Sessions:
Session 1 - WHAT IS STRATEGY
- Reading #1 -- ‘What is Strategy’ - Michael Porter
Session 2 - WHAT IS STRATEGY? A HISTORICAL + CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW
- Reading #1 -- ‘Foundations of Strategy’ - Robert Grant + J
...
Sessions:
Session 1 - WHAT IS STRATEGY
- Reading #1 -- ‘What is Strategy’ - Michael Porter
Session 2 - WHAT IS STRATEGY? A HISTORICAL + CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW
- Reading #1 -- ‘Foundations of Strategy’ - Robert Grant + Judith Jordan
Session 3 - THE ECONOMICS OF A LOW PROFIT INDUSTRY
- Reading #1 -- ‘An economic analysis of a drug selling gang’s finances’
- Reading #2 -- ‘When cartels are cartels, public safety wins’
- Reading #3 -- ‘Why do drug dealers live with their moms’
Session 4 - UNDERSTANDING THE FIVE FORCES
- Reading #1 -- ‘The five forces: competing for profit’
- Reading #2 -- ‘The five forces that shape strategy’
Session 5 - THE ECONOMICS OF A HIGH PROFIT INDUSTRY
- Reading #1 -- Cola Wars: Coke vs. Pepsi
Session 6 - INDUSTRY EVOLUTION + COORS/BREWING
- Reading #1 -- Adolph Coors in the Brewing Industry
Session 7 - COMPETITIVE POSITIONING
- Reading #1 -- ‘Creating competitive advantage’
Session 8 - COMPETITIVE POSITIONING - DIFFERENTIATION + RELATIVE COST ANALYSIS
- Reading #1 -- Analyzing Relative Costs
- Reading #2 -- Ducati
Session 9 - COMPETITIVE POSITIONING + TRADER JOE'S
- Reading #1 -- Trader Joe's
Session 10 - N/A
Session 11 - RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES - OBTAINING + MAINTAINING COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
- Reading #1 -- ‘Internal analysis: resources, capabilities + activities’
- Reading #2 -- The Body Shop
Session 12 - LEADERSHIP (DIS)ADVANTAGE AND SAB TANZANIA
- Reading #1 -- ‘The leaders (Dis)Advantage’
- Reading #2 -- SAB Tanzania
Session 13 - NON MARKET STRATEGY
- Reading #1 -- BU Note on Non-market Strategy
- Reading #2 -- ‘What every CEO should know about non-market strategy’
Session 14 - CORPORATE STRATEGY: CONCEPTS + HORIZONTAL SCOPE
- Reading #1 -- ‘Choosing corporate + global scope’
- Reading #2 -- Apple 2015
- Reading #3 -- ‘From competitive advantage to corporate strategy’
Session 15 - CORPORATE STRATEGY - VERTICAL SCOPE
- Reading #1 -- Disney-Pixar
Session 16 - GLOBAL STRATEGY
- Reading #1 -- ‘Global strategy note’
- Reading #2 -- Competitive Advantage of Nations
- Reading #3 -- LG - Global Strategy in Emerging Markets
Session 17 - LEGO
- Reading #1 -- Lego2
Session 1 - WHAT IS STRATEGY
What is strategy?
- Strategy exists as a field of research and practice:
- In practice, the goal is to enable organizations (typically, firms) to achieve the greatest
possible organizational performance (typically, P)
- In research, the goal is to understand what are the determinants of long-term
organizational performance (with the hope of informing practice)
- Strategy helps coordinate all internal firm activities by giving guidelines to each
function within the firm
Porters View:
- Operational effectiveness
- Refers to the extent to which perform similar activities better than rivals
- Necessary, but not sufficient for L-R competitive advantage
- Strategy
- Refers to performing different activities from rivals or performing them in a different way
- Choose the right configuration of activities, incentives, systems
- Make the right trade-offs
- Strategy rests on unique activities
- Having a strategy that fits the environment!
- A cogent configuration of activities, incentives, systems that supports successful
positioning and makes the right trade-offs
- Competitive Advantage
- Achieving profits above average for industry
- Can only really compare within industry, not across multiple industries
- Ultimately, Porter believes that firms can achieve competitive advantage only if they have both
operational effectiveness and a superior strategy (that fits with the demands of the environment)
Session 2 - WHAT IS STRATEGY? A HISTORICAL + CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW
Strategic Activities Map:
- A strategic activities map is a picture that identifies the key activities of a firm (i.e., their
tradeoffs and the investments that the make) and identifies the linkages between them.
- These can be further linked to costs and customer willingness-to-pay (and, therefore, to firm P as
well)
- The FUNDAMENTAL FACT in Strategy is that profits vary across industry & within industry3
- Some industries have higher ave P than others
- Some firms have higher average P than others these patterns persist over time
- Strategists:
- Explain why industries & firms have Hi or Lo profit
- Help make recommendations to firms about what strategic plans may help improve their
profitability
Robert Grant's definition of strategy:
- Strategy is designed to help the firm use its internal resources and characteristics to deal with its
industry and competitive environment.
Corporate Strategy vs. Business Unit Strategy
- Corporate Strategy refers to decisions regarding the industries and value chain steps in which a
firm competes
- e.g. Should Coach sell hats & shoes as well as purses?
- e.g. Should Mitsubishi sell computers & stereos as well as cars?
- e.g. Should Boston U outsource its admissions office to a private company?
- Business Unit Strategy refers to decisions about how a firm will compete in its various activities
- e.g. Based on cost or differentiation & how it will exploit its resources to achieve these
goals)
- Sources of superior profitability
- What is the difference between strategy and management
- Strategy refers to the unifying themes of the organization
- Management refers to the organization’s specific policies & practices
- Note that management practices should be determined by the firm’s strategy!
Henry Mintzberg: Strategy Design vs. Strategy Emergence4
- It is incomplete to consider Strategy to be something that can simply be designed (analyzed);
instead, it is important to recognize that Strategy emerges and changes over time, regardless of
how carefully it is planned.
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