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Course description The focus of this course is on how general managers enhance and sustain business performance by implementing some kind of long-term strategy. The course covers analytical and conceptual tools that are meant to be aids to the development of judgment. Its fundamental focus, however, is not on tools, but on sharpening skills at developing robust judgments in the face of uncertainty and complexity. The central concept of this course is that of strategy. Definitions abound, but they all share some sense of the allocation of critical resources over relatively long periods of time in pursuit of specific goals and objectives. Sustained performance, we shall discover, depends not simply upon choosing the right strategy, but also upon the processes by which strategy is implemented/executed within the organization. The subject matter of strategy is complex and multidisciplinary. As a student, you should feel free to make active use of skills and tools covered in Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Statistics, and other courses.
Case discussions Good judgment about complex general management situations is developed by studying the judgments of successful managers and by practice in making judgments. Accordingly, the course relies heavily on case materials and the analysis and discussion of different case situations is the primary activity in class. Therefore, you will get little from this course unless you take considerable responsibility for your own learning. This means devoting time and energy to preparation before class and then, during the class, listening carefully to others and being willing to present and defend your own point of view. Key to good student learning in a case course is excellent student preparation of the case prior to coming to class. This means not just reading the case, but analyzing the central issues raised in it and developing a well-thought-out position on these issues that the student is able to articulate and explain to others during the class meeting. Thorough student preparation allows the student to learn more from the case and the classroom experience by increasing the students involvement with the material and his or her ability to understand new ideas that are presented. In preparing a case for class discussion, you should read the case at least twice. The first reading provides you with a general sense of the "story" and of the types of information available. On the second reading, you should start to carefully take notes, sorting information into categories, and writing down answers to the study questions and asking new questions of your own. You may find it useful to undertake specific analyses (e.g., time-line of events, personnel profiles, funds-flow patterns, cost analysis, market segment analyses, demand driver analyses, industry structure analyses, etc.) The well-
prepared student comes to class with a written outline of how he or she would answer each of the study questions associated with the days case. Writing down your responses to the study questions imposes a valuable discipline on ones own thought processes, as it forces a level of specificity and clarity, and hence of case preparation, that otherwise might be absent. Good case discussions take the group farther than any one individual or study group was able to go on their own.
Course text There is no officially assigned book for this course, as we will rely heavily on case studies and discussions. However, most of the concepts developed in class can be found in basic strategy textbooks. A good introduction to business strategy is Contemporary Strategy Analysis, by Robert Grant, Ed. Wiley, (8th edition).
Evaluation and Grades Students will be evaluated on class participation, pair assignments and a final exam (NOTE: there will be no partial exam). The final grade will weight these three areas in the following way. Final Exam Pair Assignments Class Participation 60% 25% 15%
Pair Assignments Each student is expected to hand-in TWO pair assignments during the course. You should pick two case studies from the ones we will discuss in class and BEFORE the discussion of each case, hand in a 2-page report answering the study questions for that case. The first assignment should be handed in before October 17th and the second one before December 5th.
Final Exam The final exam will consist on the analysis of a case study, in a manner similar to what we will do in class. Note: Universit Bocconi conceives of education as an ongoing process that stretches across a persons entire professional life. The University hopes that the entire Bocconi community will respect the values of fairness and correctness associated with it, values which inspire and guide the conduct of all community members as they pursue common objectives and a shared mission. The Universit Bocconi Honor Code is published at http:// www.unibocconi.eu/honorcode . We encourage all students to read it.
SESSION DESCRIPTIONS AND STUDY QUESTIONS Session 1: 10 September 2013, room N30
Introduction to the Course and Lecture: What is Strategy?