Undergraduate Course: Strategic Management (CMSE10002)
Course Outline
| School | Business School |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | Building on your studies of particular functional areas of the firm, strategic management deals with the direction of the business and considers how its management might affect change. The course is taught and assessed in part through case studies, to develop your skills for conducting a strategic analysis of a business unit or significant issue within a firm so you can learn to formulate recommendations based on this analysis, and communicate these recommendations persuasively. These skills are essential for gaining advantage in your job application process and in your future careers.
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| Course description |
Coursework in the form of live hands-on projects within companies is the defining feature of the course. This enables you to investigate, analyse and present recommendations on, a strategic consulting project for the manager of a multinational, national or regional business. Senior executives will brief you on the challenges and the backgrounds to the projects in order to get you started, and you will be allocated to particular company projects and student teams, with a number of teams working in parallel on each project. You will also be supported and advised by practicing management consultants from one of the world's leading consulting companies, as well as by professionals from one of the world's leading banks. They will make you aware of what is expected of your presentations and reports and provide you with tips to shape your approach, as both are important parts of the assessment.
Student Learning Experience
The course uses a combination of lectures by the Course Organizer, guest lecture inputs, and case study tutorials to help develop your individual and team-level analytic, presentational, and report writing skills. There is a single two-hour lecture and a one hour small group tutorial or seminar most weeks. Importantly, you will also be allocated to teams and expected to contribute as a team member in tutorials and on the assessed team project. Your individual and team learning will be assessed through four activities: pre-class tests; team corporate ¿challenge¿ presentation and written report; and a case-based examination. The four learning outcomes for the Course have been mapped against these four means of assessment (available in the Course Handbook).
As detailed below (see ¿Recent Developments¿), this year pre-class tests have been introduced requiring you to read sections of the Course Text (made readily available to you online to save you from having to purchase it) and some articles, each week, as well as watch some carefully chosen short videos, before each lecture. These tests contribute to your assessed mark and completing them upfront will help you to learn in a very different way: by assimilating concepts; enabling you to participate more effectively in lectures so your understanding can be refined; and the immediate access to video material on real issues being addressed by ¿C-suite¿ executives (i.e. ¿Chiefs¿ and heads of functions) will deepen your understanding as you progress. The videos are also important for enriching your thinking and answers, and giving you ideas you can potentially deploy in case studies in tutorials and team-level assessed Company Projects.
Companies will brief the class on their projects in week two, and at that point you will be allocated to projects in teams of five people and will be expected to work on them during the course to apply your learning. You will be assessed on this via a team presentation in the penultimate week, and a written report submitted a week later. There is also an Examination on the course during the exam diet in December.
The course is capped off with a lunch and a prize-giving for the best reports and presentations generously sponsored by EY (Ernst & Young) and RBS (Royal Bank of Scotland).
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | Business Studies Honours entry. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Business Studies courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2018/19, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Lecture Hours 20,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 8,
Summative Assessment Hours 2,
Revision Session Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
164 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
60 %,
Coursework
30 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
There are four elements of assessment:
(a) pre-class online weekly tests (10% of marks);
(b) 'Challenge Project' (40%, including team coursework presentation worth 10% and written report worth 30%);
and (c) examination (50%).
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| Feedback |
Generic feedback on your coursework, together with individual marks, will be available via Learn. You will also be able to review your individual feedback electronically via Grademark on Learn.
Your examination marks will be posted on Learn (together with generic feedback and examination statistics) as soon as possible after the Boards of Examiners meeting (normally end of January/beginning of February). You will have the opportunity to look at your examination scripts in early February in the UG Office (Room 1.11, Business School, 29 Buccleuch Place). Note that you will not be able to remove any examination scripts from the UG Office as they may be required by the Board of Examiners. |
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
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| Main Exam Diet S1 (December) | | 2:00 | |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Understand and discuss critically conceptual tools and frameworks in Strategic Management.
- Understand and apply a method for conducting a strategic analysis of a firm.
- Research information, identify & analyse key issues in strategic management relating to a specified case.
- Construct a coherent and professional strategic report, with professional presentation of ideas.
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Reading List
Set Text
The course relies on a selection of textbook chapters and articles. The core textbook for the coursewill be made available online before the start of the Course. Details will be given on Learn.
The set text is:
Grant, Robert, M. (2016), Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 9th edition. Wiley: UK.
HD30.28 Gra.
Additional articles
A small number of articles allied to each lecture will be placed on Learn for you to read and digest.
Other Reserved materials
Several texts to supplement Grant have been made available via the Course Reserve List in the University Library:
Dess, Gregory G., Lumpkin, G. T. and Taylor, M.L. (2004) Strategic Management: Text and cases.
McGraw-Hill: Boston (Mass). HD30.28 Des.
Harrison, Jeffrey S. (2003) Strategic Management of Resources and Relationships: Concepts.
Wiley: New York. HD30.28 Har.
Hitt, Michael A., Ireland, R. D. and Hoskisson, R.E. (2005) Strategic Management: Competitiveness and Globalization. Thomson. HD30.28 Hit.
Mintzberg, H. et al (2003) The Strategy Process: Concepts, Contexts, Cases. Prentice Hall: New York. HD30.28 Min.
International Business BS0037
Globalisation and Trade BS0038
Business and Multinational Enterprise BS
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Knowledge and Understanding:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
*Understand the complexity of strategic management
*Understand the traditional approaches of strategic analysis
*Know the main tools of strategy analysis and their limitations
*Understand the different perspectives for managing the strategic development of businesses
Cognitive Skills:
After completing this course, students should be able to:
*Manage and analyse relevant information about firms in a clear, sound and explicit way.
*Use conceptual ideas to develop persuasive and useful business arguments.
*Apply strategy theories and models to complex new environments and contexts
*Participate in team working
*Communicate analyses and conclusions clearly and persuasively
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| Additional Class Delivery Information |
2 hour lecture per week
1 hour(s) tutorial per week for 8 week(s) |
| Keywords | SM |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Prof Ian Clarke
Tel: (0131 6)50 9505
Email: Ian.Clarke@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Laura Karpyte
Tel: (0131 6)51 5009
Email: Laura.Karpyte@ed.ac.uk |
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