latter half of the class schedule that your group finds most
interesting and want to learn more about.

2) Identify a real firm or a real problem context within which your group will study this
topic. Sometimes, this process may proceed in reverse, in that the group may have
contacts with a company or other local organization, and then decide on the topic. This
is fine, as long as your group eventually “maps” the firm’s decision problem into the
topic for the assignment. I will expect you to read more deeply about that topic from an
academic perspective.

3) Once your group has identified a topic and a company/organization, submit a one­
page project proposal. The proposal should identify the theoretical issues that the
proposed case study will illuminate, and the learning objectives for the case study. Note
that your group needs to work backwards from the teaching/learning objectives to the
case/problem.    The proposal should also briefly describe the context of the
company/problem, and should outline the research action plan.

4) After I approve the topic, the group will then be expected to work as “consultants” for
your client on the topic you have identified. Typically, you will formulate a
recommended strategy for your client, which you believe to be the “best answer” for the
decision problem. In addition, the group will need to create viable decision alternatives
that are reasonably balanced and then pick one and provide a justification for your
choice. Even though you will recommend one of these alternatives to your client, you
will need to develop more than one alternative for the case.


Deadlines: To ensure steady progress on the group project, the following intermediate
deadlines will need to be met:

1.      One­Page Proposal Due:                                      third week of class

2.      Approvals Finalized:                                        fourth week of class

3.      Interim Report Due:                                         Mar. 16th at start of class

4.      Final Group Project Report Due:                             Apr. 29th at start of class
The recommended length of the case study is 10­15 page case (double­spaced) (plus
exhibits).


A rough outline of the case would include:
   1. Industry background on what are trends/patterns in the industry, who is the
      competition, what are their current initiatives, and how the focal firm is situated
      in this context.
   2. Firm background with a brief history, its performance trends and strategic
      positioning over time, and its current situation and recent initiatives.
   3. Discuss the performance implications of particular problem. Is this problem
      going to become the basis of a competitive disadvantage for the firm? Will
      overcoming this problem lead to a competitive advantage or just bring the
      company up to par with its peers? What might occur if the firm fails to recognize
      or address this particular issue?
   4. Focused discussion on how the firm might enable itself to overcome the problem.
      Describe in detail what they could do (what would need to be changed within
      the company) and how effective those changes could be in bringing about
      increased performance for the firm. Provide some empirical data on projected if
      possible or if not, what metrics will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of your
      proposed solution.
   5. One final point – feel free to have a liberal number of exhibits with figures,
      diagrams, video segments …etc. to support the case.

Some general pointers to keep in mind:
   1. Make sure you can delve into the organization structure and processes and link
      them as tightly as possible to the strategic shifts going on, as well as potential
      causes to the problem.

   2. At the end of the case take a critical perspective ­ discuss what is working and
      what is not and needs to be fixed. Finally, make sure you bring up the
      organizational issues and link them to the strategic changes.

   3. In­depth focus on a few key issues is better than a broad focus on lots of issues.
      Keep the industry and firm background to a minimum and spend the bulk of the
      case on the issue you are focusing on.

   4. Visuals are a good thing such as one that summarizes the history of the firm and
      key events in its past or one that provides a clear organizational chart.

   5. The sequence of the project should be assess, analyze, and then propose action.
The Work­Team Structure

Since a portion of the work required for this class will depend on a cohesive and
productive team or workgroup, each student must belong to one and only one such
entity. Teams must have no fewer than 5 members. Student will organize teams at the
beginning of class on the second day of instruction. Individuals may choose to leave a
team if another team will accept them. All changes are subject to my approval and must
be negotiated by both parties/groups. All teams should also have an agreed­upon
method of eliminating (firing) members is necessary. If this happens, I will work with
the individual to find them a new team.

A note on strategy: larger teams have less work to do per person, but have a harder time
coordinating schedules, inputs…etc and generally have a more difficult time
synthesizing the work performed into a unified, productive result (especially when that
result is to be a written paper).

With few exceptions, teams can adopt any internal rules, processes or structures they
desire. For example, they can create a hierarchical reporting structure. They can create
permanent jobs/positions.      They can divide up into sub­teams with different
responsibilities.



Academic Integrity 

According to the Penn State Principles and University Code of Conduct: 

Academic  integrity  is  a  basic  guiding  principle  for  all  academic  activity  at  Penn  State 
University, allowing the pursuit of scholarly activity in an open, honest, and responsible 
manner. In according with the University's Code of Conduct, you must not engage in or 
tolerate  academic  dishonesty.  This  includes,  but  is  not  limited  to  cheating,  plagiarism, 
fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, 
unauthorized  possession  of  examinations,  submitting  work  of  another  person,  or  work 
previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of 
other students. 


Any  violation of  academic  integrity  will  be  investigated, and where warranted, punitive 
action will be taken. For every incident when a penalty of any kind is assessed, a report 
for  both  undergraduate  and  graduate  level courses  must  be  filed,  using  the  pdf  form  at 
http://www.smeal.psu.edu/smeal/integrity/. All penalties and procedures must be reported 
to the Associate Dean for Undergraduate Programs. (Dave.Christy@psu.edu)
                                 Class Schedule

          Session                                          Book/Article 
Date         #                     Topic                    Reading                   Case 
                          Introduction & course 
10­Jan       1                   overview                       ­                       ­ 
12­Jan       2       Intro to mgmt & case analysis     Case Analysis article            ­ 
17­Jan       3                Strategy Basics          MS Ch 1 p. 2­14          Alaskan Gold Mine 
19­Jan       4         External Analysis ­ Industry    MS Ch 2 p. 20­27             WM Ch. 2 
                            External Analysis ­ 
24­Jan       5                 Environment             MS Ch 2 p. 28­41             WM Ch. 9 
                            External Analysis ­ 
26­Jan      6                   Stakeholder            MS Ch 2 p. 41­43 
31­Jan      7         Internal Analysis ­ 7S and VC    MS Ch 3 p. 46­54             WM Ch. 3 
 2­Feb      8            Internal Analysis ­ RBV       MS Ch 3 p. 55­64                ­ 
 7­Feb      9                   Positioning            MS Ch 4 p. 68­83             WM Ch. 4 
 9­Feb      10                 Repositioning           MS Ch 4 p. 83­91             WM Ch. 5 
14­Feb      11              Power and Politics                                         ­ 
16­Feb      12           Conflict and Negotiation 
21­Feb      13                  Exploration            MS Ch 7 p. 142­154           WM Ch. 1 
23­Feb      14                  Exploitation           MS Ch 7 p. 157­164              ­ 
28­Feb      15                Midterm Exam 
 2­Mar      16           Group Project Workday 
 7­Mar 
                             Spring Break 
 9­Mar 
14­Mar      17       Top­down Strategic Alignment      AME Article                  Honda A 
                         Bottom­up Strategic 
16­Mar      18                Alignment                Revisit AME Article          Honda B 
21­Mar      19       Organizational Learning & KM      AAR & KM article                 ­ 
23­Mar      20         Social Network Analysis         Informal networks                ­ 
28­Mar      21            Decision Making I            Growing Pains            Unhealthy Hospital 
                                                                                 1000 Days / 13 
30­Mar      22            Decision Making II                     ­                    Days 
 4­Apr      23                   M&A                   MS Ch 5                     WM Ch. 6 
 6­Apr      24              Globalization              MS Ch 6                     WM Ch. 7 
11­Apr      25        Performance Management           MS Ch 1 p. 15­18 
13­Apr      26            Strategic Renewal            MS Ch 8                     WM Ch. 10 
18­Apr      27              Midterm Exam 
20­Apr      28         Group Project Workday 
25­Apr      29          Group Presentations 
27­Apr      30          Group Presentations 
 2­May 
                          Final Exams Week 
 4­May