The University of Texas at Dallas

BPS 6310
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Spring 2007

Professor Sumit Majumdar

Office: (972) 883 4786
majumdar@utdallas.edu
SOM 3.433
Office Hours: By appointment

Objectives of the Course:

· To develop analytic skills to identify key issues and formulate appropriate strategies for
complex business situations.
· To understand how to analyze industry dynamics
· To understand how to respond to competitive challenges & improve corporate performance.

Main thrust of course and short outline:

To Understand How to Achieve Sustained Competitive Advantage

§ The basic purpose of strategy is to take a series of decisions and make a series of moves
which are designed to achieve sustained competitive advantage.

§ One must relate moves back to outcomes, that is the extent to which these moves actually
affect business performance.

§ Ultimately business performance is based on the performance achieved in competitive

domains, so a great deal of strategic thinking is all about understanding how to compete.

§ This course focuses on the many competitive moves that businesses make and the types of
analyses required to make these moves effective.

§ You will learn how to undertake an analysis of the industry environment, its stakeholders
and an analysis of a company’s internal resources.

§ The main moves that flow from such an analysis are

o positioning versus competitors in terms of the cost and quality of products,
o positioning in terms of the scope of businesses,
o positioning with respect to innovation.

§ The basic premise of the course is that making winning moves depends on finding profitable
patterns of activities that meet customer demands for solutions, and doing so repeatedly.

§ There are human resources issues to implement strategy and the question of global markets.
There are IB and OB classes covering these topics and this class will not go into these issues.
 § Nevertheless, we will continuously address issues of strategy implementation as we analyze
the various concepts and the cases that have been assigned for the class.

There are seven broad areas that are covered:

What is Strategy?
Performance: the Key to a Successful Strategy
Competitive Dynamics: Strategy Not Done in Isolation
Matching External Opportunities & Threats with Internal Strengths and Weaknesses

How to Do Industry and Environmental Analysis

Porter’s Five Forces
Industry Boundaries
The Analysis of Social and Political Factors
Stakeholder Analysis

How to Analyze a Company's Resources

Resources, Capabilities, and Competencies
The Need to Replicate Successes
Continuously Building Capabilities

How to Position a Company within an Industry

Generic Strategies: Low Cost and High Quality
Strategic Groups
The Broad Basis for Segmentation
Heterogeneity as Source of Competitive Advantage

Company Positioning, Mergers and Acquisitions and

Corporate Strategy
Scope of the Firm
Portfolio management

Innovation and Company Positioning

Finding and Exploiting New Opportunities
Forecasting
Technology Push and Market Pull
Obstacles to Realization

Conclusion: Making the Moves that Win

Profitable Patterns or Models of Business
Customer Demand for Solutions
Searching the Value Chain
Reinventing Channels

Learning Methods:

This is both a concepts based and a case based class.

Concepts: From readings, lectures and discussion.

2
Group Case Analysis: Applying concepts to cases where key issues are identified and recommendations made.
Strategic Analysis: Comparing companies to understand their strategies for sustained competitive advantage.

§ This is an integrative course that takes into account all the management functions including
accounting, finance, marketing, and operations.

Please come prepared to participate in each class. Course materials can be found on the WebCT site.
Regularly consult the site for information about the course.

Reading Material:

§ The required book for this course is “Alexander the Great’s Art of Strategy” by
Partha Bose, Gotham Books, 2003. This book is available at the book store.
§ Other materials will also be handed out and placed on the WebCT.
§ Cases required for the course are also available at the book store.
§ On the WebCT site you will find chapters from a textbook that will be used for this
class. The book has been written by a colleague, Alfred Marcus, for McGraw Hill
called Management Strategy: Sustaining Competitive Advantage. That will be
the main source for the conceptual strategy related text material. Some of the cases
come from another book called Winning Moves: A Case Book that Marsh Publications
will have published.
§ The chapters and the case are available for downloading at the WebCT site.

Grading:

Class participation: 20 points

Group analysis of cases: 50 pts ~ The cases will be put on the WebCT or are in the course pack
Final exam case: 30 pts ~ The case will be in the course pack.

3
 Detailed Course Schedule
Serial Date Agenda Topic Details of Readings
Number
The Basics of Strategy
th
Class 1 9 January Introduction What is the class all
about?

Class 2 23 rd January Concepts class What is strategy? Bose ~ Introduction and

Chapter 1
Marcus ~ Chapter 1
Paret ~ Readings from
Makers of Modern
Strategy

Class 3 30 th January Case class Canon In course pack

Class 4 6 th February Case class Canon In course pack

Class 5 13 th February Case class Intel versus AMD To be handed out

Class 6 20 th February Concepts class Industry and internal Bose ~ Chapter 2

analysis Marcus ~ Chapters 2 and 3

Class 7 27 th February Case class Nucor In course pack

Class 8 13 th March Concepts class Market positioning and Bose ~ Chapter 5 and 9
mergers Marcus ~ Chapters 4 and 5

Class 9 20 th March Case class Disney and Time Warner To be handed out

Class 10 27 th March Concepts class Innovation, Bose ~ Chapters 6 and 8

entrepreneurship and Marcus ~ Chapter 7
re-invention

Class 11 3 rd April Case class Andersen Consulting In course pack

Class 12 10th April Case class Andersen Consulting In course pack

Class 13 17 th April Case class Reinventing Airbus Final case presentation

Class 14 24 th April Case class Reinventing Airbus Final case presentation

30 th April Final case due

4
Assignments:

1. Group analysis of cases:

§For each case topic there are several questions. Groups meet before class time.
§Each group is expected to develop a series of 4 to 6 Power Point overheads to answer one of the
questions related to the case. The overheads should summarize your answers to the following
detailed issues:
§ How has the company evolved to its present situation?
§ What is the main challenge or opportunity the company faces?
§ How should it respond to this challenge or opportunity?
§ What is the outcome likely to be?
§The overheads can be in the form of figures, tables, and diagrams. For each session, two groups
will be called on to present their overheads to the class. After the first class I will list the groups
that will start the discussion for each case class.
§For the following class meeting, all groups should write a memo that answers the case question
and hand in their overheads along with their memo.
§Only if your group is not willing to include your name in its submissions, should you hand in your
own memo and overhead the Class after the scheduled class.
§If your group is called upon to present its answer to a case question to the class as a whole, use the
overheads to get the discussion started. Be honest with the class about aspects of your answer
about which you are unsure. Solicit the class’ help. The presenting groups should be prepared to
talk for about 10 to 20 minutes. The rest of the class time will be devoted to class discussion.
§As a member of the class, be sure to participate in these discussions. Think about what the
presenting group has said. What do you think? Has the presenting group missed something? Are
its ideas on target, or off? What can be done to strengthen the presenting group’s answer?

2. Memo:

Recall that memos are due the class after the case is discussed.
Appendices are permitted if you want to amplify or develop your points.
Memos should have no more than 2 to 3 single-spaced pages of text excluding appendices.
Below I have presented the elements of what would be in a good memo.

Current Challenge and Assessment of the Situation

· What is the pivotal question that must be addressed? Why?

· What is the problem/threat/opportunity? How have these been analyzed? What is the issue -- the negative assumption, the
complication -- that necessitates action?

Recommended Strategy
· What is the main action that should be taken to alleviate the problem you have identified? Why this action rather than
some other? Did you consider alternatives? Why did you reject them?
· What moves should be made? These moves must be implementable? If there are internal or external barriers, if there are
serious limitations, or constraints that might stand in the way of the moves you are advocating, how can they be overcome?
· Substantiate each element in the moves you are proposing? Try to be specific as specific as possible. Who should do what,
how, and in what time period?
· How will other parties, competitors in particular, respond to these moves? Will their responses effectively neutralize the
moves you are proposing and make them null and void?

5
· In the end, what difference will the moves you are recommending make? How likely are they to solve the problem you have
identified? What problems will they create in their wake?
· Why do you think the strategy you are proposing should be carried out and what difference it would make?
· Who will be better off? In short run? In the long run? What are the uncertainties? What risk is involved?