PMBA 8000
Managing in the Global Economy
Instructor: XXXX XXXX
Office: RCB XXXX
Website: www.XXX.gsu.edu
Phone: (404) 413-XXXX
Fax: (404) 413-XXXX
e-mail: XXXX@gsu.edu
Location
XXXXXX
Class Hours:
XXXX on the dates indicated below.
Office Hours:
Since most students are working professional students, it does not make sense to
establish formal office hours during the day, so office ours are by appointment. I am
in the office every day. By arrangement, I can meet you before or after class.
Course
Description
Managing in the Global Economy provides students with an integrated managerial
framework based on economic principles to facilitate effective decision making
across and within functional areas, across and within global borders, and across and
within organizational boundaries. Students will learn to formulate strategic
decisions and to face complex challenges through lecture, case study, discussion and
exercises that emphasize critical thinking within an economic paradigm. Key
concepts include the power of markets, the influence of technology on markets and
organizations, the impact of incentives on actions, and how information influences
decisions and actions.
.
Required:
Text
Cases
Access to a laptop computer with spreadsheet capabilities.
Standard calculator
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Grading:
Midterm Exam
Final Exam
Case and Class Participation
Projects and Assignments
30%
30%
20%
20%
Individual grades will be assigned relative to overall class performance. This class
will use the +/- grading system as prescribed by the Robinson College. In fairness to
all students, there will be no “extra credit” assignments.
A
B
C
D
F
MBA Grading
Statement:
Excellent
Good
Average
Poor
Failure
In general, in MBA and PMBA prefix courses about 35% of the
students will receive a grade of A+, A, or A-. Generally, the
majority of the remaining students will receive grades of B+, B,
or B-.
Students who demonstrate significantly lagging
performance shall earn grades at the C-level or lower as
appropriate.
Cases:
Cases will be on WWW.study.net
Exams
Exams will consist of problems, short essays, and critical analysis. Exams may have
both an in-class and out-of-class component. The in-class component will be closed
book and closed note. The Final Exam will be cumulative.
Learning
Process
The lectures, assignments, cases, and examinations are all part of the learning
process. Everything combined is designed to prepare you for your challenges
beyond the classroom. Focus on learning the material and how to use data to make
better and more meaningful decisions. If you do this, the course grade will take care
of itself. More importantly, you will leave the class with skills and an economically
relevant analytical decision framework that will pay off in the future.
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Take-home
Assignments
It is not possible to credibly enforce a policy of “no collaboration” on take-home
assignments. Thus, it does not make sense to establish such a policy. You may
collaborate with other students on all take-home assignments. However, you are
responsible for the work that you turn in. Frequently, I encounter “strange”
approaches that seemingly have no merit. Sometimes, I see the same approach
multiple times, usually because students have discussed the issue or collaborated. It
is also sometimes the case that by the second or third time I see the approach, I
begin to understand that, while not correct, has some merit. To help fairly and
equitably grade take-home work, please indicate if you have collaborated or
discussed the assignment with other students and identify the student(s).
Desire2Learn
& e-mail
PowerPoint lectures, examples, assignments, solutions, announcements, etc. will be
posted on the Desire2Learn class site.
Students are responsible for all
announcements posted on Desire2Learn and made in class.
E-mail communications will be sent to the GSU student e-mail account listed on
GOSOLAR. Students are responsible for all announcements made by e-mail. If you
do not regularly check your GSU student e-mail, forward it to an account that you
check regularly. To forward your GSU student email account to another email
account, follow these instructions.
Note: Do not use the email in Desire2Learn to communicate with me. This
email can only be accessed through Desir2Learn and will not reach me
efficiently,
Attendance:
Students are expected to attend ALL scheduled class meetings for the entire
duration of the class meeting. I will check the roster or circulate an attendance
sheet in each class period. Students who arrive after attendance has been checked
will be counted in attendance only at the discretion of the instructor.
Any student who is absent from more than the equivalent of three modules will be
administratively withdrawn from the course. If a student is withdrawn for excessive
absences after the midpoint of the term, a final grade of WF has to be assigned. An
absence from class for any reason (job conflict, illness, appearance in court,
transportation problems, etc.) counts as a class absence against the cumulative limit.
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Ethics and
Academic
Honesty:
I encourage you to share your work and knowledge, but draw the line at plagiarism
and copying the work of others. Work with other students or seek assistance from
another person only is specifically allowed. If you are allowed to work with another
student (or anyone) on an assignment, acknowledge the collaboration. Never copy
another student’s work or allow another student to copy your work. Do not use any
prohibited materials.
We take issues of academic honesty very seriously. Students are expected to
recognize and uphold standards of intellectual and academic integrity in all work.
The university assumes as a basic and minimum standard of conduct in academic
matters that students be honest and that they submit for credit only the products of
their own efforts. The University policy on academic dishonesty is spelled out in
Section 1350 of the Graduate Catalog.
The following are instances of academic dishonesty:
 plagiarism (see Section 1350 of the Graduate Catalog.)
 cheating on examinations,
 unauthorized collaboration with others
 falsification of materials
 multiple submissions (i.e., submitting the same work for credit in more than
one class).
Lack of knowledge is not an acceptable defense to any charge of academic
dishonesty. Infractions will result, at a minimum, in a zero for the assignment and
can result in expulsion from the university.
Cell Phones,
Pagers, and
Other
Electronic
Devices
Unless prearranged with the instructor in rare urgent situations, please turn off all
cell phones, pagers, and electronic devices other than the laptop that you are using
for class purposes.
Do not surf the web, send emails, check sports scores, use social media, or otherwise
multi-task during class. Devote your entire attention to the class experience.
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Student
The Five Ps
Responsibility
 Be Present

Be Prompt

Be Prepared

Participate

Be Professional
Your positive actions create benefits for yourself and for others. Negative actions
impose costs not just on you, but also on others. Comply with the five Ps.
Background:
Students are expected to possess basic Excel skills including the ability to create
relative and absolute references, the ability to use basic functions, the ability to
write formulas, and the ability to freeze portions of spreadsheets.
You can obtain free online instruction on Excel here.
NOTE: This syllabus is a general guideline. Deviations may be necessary. Students are responsible
for all announcements made in class or posted on the course web site.
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Course Schedule
The Power of Markets
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The Power of Markets: Demand for Products and Services
Class Lecture: Covers law of demand, elasticity, substitutes and complements and how these
characteristics of the market influence the organization’s strategic plans
Session 1
Module 1
Students should be able to:
 Generate a theoretical demand curve for most goods or services, being able to describe
what goes into a demand curve for that particular product.
 Be able to explain how the demand for goods and services is important to the strategic
plans of the organization. (e.g.,: the firm’s comparative advantage is determined in part
by whether the firm’s product is a commodity or a differentiated product that provides
some degree of market power)
 Explain the concepts of the price elasticity of demand and the income elasticity of
demand. In particular the student will be able to explain how these concepts related to
consumer behavior in marketing.
 Demonstrate thorough examples of the concepts of substitutes and complements.
 Explain the difference between a change in demand (shift) and a change in quantity
demanded
Case: Elasticity of Demand for Higher Education, Reed College Online Case
Class Project: Using the above case write out demand curve for higher education explaining the
rationale for each element. Then answer the following questions.
1. What would go into this demand curve if one was going to estimate it fully?
2. What distinguishes the demand for seats at MIT v. Harvard or Harvard v. Georgia State?
3. What role does price play in the number of seats filled at the average school?
4. What role does income play?
5. What are the major substitutes and complements for higher education?
6. How (and why) should pricing policy change if there are significant quality differences?
Read:
“Seeking Perfect Prices,” The Wall Street Journal, March 27, 2007
“To Spark Buyers for Electric Cars,” The Wall Street Journal, May 22, 1013
Donald Stengel, Introduction to Managerial Economics, BEP 069;
Donald Stengel, Demand and Pricing, BEP 071
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The Power of Markets: Supply of Products and Services
Lecture: Covers the law of supply and how the supply of goods and services in the market
influence the organization’s strategic plans.
Students should be able to:
 Generate a theoretical supply curve for any market for a firm’s product.
 Explain the concepts of the price elasticity of supply.
 Demonstrate an understanding of the relations between production, costs, an individual
firm’s supply curve, and market supply
 Explain how changing technology influences the supply curve for a product.
 Explain how a shock to the price of credit would affect the market supply curve.
 Be able to explain how the supply of goods and services is important to the strategic
plans of the organization.
Case: Create 1 Million STEM Graduates in X Years, Report to the President by the President’s
Council of Advisors on Science and Technology
Session 1
Module 2
Case Discussion Questions:
1. What does the economists’ definition of a supply function for STEM majors look like?
2. What are the important inputs?
3. What roles do scarcity and technology play in this supply curve?
4. How do the items in [section IV] of the report (15-36) influence supply?
5. What is the price elasticity of supply for STEM graduates?
Read:
John B. Taylor, The Financial Crisis And The Policy Responses:
An Empirical Analysis Of What Went Wrong. NBER Working Paper
Donald Stengel, Market Equilibrium and the Perfect Competition Model, BEP 074: pp 86-88
Reference:
Donald Stengel, Key Measures and Relationships, BEP 070
Donald Stengel, Cost and Production, BEP 072
Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium: The Algebra, UVA-G-0592
ROBINSON.GSU.EDU
The Power of Markets: Equilibrium
Lecture: Covers equilibrium concepts, changes in demand and supply, changes in equilibrium
quantity through the price mechanism, and the influence of business cycles and government
policy on equilibrium in markets.
Session 2
Module 1
Students should be able to:
 Explain what happens when there is a shock to demand or supply
 Explain why the price mechanism does what it does and how it might compare to other
allocation mechanisms like auctions, need, or status.
 Explain how we measure GDP, unemployment and inflation
 Explain business cycles and how they influence the operations of an organization
 Explain the general equilibrium effects of government policies such as price control,
price subsidies, fiscal policy, or monetary policy.
 Explain how managers can use the concept of market equilibrium, disruptions to the
market equilibrium, and constraints imposed on the market equilibrium through price
controls and subsidies as inputs into the organization’s strategic plan
Case: Campus Parking (http://luskin.ucla.edu/sites/default/files/downloadpdfs/PoliticsAndEconomicsOfCampusParking.pdf)
Case Discussion Questions:
1. What are the relevant (theoretical) demand and supply curves for parking spaces at a
university?
2. How would a market determine a price for spot X on campus?
3. What are the impediments for a market price arising for a particular spot?
4. What solutions might arise to help markets arise to allocate resources more efficiently?
In-class Experiment: Supply, Demand and Equilibrium: A Class Experiment, UVA-G-0593
Read:
NY Cracks down on Price Gouging
http://news.yahoo.com/ny-cracks-down-gas-price-154406691.html
Donald Stengel, Market Equilibrium and the Perfect Competition Model, BEP 074
Supply, Demand, and Equilibrium: The Algebra, UVA-G-0592
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The Influence of the Market Environment and Technology on Organizations
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The Market Environment: Monopoly, Oligopoly, and Life Cycle
Lecture: Covers the impact of the economic environment on business decision making. Specific
topics include monopolistic and oligopolistic market structures, firm and industry life cycles, and
emerging markets.
Students should be able to:
 Explain the concept of an economic profit.
 Explain how a monopoly or oligopoly differs from a competitive market and how
barriers to entry create these market structures.
 Explain the concept of monopsony and how monopsony influences market outcomes.
 Explain the conditions under which firms with monopoly power earn economic profits.
 Explain the various phases of a firm or industry life cycle and how these phases interact
with the market structure
 Explain the characteristics of an emerging market and how emerging markets contrast
with developed markets for business decision making
 Explain how market structure, firm and industry evolution, and market development
influence and organization’s strategic planning
Session 2
Module 2
Case: The Microsoft Antitrust Case: A Case Study For MBA Students by Nicholas Economides,
April 2003,
Case Discussion Questions:
1. Discuss the effects of the Microsoft “per processor” license on competition. How does
Microsoft gain using such pricing? What is the importance of Microsoft’s market share
on the impact of such pricing? Do the consumers gain?
2. Discuss the differences between contractual bundling and technological integration of
additional functions in a PC operating system.
3. Analyze each of the arguments on pricing of Windows in section 4. Do you agree or
disagree with each one of them?
4. Do you agree with the government’s theory on monopolization in section 5? Why or why
not?
5. Do you agree with the arguments on consumers’ losses and benefits in section 6.?
Read:
Imperfect Competition and Monopolies, UVA5688
http://www.albany.edu/~xl843228/teaching/ECON110/Lecture12.pdf
Reference:
Donald Stengel, Firm Competition and Market Structure, BEP 075
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The Influence of Technology and R&D
Lecture: Covers the impact of technology and innovation on market competition and the ability
of firms to earn economic profit through proprietary technology and innovation
Session 3
Module 1
Students should be able to:
 Explain how firms earn economic profit by possessing technology that is unavailable to
other firms.
 Explain why firms will compete away economic profits by investing in the development
of new technology.
 Explain the circumstances under which changes in technology, innovation, or other
forms of “creative disruption” result in a permanent change of product/service demand
on prices and output
 Explain the conditions that result in economies of scale and scope and how new
technology can influence these conditions
 Explain how organizational learning in the face of creative disruption is essential to an
organizations ability to adapt to changes in economic forces
 Explain how the introduction of new technologies, innovation, and creative disruption
influence an organization’s strategic planning.
Case: Creating a Competitive Advantage Through R&D: A Sheffield Forgemasters International
case study, Business Case Studies , http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/sheffield-forgemastersinternational/creating-a-competitive-advantage-through-rd
Case Discussion Questions:
1. What is research and development?
2. Describe the stages within the development process at SFIL
3. Explain the challenges of R&D.
4. Analyze the reasons for carrying out new product development.
Read:
Moving the World Forward: The Quest for a New Equilibrium, ROT243
“The endangered public company: The big engine that couldn’t,” The Economist, May 19, 2012
“The endangered public company: The rise and fall of a great invention, and why it matters,” The
Economist, May 19, 2012
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Regulation and Rent Seeking
Lecture: Covers how regulation can alter market structures in such a way to provide firms with
monopoly power or a cost advantage that allows them to earn positive economic profits or
“rents,” actions by firms seeking to exploit market flaws in order to gain monopoly power and
earn economic rents, and government regulation intended to protect society from such
“predatory” strategies. Specific topics may include antitrust regulation, the rationale for patents,
regulation of mergers and acquisitions, labor regulation, and minimum wage laws.
Students should be able to:
 Explain the difference between a natural monopoly and a monopoly that results from
regulation or predatory actions
Session 3
Module 2

Explain how government regulation can provide firms with monopoly power or a cost
advantage that allows them to earn positive profits.

Explain how government regulation may be designed to impede predatory actions taken
by firms to create monopoly power
Compare and contrast the benefits and the costs of government regulation
Explain how understanding and responding to government regulation influences an
organization’s strategic planning.


Case: Regulating Broadband in Chile: The Debate over Open Access, HKS670
Case Discussion Questions:
1. How has Chile regulated voice telephone providers since Telefónica was privatized in
1990?
2. How well has the voice telephone industry performed since 1990? To what extent do
the government’s regulatory policies deserve the credit or blame for the performance?
3. What has been Chile’s strategy in regulating Internet providers and how well is that
industry performing?
4. Would requiring broadband providers to open access be desirable?
5. Is the case for open access likely to be stronger or weaker in electricity, gas, railroads,
water or other industries than it is in broadband? Why?
Read:
“No deal and no deal: 21st Century Fox/Time Warner and Sprint/T-Mobile USA,” The Economist,
August 6, 2014.
“D.C. Taxi Commission Proposes Exciting New Anti-Uber Rules” Slate, September 20, 2012
Reference:
Donald Stengel, Market Regulation, BEP 076
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Session 4
Midterm Exam
Using Information and Incentives to Create Value and Influence Outcomes
Incentives and Decisions within the Organization
Lecture: Covers how individuals respond to incentives, how incentives influence market
outcomes, and how incentives influence decisions within organizations. Applications include
incentive compensation for executives, setting of wages in the labor markets, human resource
management, general management, and incentive alignment between principals and agents.
Students should be able to:
 Explain how economic incentives influence decisions in organizations
 Explain how economic incentives influence outcomes in markets
 Identify how scenarios where misaligned incentives result in unintended outcomes
 Explain the importance of properly structuring incentives to effective strategic planning
within an organization
Session 4
Case: The Incentives Game, HBS 9-902-197
Game Overview:
The game provides an opportunity to gain insight about designing, negotiating, and responding
to incentives. The setting is investment management. The basic structure of the game is as
follows. The class id divided into a certain number of investment firms. Each company has one
CEO and begins with four portfolio managers (PMs), who manage their portfolios by choosing
from a restricted set of assets. The game will continue through session 10.
Read:
Steven Kerr, “On the folly of rewarding A, while hoping for B,” The Academy of Management
Executive, 1995 Vol. 9 No. 1, 7-14.
Janet Yellen, “Efficiency wage models of unemployment.” American Economic Association Papers
and Proceedings, 1984 Vol. 74 no. 2, 200-205.
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Incentives and Behavior: Moral Hazard
Lecture: Covers the effect of incentives on the actions of individuals, how a divergence in
incentives leads to the concept of moral hazard in organizations and in markets, and strategies
for mitigating these problems. Applications include the principal-agent problem in the firm, the
origination of sub-prime loans, the euro debt crisis, and insurance.
Students should be able to:
 Explain how incentives influence and individuals’ actions and effort in organizations and
in the market
 Describe the principal-agent problem and how it relates to moral hazard
 Explain how observability and verifiability relate to moral hazard
 Identify strategies for mitigating moral hazard in organizations and in markets
 Explain the importance of moral hazard to effective strategic planning within an
organization
Case: Attention Shoppers: Executive Compensation at Kroger, Safeway, Costco, and Whole Foods,
Rock Center for Corporate Governance case CG-13
Session 5
Module 1
Case Discussion Questions:
1. Using information from the case and other background that you can find with your own
research, describe the apparent strategies for each company.
2. What are the risks inherent in each strategy identified in question 1? What key
performance indicators (so-called KPIs) are appropriate for evaluating strategic success
for each company? Do these indicators correspond to those selected by each company
for compensating their executives?
3. Discuss whether the structure of the executive compensation programs is consistent
with the corporate strategy for each company. At a minimum, consider the mix of
compensation (i.e., fixed v. contingent, short-term v. long-term, and accounting or stock
price-based v. non-financial-based). In your opinion, does the compensation program
motivate executives to achieve strategic success?
4. Discuss whether the total compensation paid to each CEO is appropriate. Support your
answer with rigorous thinking.
5. How appropriate is the compensation provided to board of director members at each
company? Comment on both levels of payment and use of cash and non-cash incentives.
Read:
Brian Hall, Incentives within Organizations, HBS 9-904-043
“Health-care costs and the ‘moral hazard’ problem” The Washington Post, March 10, 2014
Podcast: Watch Why seat belts kill – The Peltzman Effect explained by Sam Peltzman
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Private Information and Outcomes: Adverse Selection
Lecture: Covers how outcomes are influenced when various decision makers must make their
decisions based on different (or asymmetric) information. Particular focus on the adverse
selection problem or the likelihood of being stuck with a “lemon” as a result of engaging in trade
with another party who has superior private information. The lecture will also discuss various
mechanism for overcoming the “lemons problem” such as signaling, screening, reputation,
warranties, etc.
Session 5
Module 2
Students should be able to:
 Explain how information asymmetry creates an adverse selection problem
 Provide examples of the adverse selection problem across different business functions,
across different types of markets, and across global boundaries
 Identify the costs associated with the adverse selection problem and identify who
benefits and who is harmed by asymmetric information
 Explain when adverse selection can lead to complete market failure
 Identify industry characteristics in which informational advantages are likely to be most
important
 Explain how signaling, screening, reputation, warranties, certification, and inspection
can be used to mitigate the adverse selection problem
Game: Play the “Market for Lemons” game and discuss the outcomes
The Incentives Game: Ends with this class
Read:
Asymmetric Information: Market Failures, Market Distortions, and Market Solutions, HBS 9-797100
“The Lemon Dilemma,” The Economist, October 11, 2001
Reference:
Donald Stengel, Market Regulation, BEP 076
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Complex Challenges, Outcomes, and Crossing Boundaries
When Decisions Affect Others: Externalities
Lecture: Covers how externalities, both positive and negative, can result from decisions and how
individuals and organizations take actions to insulate themselves from or benefit from these
externalities. Externalities arising from the free rider problem and the role of government
provision of certain services will also be discussed.
Students should be able to:
 Explain how externalities arise imperfect markets
 Provide examples of positive and negative externalities
 Explain how individuals and organizations take actions to mitigate their exposure to
negative externalities and benefit from positive externalities
 Explain why government regulators take actions to limit certain externalities
 Explain how externalities created by decisions and responses to those externalities
influence an organization’s strategic planning.
Session 6
Module 1
Read and discuss: A Framework to think about pollution: Externalities, pollution taxes, and Cap
and Trade, UV5687, Darden Business Publishing
Discussion Questions:
1. What aspect of markets leads firms to choose production levels and methods that result
in harmful pollution?
2. What are the economic costs and benefits to society associated with the tradeoffs of
mitigating harmful pollution?
3. As a business manager, how should you prepare for the possibility of new government
regulation or taxes to mitigate CO2 emissions?
Read:
Chris Meyer and Julia Kirby, “What does business owe the world?” Harvard Business Review Blog
Post, April 20, 2010
Michael Schrage, “Embracing externalities is the road to Hell,” Harvard Business Review Blog
Post, April 21, 2010
Donald Stengel, Market Regulation, BEP 076
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Contracting Across Boundaries
Lecture: Covers how explicit and implicit contracts can be used to limit externalities and achieve
better outcomes in settings with externalities. The lecture will also introduce the characteristics
that will allow private parties to resolve externalities (the Coase Theorem) and discuss the role
played by well-defined property rights in allowing private parties to solve the problem of
externalities.
Students should be to:
 Explain the difference between implicit and explicit contracts.
 Explain the concept of property rights.
 Explain how private parties can solve the problem of externalities when property rights
are well defined, people act rationally, and transaction costs are minimal.
 Explain the tradeoff between government taxes/subsidies and government regulation in
mitigating externalities
 Explain how weak property rights expose organizations to externalities and influence
the strategic planning of an organization
Session 6
Module 2
Case: London’s Congestion Charge, KEL193
Case Discussion Questions:
1. How do driver choices and traffic congestion impose negative externalities on others?
2. Could London’s traffic congestion be solved by contracting between the private parties
involved in creating and bearing the externality? Why or why not?
3. The “contract” imposed by this solution is to impose a tax on drivers during certain
times. Alternatively, the government could have subsidized public transportation to
lower fares and provide an incentive to take public transportation instead of driving.
Which approach do you think would be more desirable? Why?
4. A complex myriad of individuals and organizations are influenced by both London traffic
congestion and also by the outcome of the London congestion charge. Not all of these
parties appear to be convinced that they have benefitted from the congestion charge.
Do you think it is possible to design a system that benefits everyone? Why or why not?
5. As a business owner in Central London, would you favor or oppose the congestion
charge? Why?
6. Do you think that economic welfare was enhanced by the congestion charge? Explain
why or why not based on logical reasoning.
Read: “Don’t want me to recline my airline seat? You can pay me,” The Upshot, New York Times,
August 27, 2014
“Coase in Flight,” The Agenda, The National Review Online, July 29, 2011
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The Firm, Contracting within the Firm, and the Limits of the Firm
Lecture: Covers the concept of a firm as a legal fiction that serves as a nexus of explicit and
implicit contracts that establish the rights and obligations of contracting parties when market
imperfections make contracting within a firm more efficient than contracting in the market.
Building on the topics of moral hazard and incentives, students are introduced to corporate
governance as a critical component of the firm’s contracting mechanisms. Students also gain
insight into how innovation in technology and markets alters the boundaries of the firm through
activities such as supply chain management, outsourcing, vertical and horizontal integration, etc.
Students should be able to:
1. Explain that firms exist because they provide a more efficient contracting mechanism
than an imperfect market
2. Explain how innovation in technology and markets can alter the boundaries of the firm
3. Explain how information and contracting problems influence the boundaries of the firm
4. Explain the allocation of decision and control rights in the firm
5. Identify and explain the functions of various corporate governance mechanisms
6. Explain the critical importance of corporate governance to an organization
Session 7
Case: Models of Corporate Governance: Who’s the Fairest of Them All? Rock Center for Corporate
Governance case CG-11
Case Discussion Questions:
1. Based on the governance models presented in this case, what are your recommended
best practices?
2. Do you believe governance standards should be legally madated or adopted at the
discretion of the company based on best practices and pressure from shareholders?
3. How effective do you find the standard of comply-or-explain? Provide an analysis of the
economic and social forces of this standard?
4. Do you believe employees should have representation on the board? If so, should they
serve in a supervisory or strategic capacity?
5. How effective do you find the keiretsu system relative to other models presented in the
cases? Are representatives from affiliated companies more or less effective board
members than independent directors?
6. What is your evaluation of the board and committee structure adopted by Toyota? Has
Toyota been successful because of or in spite of its governance structure
Read and Listen
“Supply Chains Changed the Growth Model” The Economist, August 15, 2012
“Explaining the Economics of Apple’s Sapphire Supply Chain,” Forbes, May 7, 014
“Here, There, and Everywhere” Special Report: Outsourcing and Offshoring (audio podcast), The
Economist, January 17, 2013
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Recap, Review, and Discussion
Session 7
Module 2




What have we learned?
How do we use these ideas to make decisions across functional boundaries?
How do we use these ideas to make decisions across organizational boundaries?
Looking forward: How will these ideas evolve as technology, society, and business
evolves?
Session 8
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Final Examination
Closing Topic