成人大片

Intensive 1 (13-15 February 2015)
Intensive 2 (6-8 March 2015 )

The full timetable of all activities for this course can be accessed from the Course Planner at

Knowledge and Understanding

This course is designed to give students the skills to

· analyse strategic macro environmental issues;

· analyse industry factors, and identify their impact on profitability and strategic positioning;

· assess organisational performance;

· identify strategic capabilities and gaps;

· assess and evaluate SBU strategies; and

· analyse and implement strategy at the single business unit level.

The text for this course is

Angwin, D, Cummings, S. & Smith, C (2011) Strategy Pathfinder, Core concepts and live cases (2nd Ed.) London: Wiley

Besanko, D., Dranove, D., Shanley, M. & Schaefer, S. (2013) Economics of Strategy (6th ed.) NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

De Wit, B. & Meyer, R. (2005) Strategy Synthesis. London: Thompson Learning

Ghemawat, P. (2010) Strategy and the Business Landscape. (3rd Ed.) NJ: Prentice Hall

Grant, R. (2013) Contemporary Strategy Analysis (8th ed.) NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Whittington, R (2001) What is Strategy and Does it Matter? (2nd ed.) London: Thompson Learning.

No specific online learning facilities are part of the course other than the usual communication and sharing of information/papers via MyUni. Please ensure that your MyUni email address is one through which you can be contacted.

The sessions will comprise input from the lecturer and group/individual work based on case studies, videos and supplied topics.

This is a standard ‘3 Unit’ MBA course which requires about 156 hours of student effort. These 156 hours includes the time spent in class and undertaking assessment as well as the reading and assignment preparation you must undertake outside of the class hours.

Session 1: ‘Strategy’ – meanings, manifestations and analysis
In this session we examine the meanings and manifestation of strategy and strategy analysis at various levels.
Reading:    
Session 2: The industry environment –structure
Industries become fixed over the medium term into a particular structure that drives and is derived from the interactions of the firms in the industry.
Session 3: The industry environment – evolution and stage
As industries evolve and change so to do the various success factors for survival and for success. While the excitement and drama of new and emerging industries captures our attention, it is the long and incremental battle in mature industries that will occupy most managers for most of their working lives.
Reading: The five forces model emphasises the deterministic influence of the industry on an individual firm’s strategic actions and its relative performance. This approach assumes an ‘arm’s length’ relationship between suppliers, customers and competitors as they ‘compete’ for value and scarce resources. Complementors also influence the level of value in an industry and the prices and strategies of these firms need to be accounted for as well as the traditional buyers, suppliers and rivals.
Reading: The profitability of firms is influenced by factors other than its immediate competitor/market interactions. Macroeconomic changes (e.g. interest rates, exchange rates), political moves (e.g. legislation for greater safety in cars, blocking takeovers), social changes (e.g. the ageing of the world) and technological innovation (e.g. the Internet) all have significant impacts (negative and positive) on profits. In some industries the non-market strategy of the firm/industry is more important than its competitive moves. A particular development that is having a major influence on how companies act and communicate their actions is the strong move towards ‘corporate sustainability’ as a model for capitalism in the 21st century
Reading:  
Session 6: Competitive advantage
The goal of competitive advantage lies implicitly at the heart of all models of business strategy and is explicitly identified as the core issue by most ‘classical’ authors. In this session we explore some of the key concepts, practices and empirical findings pertaining to advantage
Reading:
Session 7: Positioning
Based on their choice of pathway to competitive advantage managers then have a variety of options of how they will compete with rivals and which segment of the market they will compete for. In this session we examine some theories and frameworks that help analyse those choices.
Reading:
Session 8: Resources and Practice
Although first discussed in the late 1950’s the resource-based-view (RBV) of the firm did not feature strongly in the publications and language of strategy until the late 1980s. The RBV emphasises the differences (heterogeneity) between firms and the competitive advantage that accrues to valuable, durable, difficult to imitate/substitute resources and capabilities.
Reading:
Session 9: Strategy options
The inertia of the resource commitment of an organization which we discussed in the previous session can lead to a narrow focus on the strategic opportunities that the firm might pursue. Although ‘change’ is often put forward as the antidote to stagnating profits or sales there are often undramatic courses of action that can be undertaken that can improve strategic performance.
Reading:

Assessment item	Percentage of Total Mark	Relevant learning objective(s)	Due or scheduled date
Individual assignment Part A   (summative/formative)	35	A, B, C, D	5 March 2015
Individual assignment Part B (summative/fomative)	35	A, B, C, D,	5 April 2015
Group Projects (summative/formative)	30	A, B, C, D	In class

Attendance

Statutory obligations in Singapore are such that attendance in person is a compulsory condition of passing a course. Our specific requirements are that students must attend at least 80% of class sessions to be graded for that course. For these purposes each intensive weekend is defined as comprising 5 sessions with 1 on Friday evening and 2 on each of Saturday and Sunday. Each course in total comprises 10 sessions; Students must attend a minimum of 8 sessions to be eligible to be given a grade for the course. Students failing to meet these requirements will be automatically graded 0% Fail (F) on their transcripts.

Grade minimum

To gain a pass for this course, a student must achieve at least 50% overall with a minimum of 45% for the overall individual components. Students not achieving this requirement will have a fail (F) recorded as their final grade
The individual component is the weighted average of the assignment and the exam grades.

Individual assignment (35% + 35%)

This is a 2 part assignment.

Part A (35%)
Using concept and theories from the strategic management course analyse the industry of your organization in terms of its structure, stage, industry forces and the major Macroenvironmental forces impinging on the industry.
Indicate how you see the industry developing over the next 10 years and the impact that this will have on the players in the industry.
Output
Maximum 2000 words to be handed in via MyUni by midnight on Thursday 5th March 2015

Part B (35%)
On the basis of your analysis in Part A critically evaluate the strategy of your organization from the perspective of its goals, positioning, resources and activities. 
Output:
Maximum 2000 words to be handed in via MyUni by midnight on Sunday 5th April 2015

(Please note that ‘critically evaluate’ does not mean ‘criticize’) For an understanding of critical thinking/critical evaluation see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking

Notes:

i. The assignments are designed to demonstrate your learning and application of models and theory and the use of content as input to those models. Stand-alone descriptive content will garner few marks..

ii. The assignment must be based on your current organization or else no marks will be given. Exceptions to this will only be granted in extreme circumstances and must be applied for and granted in writing (email) and a copy of the permission must be submitted with the assignment.

The individual assignment, with the appropriate coversheet and declaration is to be submitted via MyUni by the deadline date. Please submit your assignment in ‘Word’ format and not pdf.
Students are expected to submit their work by the due date to maintain a fair and equitable system. Extensions will generally only be given for medical or other serious reasons. All requests for extensions must be emailed to the lecturer in charge of the course before the due date. Each request will be assessed on its merits. A late assignment (without prior arrangement) may be penalised by a 5% mark reduction for each day that it is late.