SYLLABUS- FALL 2016

MGT 498
Strategy & Policy

Dr. Joshua Hernsberger

Email: joshua.hernsberger@wku.edu
Cell: (702) 769-4261
Office: (270) 745-4530
Office Hours: MW, 4:00-5:00 PM or by appointment
Office Location: GH 211
Class Location: GH 244
REQUIRED MATERIALS
Required Textbook: Rothaermel, F.T. (2015). Strategic Management, 2nd Edition. New
York, NY: McGraw Hill. (ISBN: 0077645065)
Case Packet: The case packet is required. Information on how to purchase the packet will
be provided a few weeks into the semester.
Wall Street Journal: A 15-week subscription to the Wall Street Journal is required. The Wall
Street Journal offers a 15-week subscription for $15.
http://www.WSJ.com/studentoffer
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course deals with formulating a strategic plan, implementing and controlling of its
execution, and evaluating its success. The formulation phase includes developing a
mission statement in concert with the decision makers' philosophy, environmental
scanning, and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the firm. The implementation
and control phase examines the role of leadership, organizational design, and resource
deployment.
The approach of this course is practical and problem-oriented. A major part of the course
involves applying concepts, frameworks, analytical techniques, and managerial insights to
strategic issues that companies face. In applying strategic analysis to dynamically
competitive situations, we will rely heavily on case analyses and discussion, as well as on
strategic exercises.

COURSE GRADING

25 % Class Participation
20 % Case Write Ups
10 % Case and Chapter Quizzes OR final exam
10 % my STRATEGY Essays
10 % Wall Street Journal Article Summaries
10 % Individual Presentation on HBR Article
15 % Final Group Project

Extra Credit (5%)

o 3 % Office Hours Visit
o 2 % Career Services Visit

Class Participation (25%)

An important part of the learning in the course comes from class participation during case
and chapter discussion. Therefore, you are expected to participate actively in these class
discussions. Your class participation grade will be largely based on your participation in the
class-wide discussions. The quality of the class discussion is dependent on your
preparation, and therefore you are expected to come to class prepared. In order to be
prepared for class you should read and analyze the assigned chapter and/or case
BEFORE class!
Some suggestions on case preparation
Strategy cases are difficult. The analysis of a strategy case is likely to be significantly
different than the case analyses or essays you have done in previous classes. Be aware of
this and prepare for it.
There is generally no optimal method of case preparation. However, I would recommend
reading the case twice. First, read the case from start to finish without focusing on the
details of the case. Next, reread the case with the discussion questions in mind. Highlight
or underline key passages that you think relate to the discussion questions. Most of the
cases contain information that is important to answering the discussion questions, as well
as information that may not be helpful when answering the questions. One of the skills that
you will develop in this class is being able to sort helpful information from extraneous
information. Your class participation grade depends on both the quality and quantity of your
participation.
General questions to think about when doing a case preparation
1. What is the firms strategy? Why has the firms strategy been
successful/unsuccessful?
2. How have the firms strategic choices influenced its financial performance? How
much of the firms financial performance can be attributed to its industry? How
much of the firms financial performance can be attributed to its particular resources
and capabilities?
3. Why did the firms managers make specific strategic choices? What
alternative strategic choices could have been made?

Please note that these are general questions meant to get you thinking analytically about
the case. In this class, each case contains specific questions that should be the focus of
your analysis. These questions will be available on Blackboard.
Case Write Ups (20%)
Case write ups give you the opportunity to more fully develop your ability to conduct a
detailed analysis that integrates information from the case, lessons from lectures and
textbook, and what you have learned from previous classes. You will be responsible for
doing formal case write-ups for two of the cases analyzed in this course. See the class
schedule for due dates. The link for the casebook will be provided about a third of the way
through semester.
1. Case write-ups should be 4-8 pages, double-spaced, 12 point Times New Roman
font, and 1-inch margins.
2. Appendices are allowed and are not constrained by the page limit. Appendices
should support your written analysis and be referred to in the text.
3. Case write-ups are to done in paragraph form. Case write ups done in bullet or
outline form WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
4. Case write-ups should be uploaded to Blackboard prior to the start of class on the
due date. Cases submitted by hand, by email, or after the start of class WILL NOT
BE ACCEPTED.
Case Quizzes and Chapter Quizzes (10%)
There will be short in-class quizzes covering the material presented in the chapters and
cases. The quizzes are designed to incentivize you to read the chapters and cases
carefully, even when you are not submitting a case write up.
You will have more than 10 quizzes in this class. However, I will only count your highest 5
quiz scores in your final grade; all other quiz grades will be dropped. See the class
schedule for dates of the quizzes.
my STRATEGY Essays (10%)
At the end of each chapter there are a set of questions that ask you to apply the lessons in
the chapter to yourself and your career. These are listed under the my STRATEGY
heading in the textbook. You will be responsible for submitting a 1-2 page essay that
answers the my STRATEGY questions for each chapter we cover. These essays will be
graded on a pass/fail basis. The essays can be in paragraph form or bullet form. I will not
be grading your grammar or writing ability on these essays. As long as you adequately
answer each question you will receive a pass. If you submit an essay but have not
adequately answered each question you will have the opportunity to resubmit it to receive a
pass.
Wall Street Journal Article Summaries (10%)
Gaining a wider understanding of the business world is an important goal of this course. As
such, you will be required to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal for the duration of the
class. However, just having a subscription to the newspaper is not enough. To get the full
benefit of the Wall Street Journal you must get into the habit of reading it every day.

Therefore, you will be required to submit a short summary of an article you have read at
the beginning of every class. The summaries are to be turned in as hard copies at the
beginning of each class.
All articles should be from the business or finance sections of the paper/website. Please do
not submit summaries on articles from the front section- which mostly deals with domestic
and international politics, the back section- which mostly deals with human interest stories,
or the opinion section.
The Wall Street Journal article summaries will be graded on a pass/fail basis. If you submit
a summary but have not adequately summarized the article you will have the opportunity to
resubmit it to receive a pass. Summaries should follow this format to the letter:
1.
2.
3.
4.

What is the title of the article?

In what section of the newspaper does it appear?
What firms are discussed in the article?
What industry are these firms in? (This should not be based on a guess or gut
feeling. Firms are required to identify the industry they are in to the SEC. Use
http://finance.yahoo.com/ or
http://www.sec.gov/edgar/searchedgar/companysearch.html to determine the firms
industry.) Please include which source you used to identify the industries.
5. Provide a 2 or 3 sentence summary of the article.
Individual Presentation (10%)
The ability to present ones ideas concisely and persuasively, and to respond to questions
and comments from others, is a key success factor in business. One of the goals of this
course is to help you develop this ability by providing you an opportunity to make an
individual presentation and respond to questions from the professor and your classmates.
INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATIONS ARE NOT SUMMARIES OF INDIVIDUAL CHAPTERS.
Individual presentations will be based on an article from Harvard Business Review (HBR),
which can be accessed through the Business Source Premier database in the library.
Students should choose their specific HBR article by no later than the end of the second
week of class. Please identify the article you have chosen on the Blackboard discussion
board called HBR article following the format from my example. Articles are assigned on
a first come, first served basis. No article can be chosen by more than once. Please check
to make sure your article has not already been selected before you post it.
Guidelines for presentation:
1. Presentations should be about 8 minutes.
2. Presentations should not be complete summaries of the article. Choose the most
important parts of the article and discuss those in depth.
3. There will be a short Q & A session after the presentation. Students are
encouraged to ask questions of the presenter. Participation grades are partially
based on participation as an audience member during the Q & A sessions.
4. These are formal presentations so PowerPoint, or similar software, should be used.
a. Tip: When using PowerPoint slides, you should budget 2 minutes per slide,
so your presentation should consist of 5 or 6 slides.
5. The presentation is the only deliverable for this assignment. You are not expected
to submit a written report to accompany the presentation.

Group Assignment (15%)

The final exam for this course consists of a group presentation and peer evaluation. Each
group will be responsible for researching a specific company and making a presentation
based on their analysis of the firms strategy, financial performance, industry
attractiveness, and other topics covered in this course.
Each group will consist of five or six students. Students should form their groups and have
selected a company to analyze by the end of the second week of class. A company can
only be chosen by one group. If a group chooses a company that has already been
selected they will be required to select a different company. It is therefore in your interest to
let me know as soon as possible the group you have chosen.
Groups should choose a firm that is of interest to them. However, because this project
requires access to historical data on firms financial performance and strategic choices as
well as information about firms internal organization and external environment, groups
should choose a publicly traded firm that has been public for at least five years. You will
receive more detailed instructions later in the semester.
Yahoo finance is an excellent source of financial and stock market data for publicly traded
companies. Before choosing a company to research, groups should check Yahoo finance
to make sure it is publicly traded.
http://finance.yahoo.com/
Guidelines for presentation:
1. Presentations should be about 15-20 minutes. Presentations that fall significantly
short of 15 minutes will be penalized.
2. There will be a short Q & A session after the presentation. Students are
encouraged to ask questions of the presenters. Participation grades are partially
based on participation as an audience member during the Q & A sessions.
3. These are formal presentations so PowerPoint, or similar software, should be used.
4. Each group member must participate in the presentation.
5. The presentation and the peer evaluation are the only deliverables for the group
project. Groups are not expected to submit written reports to accompany the
presentation.
More detailed instructions will be provided after we complete Chapter 4 in the text.
Final Exam (Optional)
The final exam is OPTIONAL! I The final exam will be a fully comprehensive exam that
tests students knowledge of concepts, theories, and their ability to utilize this knowledge in
the real world. If a student chooses to take the final exam, the final exam grade will replace
the students overall chapter/case quiz grade for their final course grade.

EXTRA CREDIT
Office Hours Visit (+3%)
Students who meet with the professor for a one-on-one meeting during office hours at least
once before the last week of class will have 3 points added to their final grade.
These meetings are meant to be informal and relaxed. You can ask specific questions
about the class or an assignment, discuss the business world more generally, talk about
what you plan to do when you graduate, etc.
Career Services Visit (+2%)
WKU Career Services is an excellent resource for students who are about to graduate.
They provide career counseling, help with resumes, and other valuable services that will
help you transition into the real world (i.e., get a job after graduation). The career services
website is http://www.wku.edu/career/.

GENERAL COURSE POLICIES

1. Class Schedule
The reading and assignment schedule will be released as a separate document and will be
maintained and available on Blackboard.
2. Class Attendance
While class attendance is not mandatory, it is strongly encouraged. This is a case-based
class and much of the learning takes place during class discussions. In addition, excessive
absences may lead to lower peer evaluation grades, participation grades, and quiz grades.
3. Tardiness
My baseline assumption is that all students will be in class on time. However, if
circumstances cause you to be late I expect you to make every effort to not disrupt the
class. During student presentations, please be courteous and wait to enter the classroom
until the presentation is finished. Students who arrive late for quizzes will not be given
additional time to complete the quiz.
4. Laptops, Phones, Etc.
It is permissible to use a laptop, phone, tablet, etc. during lectures and group discussions
unless they are disruptive to nearby students. Please do not use these devices during case
discussions. If you use these devices during case discussions, you will be subject to cold
calls which will likely impact your participation grade. It is not permissible to use these
devices when your classmates are giving presentations.
5. Student Disability Services
In compliance with university policy, students with disabilities who require accommodations
(academic adjustments and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the
Office for Student Disability Services in DUC A-200 of the Student Success Center in
Downing University Center. The phone number is 270-745-5004. Please do not request
accommodations directly from the professor or instructor without a letter of accommodation
from the Office for Student Disability Services.