Strategic mgt guide version 1.5 20101015
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
STUDENT’S GUIDE
University of Taiz
Master Engineering & Management
course System Engineering
2010-2011
Lecturers:
Prof Dr Ir John L Simons
j.l.simons@rug.nl
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Strategic mgt guide version 1.5 20101015
Introduction
There are many definitions for Strategic Management. They have in common that the focus is
on an organization’s long term decisions (market trends, where to expand, which new
products, which required competences) in contrast with the operational and tactical decisions
(production scheduling, logistics, pricing). In this course we take an engineering view, which
means that strategic management is seen as a semi-rational decision process of the
management of an organization to reach a new position in its environment. Throughout the
course we will advocate that there are three steps in this process (i) understanding the strategic
position of an organization in its environment (ii) making strategic choices at all management
levels of an organization (iii) defining actions for change of structure, capabilities and
resources. This view easily fits in an master program Engineering & Management, however
we will sometimes dwell upon other more organic views on strategic management.
As is the case for more management courses strategic management can best be learned in a
real-life situation after sufficient experience at other management levels. This being the case,
a university course can only simulate such conditions. Also due to time constraints of the
course we will use strategic management information of real firms available on the internet,
case material and as far as possible material from the home-organization of the students.
Format
Students must be open minded and self supporting in this course. After a short introduction of
the field strategic management, working groups of 2 students will be formed. Each group has
the task to “go through” the three (nine) strategic steps for either the home-organization of the
student or a case-study (artificial) firm. The basic concepts, methods and techniques will be
introduced by the lecturer. Students apply the concepts, methods and techniques and discuss
the outcomes and reflect on strategic decisions made by real-life organizations as presented
on the Internet. Results will be presented to the class according to a schedule. Students are
invited to comment on each other presentations. The lecturer will comment and advice for
subsequent course of action.
Assignment
Working groups of 2 students work during the course on two tasks
1. Formulation of a strategy based on the three steps of the engineering view. Choice
of a firm (either real-life or case study) must be done in agreement with the lecturer.
Either from “your” real existing firm or from the hypothetical or real firm of the
course book, you have an (incomplete) description of the business processes and the
managerial interventions of that firm over a certain period. This description may or
may not refer to strategic management issues.
The goal of the case study is to design a strategy for that firm. This requires that the
case description should be transformed into a (hypothetical) strategic assignment.
Typical questions that can help to formulate that assignment are
(i) What is said about Porter’s five forces, SWOT, Culture, Product Development etc.
One of your tasks is to select (for this case study) relevant strategic concepts and
describe how they are defined and used in the case study.
(ii) What is the underlying strategic question? Is the firm losing market share, e.g.
suffering knowledge drain etc and is their strategic question something like What do
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Strategic mgt guide version 1.5 20101015
we do wrong? Or is the firm doing fine, e.g. is there a form of organizational learning
and is their basic question something like Which new opportunities are there for us?
(iii)What is their implicit understanding of a business strategy? Which explicit definition
can be used and to what extend is the strategy designable?
Theoretically the design must be based on the three steps advocated in the course
book, however the design process should always be fine-tuned (e.g. parts of the
positioning can be skipped for some reason). Which steps are necessary and why?
By doing so, you should be able to design a strategy and be able to explain the steps
that you have taken. It also should guide you to define the structure of your final
report, which could be construed as a scientifically based management report to the
management of the firm of the case study.
2. (Non mandatory challenge for high quality teams.) Reflection on an application of a
concept, method or technique used by a firm on the Internet and/or discussed during
the lecture. Choice of concept in agreement with lecturer. The following aspects
should be addressed: introduction of the firm, description of the subject/method/
concept including strong and weak aspects, theoretical applicability, practical
applicability, own judgment on the application.
This assignment is a contract between students and lecturer. Groups may consult the lecturer
upon request during the course either in person or via email.
The result of both tasks is one integrated report where the strategy (task 1) could be the main
part and the reflection (task 2) could be discussed mainly in an attachment. The report (hard
copy and an email attachment in Word, maximal 15 pages) must be delivered not later than
20.00 hr at day 12 as mentioned in the course schedule. Feed back and final marks will be
given by the lecturer in the next week(s).
Course schedule
The course schedule contains three lecture hours per day during two weeks of each six days.
Each day (three lecture hours) the progress of the working groups is supported by
(i)
First hour: theoretical introduction of key concepts by the lecturer (in the
beginning only) or by the students themselves.
(ii)
Second hour: Exercise and discussion among group members on a chosen
(theoretical) concept with and/or without supervision of the lecturer.
Presentation by groups.
(iii) Case study for final report. If wanted by student groups short presentation of
encountered problems. Concluding feedback of the lecturer.
The theoretical and key concepts of the first hour are given in the detailed schedule below.
Schedule Topics
Day 1
The nature of strategy, basic vocabulary, variety in contexts, strategy as
design, strategy as experience, strategy as ideas, strategic development, the
engineering view on strategy, team building, presentation schedule.
Day 2
Strategic position : Environment, PESTEL framework, sectors, markets,
SWOT analysis, Milestone products of strategic positioning.
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Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
Day 11
Day 12
Strategic position : Capabilities, critical success factors, (core) competences,
cost efficiency, organizational performance, benchmarking, knowledge
management
Strategic position :Purposes and culture, corporate governance, shareholders,
stakeholders, business ethics, organizational culture, cultural web, mission
statements
Individual and student group consultancy, case study (re)planning
Strategic choices : Business level, forces on business strategy, bases of
competitive advantage, competition and collaboration, game theory
Strategic choices : Corporate level strategy, value adding by corporate parent,
corporate rationale i.e. portfolio manager, corporate portfolio i.e. policy
matrix, corporate diversity, corporate control, Product, market and business
development, International aspects.
Strategic choices : Innovation and entreneurship, innovation dilemma’s,
mergers and acquisitions, strategic alliances, success criteria
Strategic action : Intended and emergent strategies, Organizing for success.
Structural types i.e. simple structure, matrix structure, planning and control,
(de)centralization, images of organizations, organizational dilemma’s,
Milestone products of strategic action.
Strategic action : Resourcing, managing people, information, finance,
technology, diffusion of technology, organizing technology development
Strategic action : Managing strategic change, diagnosing change,
organizational cultural context, change management, communicating change,
power and political processes.
Milestone reflection. Last consultancy for final report
Textbook(s)
G. Johnson, K. Scholes and R.Whittington, Exploring Corporate Strategy, Prentice-Hall. See
http://vig.pearsoned.co.uk/catalog/academic/product/0,1144,0273731556,00.html This book is
the primary mandatory textbook for the course. It is a widely used textbook with a supporting
website for lecturers and students and presents general strategy methods and techniques. To
address the technological aspects two other books are used (available in the library) R.
Burgelman, C. Christensen and S. Wheelwright, Strategic Manegement of technology and
innovation McGrawHill. See http://www.mcgraw-hill.co.uk/html/0071263292.html and
N.Harrison and D Samson, Technology Management McGrawHill. See http://www.mcgrawhill.com.au/html/9780072383553.html .
Assessment format
The assessment is 100% on the basis of the final report. Intermediate presentations are
mandatory however for training purposes and feedback only.
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