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On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

1. Analyse complex organizational environments, cases and issues by reference to and application of relevant theories, concepts and models
2. Diagnose environmental and industrial forces that drive and constrain strategic options for businesses
3. Analyse the key elements of strategic advantage for individual organizations against the demands of their industries.
4. Analyse strategic positioning strategies of firms and evaluate them against the necessary competencies and resources of the organization.
5. Develop alternative strategies contingent on the demands and its industry context

The text for this course is:
Angwin, D, Cummings, S. & Smith, C (2011) Strategy Pathfinder, Core concepts and live cases (2nd Ed.) London: Wiley
 
Recommended readings are:
Besanko, D., Dranove, D., Shanley, M. & Schaefer, S. (2012) Economics of Strategy (6th ed.) NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Meyer, R. (2014) Strategy Synthesis; Resolving Strategy Paradoxes to Create Competitive Advantage. (4th ed.) London: Cengage Learning
Grant, R. (2015) Contemporary Strategy Analysis (98h ed.) NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Hanson D., Hitt M., Ireland R., & Hoskisson R. (2017), Strategic Management Competitiveness and Globalisation, 6th Ed, Cengage Learning.

Hill C., Jones G., & Schilling M. (2015), Strategic Management An Integrated Approach, 11th Ed, Cengage Learning.
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.

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:
Pathfinder p. xiii - xix
DaSilva, C. M. & Trkman, P. (2014) Business Model : What it is and What it is not. Long Range Planning, 47 : 379-389.
Managerial nonsense. The Economist, 17/12/16
Pina e Cunha, M. & Vieira da Cunha, J. (2006). Towards a complexity theory of strategy, Management Decision, 44(7): 839 - 850
Smith, C. (2005) The Origins of the word strategy.
The supermajors are being forced to rethink their business model. The Economist May 7th 2016
 
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.

Reading:
Pathfinder Chapter 3, 5
And then there were three. The Economist, 1st September 2012
Overcapacity hits another part of the transport industry The Economist 19th March 2016
Services like Airbnb are altering the economics of the hotel business The Economist Jan 9th 2016
Things are looking up for lift makers. The Economist 16th May 2013
Too much of a good thing The Economist March 26th 2016

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:
Pathfinder Chapter 3, 5
Intoxication. The Economist, July 14th 2012
Jiang, B., Koller, T. M. & Williams, Z. D. (2009) Mapping decline and recovery across sectors, The McKinsey Quarterly, winter: 21-25.
Printers sink, The Economist, 25th August 2012 

Session 4: The industry environment - forces
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:
Pathfinder Chapter 3
Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy, Harvard Business Review, January: 78-93.
Many shops are struggling to survive in Britain’s fast-changing and ruthlessly competitive marketplace. The Economist 18th June 2016
Power is money, Pathfinder, p. 84-88
The ineluctable middlemen, The Economist 25th August 2012,
 
Session 5: The Macroenvironment
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:
Pathfinder Chapters 1, 10.
Bonini, S. M., Mendonca, L. T. and Oppenhiem, J. M. (2006). When social issues become strategic, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2 pp 20-31.
Golden Oldies. The Economist 7th May 2016
How not to regulate e-cigarettes. The Economist 14th May 2016
Migration, terrorism and austerity help contractors to prosper. The Economist 25th June 2016.
Tackling Socio-political Issues in Hard Times.(2009).The McKinsey Quarterly, pp 2-7.
Three issues that should preoccupy managers in the next 50 years. The Economist. 6th September 2014.
 
Session 6: Goals: 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:
Pathfinder Chapter 5
Amazon looks set to conquer America’s clothing market. The Economist May 2016.
Frank, R. J., George, J.P. & Narasimhan, l. (2004) When your competitor delivers more for less, The McKinsey Quarterly, 1:48-59
Schumpeter: Pretty profitable parrots.For businesses, being good at copying is at least as important as being innovative. The Economist 2012 (12 May)
Ryans, A. (2010). When companies underestimate low-cost rivals. McKinsey Quarterly, June, 1-5.
 
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:
Pathfinder Chapter 5
Auguste, B. G., Harmon, E. P. and Pandit, V. (2006). The right service strategies for product companies.The McKinsey Quarterly, 1:41-51.
Brands are the most valuable assets many companies possess. The Economist 30th Aug. 2014
We want to be your friend. Brands are finding it hard to adapt to an age of scepticism.The Economist 1st February 2014
Janmohamed, S. Z. (2010) Designing a game-changing Islamic brand, in the Muslim Council of Britain’s publication ‘‘Nurturing the Future in Islamic Finance and Thought Leadership’ 

Session 8: Resources
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:
Pathfinder Chapters 5, 6
Ulrich, D. & Smallwood, N (2004) Capitalizing on capabilities. Harvard Business Review, June: 119-127
GKN and aerospace: Word on a wing. A long-established global innovator shows how British firms can make it in modern manufacturing. The Economist 9th June 2012 
 
Session 9: Strategic options
The inertia of the resource commitment of an organization 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:
Pathfinder Chapter 11
A growing number of companies are using “dynamic” pricing. The Economist 30th Jan. 2016
Big tobacco firms are maintaining their poise, but quietly wheezing The Economist 14th Jan. 2014.
Instead of disrupting their industries, firms should look for opportunities under their noses. The Economist 2nd July 2016
Thinking twice about price. The Economist, 27th July 2013 (27 July)
 

The information below is provided as a guide to assist students in engaging appropriately with the course requirements.

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. Class attendance is an essential requirement.

Individual assignment (50%)
In the context of models and theories from the course critically evaluate the strategy of the organization for which you work and offer suggestions (options) based on your evaluation of the current and future directions of the industry and your company. (Those who work for the government will be given a private sector company to analyse.)

Output:   A report of 2500-3000 words to be handed in via MyUni by midnight on Sunday 2nd July 2017

Notes:
The assignment is 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 – description must be offered in the context of a broader theoretical dynamic.
The assignment will be graded against the criteria on the provided marking rubric. You are advised to keep the criteria in mind as you plan and write your work.

Group assessment (20%)
This will comprise a presentation at the end of the second intensive (Sunday afternoon) Your group task is to make use of the concepts from the course to analyse a company in its industry and to suggest future developments and options. The company will be given to you in class.

Open book exam (30%)
This will be a 3 hour open book exam that will require the application of models from the course (both intensives) to short cases.