Strategic Management and Decision Making Course

Credits: You will receive an official Certificate of Attendance upon completion of your course. Please inform the organizing staff if you require any extra supplements, such as Transcript of Records. The student is eligible to receive up to 5 ECTS credits, however, please follow the instructions here and consult the acknowledgement process with your university in advance.

Day 1: Introduction to Strategy and Decision Making

• Course learning outcomes, structure, and assessment

• What is strategy?

• The case study method

• Value networks: how businesses create value

• Definitions of strategy: purpose; process; and output

• Group Activity: The Best Movie of 2023

Day 2: Strategic Positioning: Understanding the environment and creating value

• External analysis: PESTEL; and Porter’s Five Forces model

• Competitive positioning and sustainable competitive advantage

• Porter’s Generic Strategies: differentiation; leadership; and hybrids

• The Value Proposition and Value Chain

• Rational and non-rational decision-making

• Example: McDonalds

• Case study: JetBlue (1)

• Group Activity: Desert Survival

Day 3: Strategic fit

• Five tests of a good strategy

• Lines of defence: tailored value chain; trade-off choices; and activity systems

• Levels of planning and decision-making

• Example: IKEA

• Case Study: JetBlue (2)

• Group Activity: Ferrari

Day 4: The Resource-Based View

• Internal analysis: The McKinsey 7-S Model; and organisational culture

• Resources: heterogeneity; tangibility; rent; and immobility

• Competencies and core competencies: the VRIO Test

• Example: CarMax

• Case Study: CEMEX (1)

• Group Activity: The Kansas City Chiefs

Day 5: Dynamic Capabilities

• Competencies: integration, building, and reconfiguration

• Organisational learning

• Routines: sensing; seizing; and transforming competencies

• Example: Grace Manufacturing

• Case Study: CEMEX (2)

• Group Activity: Aldi

Day 6: Blue Ocean: making the competition irrelevant

• Strategic drift and path dependency

• Challenging the assumptions of competition: value innovation

• Process: Buyer Utility Mapping; Four Actions Framework; and the Strategy Canvas

• Example: Cirque du Soleil

• Case Study: Citizen M Hotels

• Group Activity: Czech-US

Day 7: Disruptive Innovation

• Dominant design and component and architectural innovation

• Why businesses fail: cognitive limits and disruptive innovation

• Christensen’s Theory of Disruption

• Strategic direction: Ansoff Growth Matrix; and Lynch Expansion Method Matrix

• Example: British Airways

• Case Study: Blockbuster and Netflix

• Group Activity: Coca-Cola

Day 8: Corporate Strategy

• Purpose: composition; coordination; and value

• How parents add value to strategic business units: the Ashridge Parenting Model

• Planning and control: BCG Matrix; and GE Multifactor Matrix

• Diversification: growth; risk; and value

• Example: Saab

• Case study: Esquel

• Group Activity: Friends and Enemies

Day 9: Business Ethics

• Ethical decision-making: theory and practice

• The Shareholder View: businesses behaving badly

• The Triple Bottom Line and Stakeholder View

• The role of business in society and Corporate Social Responsibility

• Examples: Uber

• Case Study: Football and Gambling

• Group Exercise: Starbucks

Day 10: Presentation of Group Project

Course is running: Monday - Friday, 9:00 - 14:00

Course outline

Grading

The course will have three weighted points of assessment. Feedback will be provided on each element.

• Individual essay (30%): Students must submit a 1,000-word essay in which they reflect on their learning experience during the course in a systematic and structured way.

• Group project (40%): Students must work in groups on a contemporary business case study and apply concepts taught in the course to offer recommendations on the strategy to be pursued.

• Classroom contribution (30%): Students will be evaluated by the tutor based on their engagement with the subject matter and their participation in case study work in the classroom.

Course time total 125 hours

1. Course runs 2 weeks Monday to Friday 9:00-14:00

1. Total time of in-class work = 50 hours

1. Preliminary assignment = 10hours

1. Preparation = 65 hours

Acquired skills

• Use evidence-based decision-making in addressing real-world, practice-relevant issues
• Understand how businesses create value and sustainable competitive advantage
• Analyse business environments at macro- and industry level
• Make trade-off choices between strategic options based on rational processes
• Use a comprehensive toolkit of ideas to generate multiple perspectives on issues and opportunities
• Work collaboratively with others to analyse management problems from a strategic perspective
• Develop a highly ethical view of how to do business