Business 495.
Evidence For Strategic Business Decisions
Dr. Curtis W. Roney
________
Fall Semester, 2007
Meeting time/room
Instructor’s Office:
Office telephone:
E-mail:
T,Th 11:20am- 12:50 pm/ TBA
Horne Bldg. Room 119
(252) 985-5584
cwroney@ncwc.edu
Office hours:
T
W
4:20 – 5:20 pm
1:15 – 2:15 pm
Th
4:20 – 5:50 pm
F
1:15 – 2:15 pm
Other: by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides students with practical analytic skills to explain why firms perform
well or badly by gathering and interpreting evidence about both the external environment
(economy, markets, & industry) and internal capabilities. These skills will help students
contribute to future employers more productively as business analysts and in managerial
capacities, and to perform case analyses more successfully in senior-year "capstone"
courses such as Bus 481 (Strategic Management) and Bus 482 (Senior Seminar).
COURSE CONTENT: SCOPE
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
The Role of Evidence in Strategic Management
Environmental Assessment: Scope & Approach
Economic Analysis Of the Business Environment
Analysis Of Industry Structure
Analysis of Markets’ Potentials
Assessing Alternative Futures and Contingencies
Summary of Environmental Assessment: How Much Can We Know?
Internal Capabilities Assessment: Scope & Approach
The Resource Based View of Competitive Advantage
Assessing Resource Needs vs. Capabilities
Evaluating Capabilities for Strategic Decision Making
Research Methods In Strategic Planning
COURSE OBJECTIVES & APPROACH
The objective of this “laboratory” course is to provide students with an opportunity to
appreciate how evidence is obtained, assessed and employed to diagnose reasons for
actual firms' favorable &/or unfavorable performance in real-world settings.
The course begins with an introduction to the scope of evidence that is available for
strategic decision making. The course's theme is that strategic decisions' quality can be
enhanced if relevant evidence is obtained, and used properly. After reviewing the scope
and uses of evidence in strategic decision making, the class will consider methods for
assessment of the external environment: relevant economies, industry structure, and
markets. In each domain, the scope of analysis will include the current situation, trends,
and possible futures (forecasting). Then, the course will turn to assessment of internal
capabilities: financial analysis, competitive needs and capabilities. Particular attention
will be paid to the assessment of competences, i.e., resource needs versus current
capabilities. Evaluation methods such as critical factors analysis and benchmarking will
be explained. Finally, basic research design and analysis methods will be reviewed.
During the entire course, teams of class members will conduct in-depth business analyses
of actual corporations, guided by the instructor. The scope of these analyses will include
the strategic situation; the external environment; rivals’ performance trends and
capabilities. Conclusions will address impacts of the external environment and internal
competences on the strategic situation and performance potential of each competitor.
Teams will assess the success of rivals in reconciling their capabilities (resources and
skills) to environmental problems and opportunities. Alternative actions that might be
taken by each rival to improve its situation also will be considered, and recommendations
will be formed for maximizing the competitive advantage of each rival. Team members
will present their findings and conclusions to the class. Then, each student will prepare
and submit a report of the analysis in his/her own words.
EXPECTATIONS AND ASSESSMENT
Prerequisites include Junior standing and satisfactory completion of MKT 205
(Marketing) Mathematics 213 (Statistics) ACC 202 (Managerial Accounting) and ECON
211 (Macroeconomics). Thus, this syllabus assumes that students already are familiar
with principles of marketing, accounting, economics and basic statistical analysis.
Quizzes will be given throughout the course and there will be two examinations on
principles of evidence gathering and analysis covered by text materials and class lectures.
A final examination will be based on the cases discussed in class and the evidentiary
principles that they demonstrate.
All students are expected to attend each class meeting. Absences normally will not be
excused and more than two absences (three class hours) may result in dismissal of the
absent student from this course.
As a matter of respect to their classmates, all students are required to attend team
presentations without exception.
TEXTS
Roney, Curtis. 1999. Assessing the Business Environment. Praeger. Westport, Conn.
Hair, J.F.; Babin, B. & Samouel, P. 2003. Essentials of Business Research Methods.
John Wiley. New York
ASSESSMENT OF LEARNING
Quizzes
Tests on principles
Team project
Presentation
Report
Final exam
Total
Max. Points
15
30
35
20
15
20
100
BUSINESS 421.
Evidence For Strategic Business Decisions
Course Schedule
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
Mtg. Month Date Day Subject:_________________________________
1
22
W Orientation. Introduction to the role of evidence
Aug
in strategic decision making. Formation of teams
2
24
F Chapters 1 & 2. Scope and approach of
environmental assessment. Selection of cases.
3
29
W Chapter 3. Economic analysis of the business
environment
4
31
F Team reports: economic environment of cases
5
5
W Chapter 4. Industry analysis
Sept
6
7
F Team reports: cases' industry structures
7
12
W Chapter 5. Market analysis
8
14
F Team reports: analysis of cases' markets
9
19
W Chapter 6. Alternative futures
10
21
F Team reports: contingencies for cases
11
26
W Chapter 7. Forecasting methods; summary of
Environmental Assessment Methodology
12
28
F Team reports: environmental forecasts
13
3
W MID-TERM EXAM
Oct
14
5
F
Research methods review
15
10
W Statistical tools in Excel©
16
12
F Team reports: market/industry forecasts
17
17
W Chapter 8 Introduction to capabilities assessment
FALL BREAK
18
24
W Chapter 9. The resource-based view
19
26
F Chapter 10. Needs versus capabilities
20
31
W Team reports: financial trend analyses, CFFs,
CSFs, company "report cards"
21
2
F Chapter 11. Evaluation and benchmarking
Nov
22
7
W SECOND EXAM
23
9
F Team #1 presentation
24
14
W Team #2 presentation
16
F Team #3 presentation
THANKSGIVING
24
28
W Last class: course review
25
30
F
26
5
W
Dec
Final Examination
\
CASES
___
Teams are required to choose cases from the following list of competitors.
Industry____
Rivals_________________________
Aircraft
Boeing vs. Airbus
Airlines
Southwest, Jet Blue, Air Tran
(“Discounters”) vs. “The Majors”
Automotive
US Big Three vs. Imports/Transplants
Construction
Foster Wheeler vs. Flour vs. Jacobs
Fast Food
MacDonald’s vs. Wendy’s vs. BK
Higher Education
Apollo vs. Strayer vs. Career Ed. Corp. vs.
Education Mgt. Corp. (Argosy)
Home Products Retailers
Lowe’s vs. Home Depot
Package Delivery
Fed Ex vs. UPS vs. DHL
Pharmaceuticals
Novartis vs. Merck vs. Pfizer vs. GSK
vs. Bristol Myers vs. Schering Plough vs.
J&J, etc. (Americans vs. Europeans)
Steel
US Steel vs. Nucor vs. Posco vs. Mittal
Vehicular Equipment.
John Deere vs. CNH vs. Aggco
vs. Komatsu vs. Caterpillar