V301 International Business Strategy

MAN406 Strategy

Instructor: Dr. Timothy Kiessling
Email: [e-mail]
Office Locale: V301
Class Times: Tuesday 8:40 – 10:30 and Thursday 10:40 – 12:30 (MA 301)

Required Text: Mastering Strategic Management, Dave Ketchen, Jeremy Short
Where to buy: http://students.flatworldknowledge.com/course?cid=1341477&bid=684011

Course Description
This course is about the creation and maintenance of a long-term strategic vision for the firm and formulating a competitive strategy in accordance with that vision. This course builds and assumes understanding by the student on functional business areas such as marketing, accounting, finance, and information systems. To understand how a firm can alter or develop its strategic
2) First step is building the case. Instead of a case prepared for you, you are building your own. This is what steps 5-12 on the Instructors Case Analysis are and should be done first. You cannot identify what the “issues” are until you have built the case study of your firm. The most important first step is “who is your customer” and what is their “Value Proposition”, but then this may change by the end of the analysis.
3) After you have developed your case (steps 5-12), you then need to analyse your case study. You need to identify the top 3 issues that need to be address, and these become your “issues”, and then in your implementation section, you will specifically tell us what you are going to do about them.
4) Ignore what the firm states they are going to do or what they are actually doing. You need to tell us, based upon your case analysis, what they should be doing.
5) The 3-5 issues should contain at least one Proactive issue and one Reactive issue.

due (week 2 or earlier) Students will be assigned their
We discuss all three areas in class.

A: Cut and paste from #7 above. The Driving Forces is what is changing in the industry. Again, apply it to our firm as it assists in the OT of the SWOT. If there is a new government that wants to change the way firms in certain industries are taxed, this will affect us as a Threat (or Opportunity). The Driving Forces of OUR industry typically come from the SBU general characteristics of the Marketplace analysis.
B: The Key Success Factors is what is required by firms in the industry. Focus on this concept: If I wanted to be in this industry today, what must I have to start? For example, manufacturing, economies of scale, etc. The KSF ties directly into the SW of the SWOT. For example, if Brand Image is a KSF, and we are a new firm, then it is a weakness, contrarily if we are IBM, it is a strength.
C: Finally, Porter’s analysis will illustrate strengths (we have the power) and weaknesses (we do not have the power). This analysis assists in the SWOT as well. A good summary paragraph is good for each part of these