KOÇ UNIVERSITY
MGMT 450-1
Strategic Management
(Syllabus Fall 2010)
Class meets
: Tuesday & Thursday Hours: MGMT 450-1: 09:30 – 10:45 Room: CASE B24
MGMT 450-2: 12:30 - 13:45
Instructor
: Hasan Subasi
Office
: CASE 151
Office Hours : Tuesday & Thursday 11.00 – 12.00 (by appointment)
Phone
: Office:
212 -338 16 31 / Mobile: 532 - 274 74 00*
Fax
:
E-Mail :
: hsubasi@ku.edu.tr / hasan@subasi.biz*
212 - 338 16 42
(* Please use these addresses for urgent correspondence)
Course Descriptions and Objectives:
This course aims to give students an overview of strategic management philosophy and
concepts. It is designed to integrate the subjects to which students have been exposed in the
curriculum, to show their interrelationships and to demonstrate the manner in which each
makes its contribution to the strategic management of the organization. All of the functional
disciplines (engineering, manufacturing, marketing, finance, etc.) play a critical role in the
success of a company. This course will look at how they fit together and view the firm from
the holistic perspective of the CEO. The viewpoint of the strategist is always from the top
of the managerial hierarchy and the time perspective is always the future. We will focus
on the strategic decisions that firms face: firm scale and scope, diversification, entry into new
businesses and markets, mergers and acquisitions etc., rather than detailed, day to day
operational issues. We will look into broad principles which can be applied across many firms
and markets. Learning the basic concepts and real life examples will help students to better
understand business strategies in wide variety of settings.
Practical realities of the business are used to show future managers how they might more
effectively cope with the incredibly demanding, rapidly paced and highly uncertain world that
so many of them will face. Therefore the course requires more individual and team thinking
and contribution than learning traditional methods and analytical techniques. Key concepts to
be covered are:
Origin, definition and key concepts of strategic management
External and internal environment
Basic business strategy models
Strategy applications from real life
Using traditional business strategy models
Concepts and definitions of strategic thinking
Organizational implications of setting strategy
Disseminating strategy and turning it into action
Corporate Governance
Leadership
Entrepreneurship
Please keep in mind that the context, materials to be used and topics to be covered are subject
to change during the semester.
Course materials:
Text book:
THE MANAGEMENT OF STRATEGY: CONCEPTS and CASES
(9th Edition)
Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland and Robert E. Hoskisson. Southwestern College Publishing
Grading:
Grading is intended to reflect variety of performance measures including spoken
communication, simple research and idea formation, individual and teamwork, written
quizzes and exams.
Contribution (Participation, attendance, preparation)
Quizzes
Midterm
Term Project
Final Exam
15 %
25 %
20 %
15 %
25 %
a) Contribution: Attendance, Participation (15 %)
Your participation grade will be based on several components. You are not expected to read
and memorize all the content to get high grades. Active listening and taking notes in the
classroom are highly recommended. There are no “absolute” rights and wrongs in competitive
business strategy. Therefore students need to be involved fully to understand the concepts and
express themselves in their own way.
Participation in class discussions
Learning is a two way process. I strongly believe that real understanding occurs when you
communicate your ideas. Your ability to express yourself, courage to share your ideas with
me and the rest of the class, willingness to participate in a discussion and being able to do all
this “loud” is an extremely important competency for a successful manager. Based on my
business experience, I will highly value disagreement and debate, while “respectful silence”
gets no credit.
Attendance
Based on the above, you can not learn and contribute if you miss classes. Students are
expected to attend all the classes and take all the quizzes. Each one of you has a role in the
learning process with your unique thoughts, delivery of assignments and presentations. Your
absence will have a negative impact on the whole class.
b) Quizzes (25 %)
I will give you five or six unannounced, short (15 minutes) and simple quizzes to identify
and reward students who are regular and well prepared. You don’t need to study for these
quizzes beyond what is necessary for class and case discussions. There will be no make-ups
for the quizzes. Your final quiz grade will be the average of your four highest quiz grades.
c) Term project / team work (15 %)
Students will form teams to work together for the Term Project. By the end of the course,
each team will make a presentation of their Term Project assignment, applying what we have
covered in the course to the presentation.
Presentation skills are very important in professional life and each student will contribute to
presentation of the Project. I expect to see competition between the teams and evaluation of
the rest of the class members will be a factor in grading of the Term Project.
d) Exams (45 %)
There will be one Midterm (20%) and one Final Exam (25%). Midterm will cover the first
nine chapters of the Text Book plus reading material. The Final Exam will cover material
(book and reading material) from the entire course.
Academic integrity:
Honesty, ethical behavior and trust are important to all of us as individuals in life. You are
expected to adhere to the principles of academic honesty at Koç University.