Contribución de la asignatura al programa
Welcome to The Business Strategy Game! You take over the management of a company that is in sound financial condition, is performing well, and its brand is well-regarded. Your company's board of directors has charged you with developing a winning competitive strategy, one that capitalizes on continuing consumer interest in athletic footwear, keeps the company in the ranks of the industry leaders, and increases the company's earnings year-after-year.
Strategic management is a field of study concerned with developing understanding of why some firms are more successful than others. To be successful, the firm's strategy must permeate all departments and functional areas. As such, this course integrates knowledge and skills gained from your prior studies (e.g., strategy, marketing, management, finance, accounting...). To advance students' comprehension of how a company could potentially outperform its rivals, you and your co-managers will take over the operation of an athletic footwear company that is in a neck-and-neck race for global market leadership, competing against rival athletic footwear companies run by other class members.
In this course, our focus will be on business-level as well as corporate-level and global-level strategy. Rather than viewing the firm as simply operating in a single business in a single geographic region, we also analyze the strategic options available to multi-divisional, multi-national firms. In drawing on these tools, we explicitly apply a general management point of view - we will analyze strategies in light of the total enterprise.
Moreover, because of the limitations of static analysis in the real world, the course underlines the dynamic nature of effective strategy formulation and implementation. This shifts the emphasis from generic strategies of cost leadership and differentiation based on industry analysis (i.e, Porterian approaches) to strategies that managers should develop for resource and knowledge building, entrepreneurship, leadership, innovation, and learning.
A key focus in the course is on firm-specific unique resources and competences and their deployment for improving company performance. The purpose is not to inflict new theory or new buzzwords, but instead to make you use what you know to address business problems. Pedagogically, this course draws heavily on the simulation and experiential exercises to develop a deeper understanding of strategic management. It is recognized that a firm does not only have tangible assets, such as capital and technology, but also non-tangible assets such social and emotional capital. Students are prepared for a strategy career by discussing how both types of resources could be harnessed for competitive advantage. Because a strategy can only produce results if properly implemented, the course familiarizes students with issues of control and corporate-governance. A good understanding of these is essential to effectively align the interests of owners, managers and employees.
Objetivos de aprendizaje de la asignatura
This course has two main learning objectives, supported by numerous supplementary ones:
- To design and implement a business strategy to compete in a dynamic competitive environment
- To diagnose the reasons for good or bad performance and formulate strategies that lead to (sustainable) competitive advantage.
Supplementary learning objectives are:
- To develop a thorough understanding of the principal frameworks and concepts linked to strategy formulation (both at the business- and global-levels) and strategy implementation
- To understand how organizations can create a competitive advantage
- To critically analyze the details of your company's performance and assorted financial and operating statistics and interpret their contributions for the strategies developed by your company. As this course aims to provide students with the knowledge and skills they require to understand and apply them to real life cases, it is essential that preparation, attendance, and in-class contributions are prioritized
- To practice presentation (reflect what went wrong, elaborate on the mistakes) and teamworking skills
- To translate strategy into action
Furthermore, this course will focus on the development of the following skills:
- problem solving;
- effective teamwork;
- academic reasoning and working;
- oral presentation skills.
