team busproject

Summer 2015

California State University Northridge

David Nazarian College of Business and Economics

Bus 497A Strategic Management

Strategic Management

Summer 2015

Instructor:            Daniel Degravel, Ph.D.

Time:                          July 08, 2015 to Aug. 18, 2015

Section/Class/Time/Classroom

Class #10757, Section 03, Mo-Wed. 6:00pm – 09:15pm, JH1121

Office Hours:         Office JH4220, Wed 2:00pm - 05:00pm

                             and by appointment

Telephone:            Office (818) 677-2402

Email:                    [email protected]

How to understand the firm’s strategic situation, to be able to propose a strategy and to look at the main elements of its implementation?

This Syllabus presents:

1. Course Description
2. Course Objectives
3. Instructional Material
4. Course Administration and Teaching Method
5. Course Assignments
6. Course Outline

1-Course Description

This seminar in strategic management deals with the long term orientation of organizations. Students will develop skills to be able to design and implement Strategies: think creatively, develop a strategic orientation and apply it to real business decisions.

What is “Strategy”?

Definitions abound but they all share some sense of allocation of Resources inside an Organization, over a long period of Time, in pursuit of specific Goals, tocreating and maintaining the Performance / Competitive Advantage of the Organization.

In other words, Strategy can be understood as an on-going fit between the organization’s Environment and its Internal Resources, Competences and Constraints. Strategic Management is the process through which this dynamic match can be achieved and maintained over time.

The fundamental objective of Strategy is to ensure the firm’s success and enhance its performance on the long run.

Bus 497A Strategic Management

This capstone course allows students to:

-      be able to understand the strategic situation of an organization,

-      make a pertinent analysis leading to strategic orientations, often formalized in a plan,

-      understand the essential elements of strategic orientations implementation,

-      get familiar with the business world,

-      improve their managerial and communication skills.

The strategic approach relies upon three basic elements:

1-       a broad view of the organization’s environment,

2-       an integrated perspective of managing, taking the organization as a whole and integrating all functions (such as marketing, finance, or operations management),

3-       a field ingrained in the “real life” of organizations.

The main components of the course’s material are:

1-       Strategic management overview and concept definition

2-       Analysis (external, internal)

3-       Analysis of Key Strategic Issues (KSI)

4-       Corporate Level Strategies

5-       Business Level Strategies

6-       Strategy Implementation (Organizational Structure, Control and Human Resources Management)

7-       Strategy in various settings and contexts

8-       Future of strategy

2-Course Objectives

Six key objectives can be identified:

1. Given a broad set of information—pieces of which may vary considerably in relevance—students can identify critical issues the organization is facing.

2. In identifying critical issues, students draw on and synthesize concepts from a variety of functional areas of business.

3. Given a broad set of information—pieces of which may vary considerably in relevance—students can make relevant, valuable, and reasonable strategic recommendations for the organization.

4. In making strategic recommendations, students draw on and synthesize concepts from a variety of functional areas of business.

5. In making strategic recommendations, students display understanding of key implementation issues that managers need to deal with.

6. Students use appropriate strategic management concepts and language in effectively communicating about their analyses, including when identifying critical issues and making recommendations.

These objectives can be resumed by the goal of building students’ ability to identify and build a strategic perspective applied to real organizations.

This implies to:

1-      Learn the concepts and tools and the strategic thinking process

2-      Discover the business world

3-      Develop classic but critical skills (communication, leadership and teamwork)

Some general professional skills are required to succeed in a professional career, including strong communication skills in small groups and in larger publics, the ability to write reports, the ability to animate a group discussion and leadership abilities. This course aims also at developing those skills through application, exercises in-class, and personal reflection.

3-Instructional Material

The required material is:

1- “Foundations of strategy”, Robert M. Grant and Judith Jordan, 2012, John Wiley, Chichester, West Sussex, UK, 501p, ISBN 978-0-470-97127-7.

2- HBS Case Studies directly downloadable online at www.harvardbusinessonline.com (between $7-$10 for each case study).

3- The teaching material available in Moodle.

4-Course Administration and Teaching Method

Course Method

This course implies an active participation from all students.

Strategic Management in any kind of organization encompasses a set of techniques but is primarily an art. Even though tools and guidelines are taught, strategic management gives a large room for intuition, judgment and subjectivity.

Material will be presented in this course through a variety of methods: primarily readings from the textbook, lectures, classroom discussion, case studies, exercises through different categories of assignments, development of research in teams and interaction. Each student is responsible for all the various presentations of the material.

Case studies will reinforce and illustrate lectures.

The main objective of case studies is to provide a basis for discussion about strategic issues and to illustrate the topics on an actual organization. A very important part of your learning will come from your application of concepts and tools to real organizations.

Each case is related to a specific issue and generally to a chapter of the textbook. There is rarely an “absolute” good answer because several possible solutions may exist, depending on personal experience, personality and perception of the actual situation.

A case study is a “slice” of reality because most of the time real business situations are much more complex. The objective of case studies is to learn how to reach a reasonable answer facing specific context and issues.

Your professor encourages students to consult with him whenever his help is needed (question, difficulty or either kind of help).

Class Attendance and Assignments

Class attendance is required since it is essential to understanding the course material, leading discussion and completing projects.

Class attendance will be taken every session. Attendance has an effect on the grade. More than 2 absences, repeated lateness or early leaving will result in a significantly decrease in students’ grades.

No make-up normally exists but students who cannot attend a class for unavoidable reasons are expected to notify the professor by email or phone in advance for reasons and regarding possible make-ups (which will remain exceptional).

Late assignments will not be accepted.

All electronic devices (laptops, iPads, blackberries, cell phones and all other electronic devices, except electronic dictionaries) have to be turned off during class and kept away. Using these devices disturbs the class and keeps its owner and nearby students from concentrating on the discussion. The only exception accepted is the use of a laptop to take notes about the class discussion or to consult external sources of information related to the class.

Students should be aware that the professor cannot tutor students on missed class material. However, students are encouraged to seek the assistance of classmates in obtaining information disseminated in a missed class.

Students’ contribution

Students’ contributions will be assessed through several criteria:

1-       Work preparation,

2-       Quality of oral participation (questions, opinions, comments and suggestions),

3-       Active and permanent involvement in the class,

4-       Contact and feed-back with (to) the instructor when needed,

5-       Interaction between classmates and performance of teamwork.

For oral participation, “Quality” of contribution will be preferred to “Quantity”.

The instructor will keep a record of students’ participation and call randomly students to lead discussions of cases and material assigned for each session. Students can also raise their hands at any time.

All class presentations and assignments are expected to be done in a highly professional manner (e.g. reports, preparation of presentation, attitude, and presentation resources).

Chapters and assignments must be read and prepared prior to the identified session and the strategic material is expected to be integrated into class discussion.

Students will gain benefit from venturing outside their “comfort zone of knowledge” and explore fields that lie beyond their present professional positions and environments.

Grading

The Plus and Minus Grading System is used.

As, Bs and Cs are satisfactory / acceptable. Ds and Fs are unacceptable and below the expected professional standard.

The following Table #1 related to Letter Grades should be understood as a guideline for the professor when determining the final grades.

Academic Honesty

Any cheating or plagiarism will be penalized according to the University policy.

Please consult the University Catalog for a description of these policies at http://www.csun.edu/sites/default/files/update_on_faculty_policy_on_academic_dishonesty.pdf. For the standards of student conduct, please refer to http://www.csun.edu/sites/default/files/standards_student_conduct.pdf.

You may also consider the Student Core Values statement on the College of Business and Economics website at http://www.csun.edu/sites/default/files/STUDENT%20CORE%20VALUES.pdf.

These webpage addresses have been checked on 01/10/2014.

Special announcement about a test for all Bus497A administered by the College of Business

All students are required to take the CSU-BAT test to pass this class. The CSU-BAT will be administered to all BUS 497A students on a credit/no-credit basis. You will get credit for taking the test, no credit if you don't. Those who score in the top 50% of CSUN students will get 3 extra credit points on your overall course score (based on 100 points). The exam will be administered outside of class time during the semester. You are responsible for signing up to take the test, showing up at the appointed time, and completing the test. Additional information will be given in class.

5-Course Assignments

Assignments / Components of the course

I wish that students will enjoy this capstone course in strategic management …

6-Course outline

Bus 497A

Class 10757 Mo and Wed 6:00pm-9:15pm JH1121

This syllabus is susceptible of change for pedagogical or practical reasons.