LOYOLA MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY
College of Business Administration
MBAI 610
Management Strategy
Professor Jeff Gale
Spring 2005
Office: Hilton Business Center 265
Phone: (310) 338-7406 or 338-4566 (messages)
E-mail: jgale@lmu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays 12:00 –1:30 pm and 4:15-5:30 pm, Thursdays 12:00-1:30 pm and 6:30-7:00 pm
(MBA only), or by appointment
COURSE PURPOSE
This course is a basic strategic management course. It is a bit different than the core courses and most
other courses in the program. Instead of concentrating on a specific functional discipline such as
accounting or finance, you will be required to take a top management approach to examining issues under
consideration. Therefore it will be necessary for you to integrate the skills and knowledge you have
obtained to:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Develop an awareness of any inherent assumptions
Understand the problems presented
Develop an analysis of the situation
Construct a viable alternative set of courses of action
Make specific recommendations consistent with the nature of the
situation.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
1. To develop an appreciation of the type, variety and magnitude of issues that must be
considered and decisions that must be made by the business entity in a complex society.
2. To develop the ability to engage in "strategic thinking," to examine alternative courses of
action to select the "best fit" strategy, and to defend your strategic decisions.
3. To provide exposure to the problems and issues involved in organizing and controlling a
complex organization.
4. To integrate previously acquired analytic tools and viewpoints of specific functional disciplines
as a means of making decisions and developing organizational plans.
TEXTS
De Kluyver, Cornelis A. and John A. Pearce II. Strategy: A View from the Top. Prentice Hall, 2003. (Referred
to as "D" in this syllabus.) Several additional readings (marked by a “*”) will be available on E-Res from the
LMU library website..
A collection of Harvard Business School cases will be available through the instructor.
StratSim. Interpretive Software, Inc., 2002.
MBAI 610—Spring 2005
Page 2
ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING
GRADING
There are four potential components to the grade in this class. These are an optional take-home midterm
assignment, a final examination, a team-based strategy simulation exercise and paper and class
participation. By February 3, each student will execute a grading contract in which he or she chooses a
percentage of their grade to be accounted for by each component, subject to a maximum and minimum
percentage for each component.
As this is largely a discussion-based class, all students are expected to have read all cases, to be prepared,
and to participate in classroom activities. The instructor reserves the right to penalize individuals
who do not follow through on this preparation and participation up to one full grade on the final
course grade.
ASSIGNMENTS
I. Midterm Take-home Assignment
This assignment will be distributed on February 17. It is a take-home essay assignment set in a case.
Questions addressed will be relevant to those course concepts covered up to that point. The midterm
assignment will be due on March 3.
II. Strategy Simulation
This component of the course is experiential and set within a computer-based automobile industry
simulation. In teams, students will manage the operations of an automobile firm for eight years of
simulation competing against each other.
The grading for the strategy simulation will based upon two components—the playing of the simulation
and a team analysis and plan for the firm managed. Detail on the grading will be distributed later in the
course prior to the commencement of the exercise.
III. Final Examination
There will be a final examination requiring a case analysis applying tools and techniques from the course.
Detail on the final examination will be provided later in the course.
MBAI 610—Spring 2005
Page 3
COURSE SCHEDULE
Class Date
Topic
January 13
Course Introduction
January 20
The Strategy Concept and Mission/Vision
D--Ch. 1; Case: "Medtronic Vision 2010”
January 27,
February 3
Environmental Analysis and Industry Analysis
D--Ch. 2; Case: "The Cola Wars Continue: Coke vs.
Pepsi in the Twenty-first Century
February 10
Introduction to StratSim
February 17, 24
Internal Assessment
D---Ch. 3; Cases: "Wal-Mart in 2003"
March 3
Business Strategy
D--Ch. 4,5; Case: "Apple Computer 2002”
March 10
Business Strategy in Technology-Intensive and Other Specific Contexts
Case: “Intel Corporation: 1968-2003”
March 17
Corporate Strategy
D-Ch. 6,7; Case: "Newell Company: Corporate Strategy"
March 24
Spring Break
March 31
No Class—Caesar Chavez Day
April 7
Strategy in an International Setting
D-Chap. 8; Case: "Lincoln Electric: Venturing Abroad”
April 14
Strategy and the Internet
Readings*: Porter, “Strategy and the Internet.” Harvard Business Review.
March 2001, and Tapscott, Don. “Rethinking Strategy in a Networked World [or
why Michael Porter is Wrong about the Internet].” Strategy+Business. Issue 24,
Third Quarter, 2001. Multimedia Case: “Lonely Planet”
April 21
Strategy Implementation
D-Ch. 9; Multimedia Case: “Lonely Planet”
April 28
StratSim Reports/Presentations
May 5
Final Exam