STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND POLICY
– BUS 349 –
Offered as part of CEDEI Study Abroad program
FALL SEMESTER IN THE ANDES, PART II
in CEDEI, Cuenca, Ecuador
October 29th. through December 10th.
Prof. Augusta Zhunio
mzhunio@cedei.org
I. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Business planning is essential for a company to better respond to its environment. Moreover,
strategic management provides the overall direction to the enterprise. It is with strategic planning
that everyone that is part of a business can work towards the same goals. It is therefore important
for a manager to identify, analyze and implement strategies that would improve the
organization’s performance.
This course focuses on the strategic planning process. For this purpose, topics such as the SWOT
analysis, strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation are studied. In this way, the
student will develop skills to formulate a strategic plan for a company.
II. READINGS
The required readings for this course are not necessarily available for photocopy at CEDEI,
however, books are available in USA. The bibliography is detailed at the end of this syllabus.
III. COURSE REQUIREMENTS & EVALUATION
The evaluation will be based on:
Participation: 15%
Assignments: 25%
Midterm exam:30%
Final project: 30%
Total: 100%
PARTICIPATION:
Students are encouraged to contribute to the class in any of the following ways:

Asking relevant questions

Verbally sharing their assignments

Expressing their point of view during class discussions, in a respectful manner
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ASSIGNMENTS:
In each class, a topic for further investigation or a case for further analysis will be assigned to
each student. A 2-page paper should be presented in the following class, which will be shared
verbally.
Although no specific format is required, the document should include the student’s name, the
date, the topic being analyzed and the source used.
MIDTERM EXAM:
A 10 question test will be given as a midterm exam. The questions will have an open (short
essays) format about the content covered until the previous class.
FINAL PROJECT:
Instead of a final exam, and to apply what the student learned in class, a final project will be
presented the last day. In this assignment, the student should prepare a case analysis for an
company.
The grade will be based on two parts:


Written document
o Format:
o Content:
 Accuracy
 Integration of topics from the class
 Coherence
Oral presentation
o Analysis
o Format
20%
20%
20%
20%
15%
5%
EXAMINATION:
The final examination takes place at the end of the class. It is primarily short answer and essay
based on the entire range of course readings.
Grading Scale:
The grading scale is based on 100 percentage points, and grades are broken down as follows:
98-100 A+
88-89 B+
78-79 C+
68-69 D+
93-97 A
83-87 B
73-77 C
60-67 D
90-92 A80-82 B70-72 C59 and below F
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IV. COURSE SCHEDULE
We will have class for 7 weeks, from October 29th. until December 10th., on Tuesdays and
Thursdays from 8:00 to 11:00am, in room 401 at CEDEI, except where noted below due to
holidays and preparation time for final exam.
Course introduction / overview
Class 1, (October 29th.):
- Review syllabus and readings
- Course introduction: Concept of strategic management
- Strategic management: what is competitive advantage and how it is related to a
company’s business model
- Levels of strategic management: corporate-level, business-level, functional-level
Reading:
 Bradt, George. “Corporate Culture: The only truly sustainable competitive
advantage” Forbes (www.forbes.com). Accessed 28 September 2012.
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 1, pp 1-17)
Class 2, (October 31st.):
- External Analysis: identification of opportunities and threats
- Defining an industry
- Porter’s five forces model
- The risk of entry by potential competitors
Reading:
 Grundy, Tony. Rethinking and Reinventing Michael Porter’s five forces model.
Strategic Change, 15:5 (2006). Pp.213-229.
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 2, pp 38-43)
Nature of Competitive Advantage
Class 3, (November 5th.):
- Internal Analysis: distinctive competencies
- Value creation and profitability
- The Value Chain
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 3, pp 72-81)
Class 4, (November 7th.):
- Building competitive advantage: how to achieve efficiency
- Economies of scale
- Learning effects
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-
Experience curve
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 4, pp 110-111)
 Hindle, Tim. “Economies of scale and scope” The Economist
(www.economist.com). Accessed 28 September 2012.
Class 5, (November 12th.):
- Field trip: visit to a local microenterprise
Class 6, (November 14th.): Midterm Exam
Strategies
Class 7, (November 19th.):
- The business model: formulation and implementation
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 5, pp 142-150)
Class 8, (November 21th.):
- Business-level strategy
- Strategies in fragmented industries
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 6, pp 176-180)
Class 9, (November 26th.):
- Strategy and technology
- Technical standards and format wars
- Strategy in the global environment: globalization of production and markets
- National Competitive advantage
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 7, pp 209-215, Chapter 8, pp
242-246)
Class 10, (November 28th.):
- Corporate- level strategy
- Horizontal integration
- Vertical integration
- Strategic oursourcing
- Related and unrelated diversification
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Reading:
 Gongming, Qian. The performance implications of intra- and inter-regional
geographical diversification.Strategic Management Journal, 31:9 (2010).
Pp.1018-1030.
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 9, pp 283-288, Chapter 10,
pp 311-320)
Implementation
Class 11, (December 3rd.):
- Corporate performance, governance, and business ethics
- Stakeholder Impact analysis
- Agency Theory
Reading:
 Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated
Approach. USA.: Cengage Learning, 2010. (Chapter 11, pp 345-349)
 Nyberg, Anthony. Agency Theory Revisited: CEO Return and Shareholder
interest alignment. Academy of Management Journal, 53:5 (2010). Pp.1029-1049.
Class 12, (December 5th.):
- Review of final project
Class 13, (December 10th.): Final Project
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bradt, George. “Corporate Culture: The only truly sustainable competitive advantage” Forbes
(www.forbes.com). Accessed 28 September 2012.
Gongming, Qian. The performance implications of intra- and inter-regional geographical
diversification.Strategic Management Journal, 31:9 (2010). Pp.1018-1030.
Gregory, Brian. Organizational culture and effectiveness: A study of values, attitudes, and
organizational outcomes. Journal of Business Research, 62:7 (2009). Pp.673-679.
Grundy, Tony. Rethinking and Reinventing Michael Porter’s five forces model. Strategic
Change, 15:5 (2006). Pp.213-229.
Hill, Charles W. and Gareth R. Jones. Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach. USA.:
Cengage Learning, 2010.
Hindle, Tim. “Economies of scale and scope” The Economist (www.economist.com). Accessed
28 September 2012.
Nyberg, Anthony. Agency Theory Revisited: CEO Return and Shareholder interest alignment.
Academy of Management Journal, 53:5 (2010). Pp.1029-1049.
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