Postgraduate Course: Strategic Management (MBA) (BUST11213)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course is concerned with the strategic management process. Rarely is the formulation of strategy straightforward. Corporate complexity and market uncertainty often result in messy and sometimes political processes. Consequently, many of the concepts, frameworks and tools that we use often appear very straightforward in theory, but can be difficult to apply in practice. This is because at its heart strategy is a social process, which can be difficult to quantify or to analyse objectively. But, ultimately, it is these social processes that underpin economic performance.
This course is designed to both introduce strategic management to MBA students, and to begin integrating knowledge from your previous learning and experience to identify and address strategic concerns of firms. The first four days is structured around eight overlapping and interweaving key themes. They include strategic leadership, the context of strategic management and society, competitive analysis, strategy in the multi-business firm, disruptive innovation, transformation and renewal and strategic resilience. Each theme is based around a case. For each theme there will be a one hour case discussion, 30-minute lecture on theory, followed by 60 minutes of group discussion and analysis of the case in syndicate groups, and finally, 45 minutes of a case de-brief and Q&A. The first four days is designed to encourage students to reflect on their own experiences and to share them with the rest of the class. The fifth day of the module will comprise of group presentations of a case that has been developed over the module.
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| Course description |
Introduction to the module
Case Discussion: Google Inc.
Lecture 1: Strategic Purpose, Mission, Vision, Values
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case De-brief
Case Discussion: Apple Inc.
Lecture 2: Competitive Analysis
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case De-brief
Case Discussion: Global Climate change and BP
Lecture 3: Strategic Context: Business and Society
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case De-brief
Case Discussion: The Walt Disney Company: the Entertainment King
Lecture 4: Strategy in Multi-business firms
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case De-Brief
Guest Lecture: tba
Case Discussion: Tata Nano - the people's car
Lecture 5: Disruptive Strategy
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case Application: Cirque du Soleil
Case De-brief
Case Discussion: Globalization at Komatsu
Lecture 6: Strategic change and transformation
Syndicate Groups: Application of theory to case
Case Application: Anne Mulcahy: Leading Xerox through the perfect storm
Case De-Brief
Presentations
Live Case Study
Participation Assessment
Guest Lecture: tba
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | For Business School PG students only, or by special permission of the School. Please contact the course secretary. |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
Knowledge and Understanding:
o The complexity of strategic management in firms;
o A knowledge of key concepts associated with strategic management process;
o Different perspectives for managing strategically;
o The current issues being faced by strategic managers.
Cognitive Skills:
o The ability to manage and synthesise relevant information about firms in a clear, sound and explicit way;
o Broad, integrative thinking;
o The ability to use management concepts to produce persuasive conclusions about real firms
o Ability to apply theories and models to new environments and contexts
- Ability to evaluate and critique business theories and models
Subject Specific Skills:
o Ability to analyse complex business situations
o Skills of argument development and persuasion
o Group working and presentation skills
- The ability to communicate analyses and conclusions clearly and persuasively
By the end of the course students will have learned
o Useful approaches of strategic analysis, and their limitations
o Knowledge of strategy alternatives for firms in different contexts
- Different perspectives for managing strategically
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Reading List
Primary Text
Leavy, B. and McKiernan, P. 2009. Strategic Leadership: Governance & Renewal. Palgrave
Secondary Texts
Ackermann, F. and Eden, C. 2011. Making Strategy. Sage
Grant, R. 2010. Contemporary Strategy Analysis. Wiley
Mintzberg, H., Ahlstrand, B. and Lampel, J. (2008). The Strategy Safari. NY: Free Press.
Lecture 1: Strategic Purpose, Mission, Vision, Values
Reading: L&M: 1-67
Lecture 2: Competitive Analysis
Reading: L&M:125-149
Lecture 3: Strategic Context: Business and Society
Reading: L&M: 69-124
Lecture 4: Strategy in Multi-business firms
Reading: L&M: 167-202
Lecture 5: Disruptive Strategy
Reading: 149-166, 203-241
Lecture 6: Strategic change and transformation
Reading: L&M: 243-285
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | MBA StratMngmnt |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Robert Mackay
Tel:
Email: Brad.Mackay@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Kate Ainsworth
Tel: (0131 6)51 3854
Email: Kate.Ainsworth@ed.ac.uk |
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