BPS 6310 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

COURSE INFORMATION

6310-MBC Strategic Management

Summer 2008
Room
Monday 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM

PROFESSOR CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. David Deeds Phone: 972.883.5904 Office: SOM 4.204

Email: david.deeds@utdallas.edu Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM.

COURSE PRE-REQUISITES, CO-REQUISITES, AND/OR OTHER RESTRICTIONS

OB6301, MKT 6301, AIM6201, AIM 6202, FIN 6301

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Strategic Management (SM) uses the case method to examine how general managers create and maintain
competitive advantage for organizations. SM considers how managers determine strategic direction and
manage the strategy process. Recognizing that most general management decisions are inherently multi-
functional in nature, we employ explicit frameworks for strategic action while also integrating lessons from
functional area courses to explore and reconcile the tensions that accompany decisions that involve the entire
enterprise.

STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES/OUTCOMES

1. Understand the nature of strategic competitiveness and develop the ability to analyze the competitive
environment facing a firm, assess the attractiveness of the industry and isolate potential sources of
competitive advantage and disadvantage.

2. Integrate knowledge and apply analytical techniques from various disciplines, including finance,
accounting, marketing, economics, operations, organization theory and organizational behavior. The
goal is to identify and analyze strategic issues and develop solutions in the form of actionable plans with
the purpose of developing and sustaining competitive advantage.

3. Discriminate among the types of data that general managers need to evaluate alternative scenarios.
Develop logical, coherent and persuasive analyses for a desired course of action. Consider how to
effectively implement plans within the constraints imposed by the complex behavior of individuals
within organizations. Each student should be able to effectively communicate his or her conclusions in
both oral and written form.

4. Develop the ability to view the corporation as a whole, assess it in relation to business unit goals and
objectives.

5. Integrate ethics and social responsibility into the strategic decision making process and understand the
role of ethics in the management of the firm.

1
REQUIREMENTS AND EVALUATION CRITERIA

Midterm Exam 15%

Case Discussions 30%
Group Project & Presentation 35%
Final Exam 20%

Total 100%

CASE DISCUSSION GRADE

Most of your learning will occur in preparation for and participating in the case discussions. To enhance
your preparation and learning, I strongly encourage you to form study groups to discuss the cases prior
to class. To guide you in your preparation, this syllabus includes discussion questions for each case.

the complexity of the course material relies heavily on discussion learning. This process allows the
cumulative insights of your colleagues to contribute to the evolution of the class’s learning. Thus, the entire
class learning experience relies on each of you taking responsibility for contributing to the discussion. In
order to do so, it is imperative that each of you be present and be fully prepared each day.

In order to emphasize the necessity to be prepared for and to contribute to each class, class participation will
comprise a significant portion of your grade (30%). As is the case with real world work environments, you
are judged not by what you know but by what you contribute. Even if you feel that you know the
material, unless you share your insights with the class, I cannot adequately evaluate your
preparedness and contribution. Students are never penalized for making comments which don’t appear to
be the “right answer”. It is only through consideration of many diverse opinions and viewpoints that we will
move toward a greater shared understanding of the multi-dimensional material which this course entails.

Each day, I will ask one or more individuals to “open” the case with a summary of the key issues along with
his or her analysis of those issues. It is important that each of you be prepared to respond to the invitation to
open the discussion. In the unlikely event that you are not prepared for class, then please let me know
beforehand so that I might spare both of us the embarrassment of my calling on you. You should be able to
identify the key issues, problems and opportunities facing the central case protagonists, to articulate and
evaluate alternative approaches to problems, and to describe the course of action that you recommend and
the reasons for yours recommendations. I may begin the discussion with one of the questions in the syllabus
or with another question.

It is important to appreciate that every student is an important cog in the class discussion, and that it is
equally important that each of us listen carefully to one another and attempt to build on or constructively
critique prior comments. Please resist the temptation to jump to topics that are not specifically open for
discussion. Some of the specific things that will have an impact on effective class participation and on
which you will be evaluated include:

Is the participant a good listener?

Are the points made relevant to the discussion? Are they linked to the comments of
others and to the themes that the class is exploring together?

2
 Do the comments add to our understanding of the situation? Are they incisive? Do they
cut to the core of the problem?

Is there a willingness to challenge the ideas that are being expressed?

Is there a willingness to test new ideas, or are all comments “safe”? (For example,
repetition of case facts without analysis or conclusions, or repeating comments already
been made by someone else.)

Does the participant integrate material from past classes or the readings where
appropriate? Do the comments reflect cumulative learning over the course and the MBA
curriculum, or does the participant merely consider each case in isolation?

GROUP PROJECT & PRESENTATION: WRITING A CASE, A TEACHING NOTE AND

LEADING A DISCUSSION OF THE CASE

This project involves writing a case (or short cases) which can be used in future Strategic Management
courses and two presentations. The first presentation will be 10 minutes and provide an overview of the
external environment in which the company operates and the company’s business, corporate and
international strategies. The second will be 20 minutes and will highlight a current strategic issue/challenge
facing the company, your analysis of the situation and your solution.

All team members must equally contribute to the project. I will be available throughout the semester to work
with you in an advisory capacity. Students will work in five/six person groups and select the corporation or
business they wish to study. There will be a maximum of 8 groups per section.

Project Objectives
The objective of the project is to develop a case that can be used in the classroom to provide insight into the
concepts/framework that we use for strategic analysis. To write a good case the following is helpful.

1. A good case has a fairly concrete strategic problem/issue/challenge as it focus. This challenge is one
that needs to be addressed by the company and its management. Examples may include responding
to a new competitor, responding to changing environmental conditions, acquiring a company or
companies, entering new product or geographic markets, continuing or discontinuing a project,
strategy or product line or perhaps reorganizing the operation and/or closing plants and facilities.

2. You have to do a thorough analysis. This means you have to be comprehensive in discussing all the
strategic issues that are important and only those that are important. The broad framework developed
in class should be used as an overall guide and not as "fill-in-the-blanks." A good analysis should be
able to justify the conclusion by providing suitable examples. Avoid generic statements like ‘high
quality,’ or ‘good customer services’ are the core competencies, be specific. You need to tell me
what exactly is high quality in the context of the firm that you are studying or what type of customer
service is valued.

3. To a large extent the quality of the case will depend on the data that you gather through research
(some companies may not make interesting cases but these would be rare).

a. Support your report with as much "hard data" as possible.

b. Try to distinguish between public relations statements (internal company documents),
objective evidence, and inferences and conclusions which you draw.

3
 c. Sources of data should be identified through footnotes.

4. Once you have done the research you should write the case as a description of the company's
strategy and the environment in which it is functioning. The case should contain all the data that you
deem to be relevant as well as data that you feel are not pertinent to the analysis but are generally
available to the management. Your case must include at least each of the following:

a. A detailed description of the key competitors and their strategies

b. A description (not analysis) of the strategy of the firm
c. A description of the major drivers of price, cost & volume of the industry in which your firm
operates.

5. The teaching note should provide a detailed analysis of the current situation, potential solutions and
your recommendations including implementation. It should include both numerical and qualitative
analyses of the company’s current situation in support of your recommendations. It should also
include suggested study questions (4-5) and answers to those questions. Every major point that you
make in the analysis should be based on data in the case and you should indicate where in the case
such data can be found. This means that you may have to revise the case to make sure that the
reader has enough information to do the same analysis that you have done.

a. Provide insight into the success or failure (or anything in between) of the strategy of the firm
or why changes are taking place in an industry.
b. Use the concepts developed in class to provide insights.
c. The purpose of the analysis is to provide a road map for the instructor.
i. Start with a set of assignment questions which would help the student in identifying
the issues that you think are important.
i. Develop “answers” (really discussion issues) to these questions

Selection of a Firm(s) or Industry

After forming your group, you should select the target company for your study. Be sure there is adequate
information available to support an in-depth analysis. In order to reduce the demand for data on particular
companies, no more than one team should study a particular firm. In order to ensure the availability of data
students need to select publicly traded companies listed on one of the major American exchanges.

Guide for Presentations:

1. Presentation #1 should focus on concisely presenting the current situation of your company.
2. The Final Presentation should focus on your analysis of the current situation, positions, challenges,
etc and the development of a strategy to address these issues.
3. Presentations should be professional. This means no typos or errors in overheads. Clear easy to read
overheads and a well-organized presentation.

4
 SCHEDULE
Date Topics Readings & Cases
5/26 Introduction & External READINGS
Analysis Dess Chapter #1 , #2 & #14
Porter, “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”,
Harvard Business Review, Mar/Apr, 1979*

6/2 Internal Analysis READINGS

Dess Chapter #3
Barney, “Looking Inside for Competitive Advantage”,
Academy of Management Executive*

CASE 1: COORS
CLASS PREPARATION:
Using the figures from Exhibit 9 in the case, construct a
simple income statement down to the level of operating
income on a per barrel basis for both Coors and
Anheuser-Busch for 1977 and 1985. Consider price,
COGS, advertising and SG&A expenses (all on a per
barrel basis for your comparison). Compare the two
brewers in each period and look carefully at the net
changes from 1977 to 1985 for each brewer.

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. What factors accounted for Coors’ competitive
advantage in the mid-1970s?
2. Why did the brewing industry consolidate?
3. Why has Coors’ performance deteriorated?

CASE 2: CROWN CORK & SEAL

CLASS PREPARATION:
Complete the industry matrix on Web-CT for CC&S

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. What are the key strategic issues that Avery needs
to consider? What strategic options are open to
him?
2. If we are going to analyze the industry that Crown
Cork competes in, what is the appropriate industry
to analyze?
3. How attractive has the metal container industry
been over the years?
4. How well did Crown Cork do under John
Connelly?
5. What significant changes are taking place in the
industry? How should the new CEO Bill Avery
respond?

5
6/9 Knowledge & Skills READINGS
Dess Chapter #4 & #8
Prahalad & Hamel, “The Core Competence of the
Corporation”, Harvard Business Review, May/June
1990*

CASE 3: APPLE 2006

CLASS PREPARATION:
Using the information in the case determine the share of
revenues and profits being generated by Desktops,
Portables, Music (total) and Other

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. Historically, what have been Apple’s major
competitive advantages?
2. How have the dynamics of the PC Industry changed
over the last 15 years?
3. Has i-pod finally solved Apple’s long standing
problems? Is it truly different? Does it have a
sustainable competitive advantage?

CASE 4: READY TO EAT BREAKFAST CEREAL

CLASS PREPARATION
How do the cost structures of private label and branded
cereal manufacturers differ? Complete the value chains
on Web-CT to estimate the margins for the branded
versus the private label competitors.

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. Why has RTE cereal been such a profitable
business?
2. What changes have led to the current industry
crisis?
3. Why have private labels been able to enter this
industry successfully?
4. How do the cost structures of private label and
branded cereal manufacturers differ?
5. What does General Mills hope to accomplish
with its April 1994 reduction in trade promotions
and prices?
6. What are the risks associated with these actions?
7. How do you expect General Mills’ competitors to
respond?
8. What should General Mills do?

6/16 Business Level Strategy READINGS

Dess Chapter #5
Porter, “What Is Strategy?”
Harvard Business Review, Nov/Dec, 1996*

CASE 5: WAL-MART, INC

6
 PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. What are the sources of Wal-Mart’s competitive
advantage in discount retailing?
2. How sustainable will their position in discount
retailing be in the future?
3. How successful will their diversification into the food
industry be?

CASE 6: MATCHING DELL

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:

1. How and why did the personal computer industry

evolve into this situation?
2. Why has Dell been so successful?
3. Prior to the recent efforts by competitors to match
Dell (1997-1998), how big was Dell’s competitive
advantage?
4. How effective have competitors been in
responding to the challenge posed by Dell’s
advantage? Who has done the worst job of
responding to Dell?
5. What roles do HP and Gateway play in these
dynamics?
6. How effective have various attempts to catch Dell
been so far?

6/23 Corporate Level Strategy READINGS

International Strategy Dess Chapter #6 & #7

CASE 7: NEWELL CORPORATION

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. Does Newell have a corporate strategy? Does
Newell add value to the compnaies in its
portfolio? How?
2. What are Newell’s distinctive competencies?
3. What challenges faced the company in the late
1990’s?
4. Does the acquisition of Calphalon make sense?
Rubbermaid?

CASE 8: JOLLIBEE FOODS

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. How was Jollibee able to build its competitive
advantage in it home market? What competitive
advantages was it able to develop against
McDonald’s in it home market?
2. How would you evaluate Kitchner’s
effectiveness as the first head of Jollibee’s
international division? Does his broad strategic

7
 thrust make sense?
3. How effectively did Kitchner develop the
organization’s capabilities to implement his
plans?
4. As Noli Tingzon, How would you deal with the
three options facing you? How would you
implement your decision?

6/30 Midterm Exam

Group Presentation #1
7/7 Organizational Dess Chapter #9, #10,
Governance and Design
Kerr, “On the Folly of Rewarding A, while Hoping for
B”, Academy of Management Executive, Feb 1995 &
“More on the Folly- Executive Fax Poll Results”, AME,
Feb 1995*

CASE 9: LINCOLN ELECTRIC

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. How would you describe Lincoln Electric’s
approach to the organization and motivation of
their employees?
2. What role do you think this approach has played
in Lincoln’s performance over the last 25 years?
Have any other factors been more important?
3. What factors will be critical to Lincoln’s
continued success? What recommendations
would you make to Mr. Willis?
4. What is the applicability of Lincoln’s approach to
motivation to other companies and situations?
Why don’t more companies operate like Lincoln?

CASE 10: ECOLAB, INC

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. What are the principal reasons for Ecolab’s
leadership position in the institutional cleaning
business?
2. In what ways could Diversey challenge Ecolab’s
industry leadership?
3. What should Schuman do to ensure that Ecolab
faces such challenges forcefully?
4. How should Schuman manage the emerging
tumult within the Institutional Division?

7/14 Strategic Leadership Dess Chapter #11 & #12

Kotter, “What Leaders Really Do”, Harvard Business
Review, May/June 1990*

8
 CASE 11: GE’S TWO DECADE
TRANSFORMATION: JACK WELCH’S
LEADERSHIP

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. How difficult a challenge did Welch face in
1981? How effectively did he take charge?
2. What is Welch’s objective in the series of
initiatives he launched in the late 1980s and
1990?
3. How does such a large, complex diversified
conglomerate defy the critics and continue grow
so profitably?
4. What is your evaluation of Welch’s management
approach? How important is he to GE’s success?
5. What implications are there for his replacement?
6. What is it that you learned, if anything, from the
experience of Jack Welch?

CASE 12: GE’S TALENT MACHINE: THE

MAKING OF A CEO

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. While other companies have difficulty producing
CEO candidates GE had managed to produce a
surplus of CEO talent. How have they managed it?
2. How generalizable are GE’s practice to other
organizations? Cultures? Industries?
3. Is it time for Immelt to tune up or even overhaul
GE’s management training policies and procedures?
Specifically how would you deal with proposes to
change the vitality curve? MBA recruiting?
International recruiting? The Executive bands?
4. What lessons do you take from the case? Whether
you view it as positive or negative how has this
training process come to be viewed as a competitive
advantage for GE?
7/21 Corporate Social Porter & Kramer “Strategy and Society: The Link
Responsibility Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social
Responsibility” Harvard Business Review, December
2006*

CASE 13: MANAGING PRODUCT SAFETY: THE

FORD PINTO

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. Is it simply that Ford was in the wrong place at
the wrong time as management seems to believe?
2. Should Ford ‘fight hard’ for the Pinto? Why?
Why not?
3. What role did the ‘limits of 2000’ and the time

9
 pressure have in creating the current situation?
4. The Pinto fires had serious adverse consequences
for Ford, was their analysis flawed? How? Why?
5. What are the lessons to be learned from Ford’s
experiences?

CASE 14: STARBUCKS AND CONSERVATION

INTERNATIONAL

PREPARATION QUESTIONS:
1. Does it make business sense for Starbucks to
partner with Conservation International? What’s
the benefit of dealing with small farmers in
Southern Mexico?
2. Why not just contribute to CI and be done with
it?
3. Is CI being exploited by Starbucks? What
benefits do they see from the collaboration?
1. How productive has the Starbucks CI
partnership been in Chiapas? What explains
the outcomes?
7/28 Final Case Presentations
8/4 Final Exam

* These readings are available in full text .pdf files through the UT Dallas Library.

10