Business School

Course Study Guide

2010–11

Global Strategy
BUSI1271
Contents
1. WELCOME ....................................................................................................................................... 3
2. INTRODUCTION TO THE COURSE ............................................................................................... 4
2.1 AIMS ........................................................................................................................................................ 4

2.2 LEARNING OUTCOMES ............................................................................................................................. 4

2.2.1 Knowledge and understanding: ................................................................................................ 4

2.2.2 Intellectual Skills: .................................................................................................................... 5

2.2.3 Subject practical skills: ............................................................................................................ 5

2.2.4 Transferable skills: .................................................................................................................. 5

2.3 LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES ..................................................................................................... 6

3. CONTACT DETAILS ........................................................................................................................ 7

4. COURSE CONTENT ......................................................................................................................... 8
4.1 SESSION READING ................................................................................................................................... 9

5. ASSESSMENT DETAILS ................................................................................................................ 10

5.1 SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT.................................................................................................................... 10

5.2 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ASSESSMENT ............................................................................................... 10

5.3 SOME ADVICE FOR YOUR REFERENCE..................................................................................................... 11

5.4 CRITERIA THAT WILL BE USED FOR MARKING YOUR COURSEWORK........................................................ 13

5.4.1 Criteria for marking the group assignment ......................................................................... 13

5.4.2 Criteria for marking the individual assignment .................................................................... 13

6. OTHER DETAILS ........................................................................................................................... 14

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 2

1. Welcome

Welcome to the interesting, dynamic, and important world of global strategy! In today‟s global
economy, strategy without a global perspective hardly helps businesses; and this is particularly
true when a company competes in a global market. However, strategic thinking with a global
perspective is not only important for business managers but is also crucial for students of
business and management.

When I prepare this course handbook you are constantly in my mind as a highly motivated
student, who is eager and determined to learn as much as possible about global strategy. I
expect you to study this course very hard.

I hope you will find that the course study guide tells everything you need to know about the
course. But if you have any more questions or queries which are not covered in the guide, you
are welcome to approach your tutor who is there to help you.

Finally, I hope you enjoy the course and find it interesting, challenging, and rewarding!

Dr Hantang Qi
Course Leader

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 3

2. Introduction to the Course
Academic research on global strategy came of age during the 1980s, including work by
Michael Porter and Christopher Bartlett & Sumantra Ghoshal. Among the forces perceived to
bring about the globalization of competition were convergence in economic systems and
technological change, especially in information technology, that facilitated and required the
coordination of a multinational firm‟s strategy on a worldwide scale.

Global strategy deals with the question of how firms can compete in a global environment.
Issues considered central to the study of strategic management in a global context cover a wide
range including the nature of global advantage, strategic alliances, competing in emerging
markets, international corporate governance, global knowledge management, and ethical issues
in international business. Due to time limit this course will focus on how firms can strategically
and globally compete in various functional areas. By integrating academic research with
practical examples and case studies the course informs students and managers of global
business about a diverse set of important strategic issues.

2.1 Aims
1. To help students put strategy into perspective relative to other areas of organisational
activity and demonstrate their interconnectedness within the whole.
2. To provide students with the analytical tools needed for the evaluation and comprehension
of the extent to which firms achieve strategic success in comparison with their strategic
objectives.
3. To help managers and potential managers add value to their organisations through the
acquisition of management competencies.
4. To provide participants with knowledge of the tools of strategy formulation.
5. To provide participants with the analytical skills required in order to choose strategic
directions from a range of options.
6. To provide participants with the opportunity to think critically and argue cogently about
strategy implementation.
7. To provide students with the opportunity to analyse and reflect upon organisational
structures and cultures and their degree of strategic suitability or „fit‟.
8. To provide an understanding of various business functions in a global context from a
strategic perspective at both a conceptual and a practical level.

2.2 Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing the course, students will be able to demonstrate knowledge,
understanding, and skills detailed below.

2.2.1 Knowledge and understanding:

 Upon completion of your studies you should be able to

 display an in-depth knowledge of comparative models of Strategic management
 identify and evaluate organisational core competencies
 apply the tools of environmental scanning
 identify the key success factors of an organisation
 evaluate different approaches to strategy formulation

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 4

  evaluate competitive forces in the marketplace
 analyse and evaluate the organisation‟s portfolio of products or services
 identify types of competitive advantage and sustainability
 relate stages of industry life cycle to particular strategic responses
 show how value can be created through diversification
 identify the entry modes of international expansion
 appreciate the nature of business strategy and the dynamics of its development
 reflect in a critical but constructive way on the strategic directions adopted by your firm
 understand global strategy in functional areas of marketing, manufacturing, human
resources accounting and finance.

2.2.2 Intellectual Skills:

BREADTH OF OUTLOOK
The subject matter by its very nature means that you will:
 develop an understanding of the nature of the business in context
 appreciate the importance of a strategic approach in business decision making
 identify key concepts of importance to firms from a general strategic management
perspective
 explore the links between corporate business and operational strategies.

WISDOM
 To take a reflective and reasoned approach to the subject matter
 To take a rational and intellectually substantiated approach to learning
 To value global strategy and its contribution to the firm‟s performance and competitive
position.

PERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS
 To manage the learning relationships developed with peers and academic facilitators
 To manage time in order to participate fully in a supported learning community
 To develop a responsible approach to the implied learning contract that forms the basis
of your learning environment.

2.2.3 Subject practical skills:

 To diagnose an organisation‟s strategic health and offer solutions for sustainable

improvement
 To formulate global strategy for functional areas in a structured way.

2.2.4 Transferable skills:

 Skills of group communication

 The ability to apply conceptual tools drawn from other courses
 Skills of learning how to learn
 The enhancement of cognitive skills and report writing
 Skills of case analysis and evaluation
 Applying a systemic outlook towards organisational processes.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 5

2.3 Learning and teaching activities
The learning experience for this course will be a conventional one. A programme of lectures
and seminars centred around case study material and supported by a main text book and
WebCT support. You will be introduced to the key concepts and models used in the
various stages of strategic management while participating in a multi-cultured learning
community to undertake case study analysis.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 6

3. Contact Details
Room Email address Phone number
Course Leader
Dr Hantang Qi QA208 qh01@gre.ac.uk 020 8331 9867

Admin Programme Coordinator

Sonia Mankad QM245 ms09@gre.ac.uk 0208 331 8815

Please see your programme handbook for more detail.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 7

4. Course Content
Week
Session Title and Description Reading or Preparation
beginning
20-Sep-10 1 Welcome to the course
27-Sep-10 2 Lecture Global Strategy in Globalization Inkpen & Ramaswamy
Seminar Initial meetings, group allocation (2005) Chap 1
4-Oct-10 3 Lecture Strategy of Global Business Inkpen & Ramaswamy
Seminar The Watch Industry Chap 2
11-Oct-10 4 Lecture Country Evaluation and Selection Inkpen & Ramaswamy
Seminar Burger King Beefs up Global Operations (2005) Chap 2, Daniels,
Radebaugh and Sullivan
(2011) Chap 12
18-Oct-10 5 Lecture Exporting and Importing Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar A Little Electronic Magic at Alibaba.com Sullivan (2011) Chap 13
25-Oct-10 6 Lecture Foreign Market Entry Peng (2006) Chap 6,
Seminar Will American Airlines‟ North Atlantic Joint Venture Fly? Daniels, Radebaugh and
Sullivan (2011) Chap 14
1-Nov-10 7 Lecture Global Strategic Alliances Inkpen & Ramaswamy
Seminar Outsourcing Alliances and Competitive Risk (2005) Chap 4, Peng
(2006) Chap 7
8-Nov-10 8 Lecture Organization of Global Business Inkpen & Ramaswamy
Seminar The Search for the Best and Brightest (2005) Chap 3, Daniels,
Radebaugh and Sullivan
(2011) Chap 15
15-Nov-10 9 Lecture Global Strategy for Marketing Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar Avon Calls on Foreign Markets Sullivan (2011) Chap 16
22-Nov -10 10 Lecture Global Strategy for Manufacturing and Supply Chain Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar Ventus and Business Process Outsourcing Sullivan (2011) Chap 17
29-Nov -10 11 Lecture Global Strategy for Accounting Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar The Challenges of Listing on Global Capital Markets and the Sullivan (2011) Chap 18
Move to Adopt International Financial Reporting Standards
6-Dec-10 12 Lecture Global Strategy for Finance Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar Dell Mercosur: Getting Real in Brazil Sullivan (2011) Chap 19
13-Dec-10 13 Lecture Global Strategy for Human Resource Management Daniels, Radebaugh and
Seminar Tel-Comm-Tek (TCT) Sullivan (2011) Chap 20

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 8

4.1 Session Reading
Inkpen, A. C. and K. Ramaswamy (2005) Global Strategy: Creating and Sustaining Advantage across Borders,
Oxford University Press. Oxford.

Peng, M. W. (2006) Global Strategy, Thomson South-Western.

Daniels, J. D., L. H. Radebaugh and D. P. Sullivan (2011) International Business: Environments and Operations
(13th ed.), Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 9

5. Assessment Details
The assessment is in two parts. When we first meet I will put you into group of four if I can
with as much of a multicultural mix as I can sensibly manage. You will then arrange when best
to meet on a regular basis and go about analyzing the MBA market in the UK and two other
countries of your choice which will be the subject of your research and the first assignment.
The second assignment is individually based. While you are not discouraged to meet and
discuss the assignment, you are reminded not to plaigiarize and/or help others plagiarize. Please
refer to your programme handbook for a detailed definition of plagiarism.

PART1: This is a group assignment involving the analysis of the MBA market in the UK and
abroad. You ar given the UK market but will select the markets of two other foreign countries.
The market analysis is the first step of setting up a privately-run business school based in
London but operated globally with an initial focus on the two countries of your choice. The
indicative length of your market analysis is 2500 words.

PART 2: This is an individual assignment involving a business plan aimed to convince

potential investors and to help you actually setting up the business school. However, the
potential investors are not given, therefore at the beginning of the plan you should indicate who
are the likely investors and how you will approach them. The indicative length of your business
plan will be 2500 words.

5.1 Summary of assessment

Assessment Title Weight Pass Length Due Date Return Header Sheet
towards Mark Date #
final grade
Group market analysis 30% 50% 2,500 18.11.10 3PM 15.12.10 172413
Individual business plan 70% 2,500 12.01.11 3PM 02.02.11 172414

5.2 Detailed description of assessment

You are an MBA Director of a business school in a UK university. Having worked for about 20
years in the UK educational system, you now want to challenge yourself by setting up a
privately run business school headquartered in London with a global orientation. The global
orientation can initially mean to recruit students from abroad with a focus on one or two foreign
countries; later it can extend to setting up branches/subsidiaries in the appropriate overseas
markets. Although the planned business school can be designed to run programmes at all levels
(foundation courses, undergraduate and postgraduate), you wish the new business school to
focus on MBA only.

You face with many challenges and it is your task to consider these challenges (what are they
and how you plan to overcome them). To begin with, you have no money and therefore need to
find and convince potential investors. Of course, you produce the two assignments to pass the
course, but only if you treat the assessment as a real life business will you have a chance to get
good results espeically because your business plan will be assessed mainly in terms of
creativity, feasibility and practicality. If you treat the exercise as real, then you should know
your two assignments will serve to convince the potential investors and to guide your actions in
the process of setting up the business school. In other words, you produce the market analysis
and business plan for the investors and for yourself.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 10

Take the Executive Summary of the second assignment for example, to be creative, this should
be a concise “elevator pitch”, not a summary of the business plan. In one or two pages, it
should convey the market opportunity and the uniquely compelling features of the business that
will help it meet that opportunity. The executive summary should excite the investor or the
lender or whoever can be helpful to the new business and make them want to turn to the next
page. If it doesn‟t, you, the entrepreneur, might lack marketing or writing skills.

You are required to write an analysis of the MBA market in the UK and two other countries of
your choice for the potential investors outlining the following: (1) An analysis of the MBA
programmes run in the public universities; (2) An analysis of the MBA programmes run in the
private institutions. I expect you to do an environmental analysis. Paragraphs of miscellaneous
facts from which the implications are not derived are far from enough. The conclusion of your
analysis should convincingly justify there is a need for establishing a new prvitely-run business
school.

You are also required to produce a workable business plan for setting up the new business
school. You may find that what you have written in your first assignment is relevant for your
second assignment but you should only mention the key points without repeating the details.
From reading your business plan I want to know how you will turn the idea of setting up the
new business school into reality taking into account many practical factors. Hence you must do
research. Lists of factors to check are not enough.

In the process of your research, you may find some interesting materials, but please do not
attach them to your assignments unless you feel absolutely necessary. By “necessary” I mean
the attached materials should help the reader further understand the important points that you
are trying to illustrate. Careless and unnecessary attachments will not do you any good in
achieving good marks.

5.3 Some advice for your reference

As this is an MBA-level assessment I do not intend to give you a set format for the two written
assignments – you are expected to know this already or if you don‟t know you are expected to
have the ability to acquire the knowledge yourself. For example, Googling “business plan” or
“business proposal” will give you some ideas of what a business plan/proposal should look
like. You need to make sure your coursework is written in a clearly-structured way covering all
that needs to be covered.

You decide what needs to covered as a matter of research. The advice given below on how to
do well in these assignments is for your reference only – you decide to use or not to use it and
you decide what points are relevan or irrelevant to the first or second assignment.

Phase 1

You are advised to mentally locate the new business school in its environment. This is where
you set the scene and so you should:

 Offer a brief overview of the School (from your own design and research).
 Put the School in its context, which is international or global but based in London. At
this point you will start to use the various analytical tools available to tell me about the

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 11

 environmental opportunities and constraints operating on the School and its Industry
(the MBA market). PESTEL is the usual device. You should also analyse the
characteristics of the industry in which the School has to compete and here you should
employ market segmentation analysis but above all I would expect to see Five Forces
Analysis carried out in some depth.

You could emerge from this phase with a partial SWOT, that is a specification of Opportunities
and Threats.

Phase 2

Now you focus on the school by conducting an internal analysis. Your objective here is to draw
out the capabilities that the new school nees to develop and to do so using well chosen
analytical instruments and models. So consider the following:

 Should the school follow a clear Generic Strategy (Generic Strategies)?

 How should the school respond to its markets (Market Segmentation)?
 What and how knowledge based resources should the school acquire (Core
Competencies)?
 How can the school excel at managing value adding activities (Value Chain Analysis)?
 If the school initially wants to be associated with a larger established institution (an
option you can consider) what part of the product or service portfolio should it be
responsible for (The Boston Matrix)?

In analyzing/designing the school using these instruments (in brackets) you try to draw out the
Key Capabilities that should be acquired/owned by the school within limits. Your aim is to
match the KC‟s (key capabilities ) of the school against the KSF‟s (Key success Factors) of the
industry (derived from analysis in Phase One), i.e. what typical companies in the industry must
excel at to survive.

You should emerge from Phase Two with a valid view of the school‟s level of strategic success
and what it has to do to achieve that success. A good way of closing Phase Two is with the
remaining half of your SWOT analysis, that is a specification of the Strengthes and
Weaknesses.

Somewhere in this Phase you will need to appraise/budget the school‟s financial situation using
well established ratios of outcome and resource utilization to clearly indicate the number of
years needed for the school to break-even. Actually it is important to associate all activities
with resource allocations. As the financial resources are limited, you may wish to think of other
options, like partnership or alliances, in addition to a single new entity.

Phase 3

Phase 3 is about Strategic Options over the foreseeable future; what would you offer? Are you
sure that your proposals clearly emerge from your analysis at Phases 1 and 2, and make sure
they are feasible and can be resourced and implemented.

Take the time to learn how to write a business plan. You can start with any relevant site; the
site mentioned here is just an example: http://www.businessplanmaster.com/how-to-write-a-
business-plan.html.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 12

5.4 Criteria that will be used for marking your coursework

5.4.1 Criteria for marking the group assignment

We will look for clear evidence that the authors have done extensive and in-depth research on
the MBA markets in the UK and abroad. We will also look for quality analysis that can be
applied in the business plan.

Marks Criteria
allocated
20% Focus
Does the assignment focus on the given task? Does the assignment stay within and fulfil the
topic parameters?
30% Synthesis
Does the assignment bring together the literature in a significant manner that addresses the
given task?
30% Soundness
Does the assignment indicate a comprehensive understanding of the topic area and literature
discussed?
10% Clarity of structure
Is the assignment well organised and logically constructed to achieve synthesis while being
mindful of the needs of the reader?
10% Mechanical Soundness
Is the essay clearly written, spell checked and grammatically sound and referenced
appropriately?

5.4.2 Criteria for marking the individual assignment

The viability of the business and the likelihood of its success in the manner proposed are
crucial in evaluating your plan. We will also consider the writing skills and attention to details.

Marks Criteria
allocated
20% Creativity
Is there any new idea in the business plan that is derived from a sound analysis of readings, a
logical, coherent argument and a spark of imagination?
30% Feasibility
Does the plan clearly describe the problem the business is solving or need it is meeting for
potential students, and then propose a solution? Will the solution actually address that
problem/need? Are the financial projections both promising and realistic?
30% Practicality
Are there sound and practical ways of doing things clearly indicated for programme
design, tuition fees, promotion, personal selling, publicity or advertising; and
importantly for association with a good UK university to use it‟s degree?
10% Clarity of structure
Is the plan well organised and logically constructed to achieve synthesis while being mindful
of the needs of the reader?
10% Mechanical Soundness
Is the plan clearly written, spell checked and grammatically sound and referenced
appropriately?

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 13

6. Other Details
The majority of information relevant to you while you study at the University has been brought
together into your programme handbook. Please refer to your programme handbook for any
further information you might require including methods of submitting assignments, advice and
administrative procedures.

BUSI1271: Global Strategy 2010-11 14