Course in Strategic Management

In recent years, the group has provided new inputs through its research, teaching and consulting on corporate restructuring, merger activity, competitive strategies and international business. A few optional courses on these are offered and more are planned.

Introduction:

Strategic Management, often called "Management Policy" or nowadays simply 'strategy', is about the direction of organisations, most often, business firms. It includes those subjects that are of primary concerns of senior management, or to anyone seeking reasons of the success and failure among organisations. Firms, if not all organisations, are in competition; competition for factor inputs, competition for customers, and ultimately, competition for revenues that cover the costs of their chosen manner of surviving.

Firms have choices to make if they are to survive. Those which are strategic include: the selection of goals, the choice of products and services to offer; the design and configuration of policies determining how the firm positions itself to compete in product-markets (i.e., competitive strategy); the choice of an appropriate level of scope and diversity; and the design of organization structure, administrative systems and policies used to define and coordinate work. It is a basic proposition of the strategy field that these choices have critical influence on the success or failure of the enterprise, and, that they must be integrated. It is the integration (or reinforcing pattern) among these choices that make the set a strategy.

Course Objectives

The focus of the Strategic Management course is on how to develop effective business and corporate strategies and how to implement these strategies in an organizational context. It analyses factors going into formulation of enterprise strategy by drawing our attention to the determination of long term objectives and goals through identification of opportunities and threats in the environment, critical appraisal of resources within an enterprise and the personal goals and aspirations of managers. This strategic intent must be supported by appropriate resource commitment so as to build and strengthen source of competitive advantage. Thirdly, this long term strategic orientation must be counter balanced with a set of management processes that create flexibility and entrepreneurship, so that the organization can not only cope with increasing environment volatility, but can engineer and exploit changes to its own advantage. Finally, the management must build the multi dimensional organizational capability that is required to cope with the ambiguity and complexity that is generated by its own efforts to achieve diverse and often conflicting goals simultaneously.

The course attempts to integrate functional considerations in corporate decision making situations. The General Manager is a central figure in this process of integration. It is he/she who must manage the context, content and process of these decisions, which ultimately determine the direction of the firm. Environmental forces and the inertia within the organization constrain his/her options and ability to act.

Effective strategic Management is built on careful analysis - of environment, industry, competition, cost, - and a host of other factors that impinge on a company's ability to develop and defend markets. Much progress has been made in developing tools and techniques for such analysis, and we will review many of them. Yet, strategic analysis is meaningless unless it incorporates strategic implementation consideration, and this requires a deep appreciation of organizational structure, systems and processes. During some of the individual sessions, we may focus on either the analytical or the administrative perspective, but our overall objective will be to build the sensitivities and skills that are required to understand the interactions between the two.

Efforts will be made to underline recent changes in the economic environment of Indian business, with a view to understand factors shaping public policy, and the new opportunities and threats to different segments of the industry.

In order to develop an appreciation of the strategic response from Indian business organizations to rapidly changing business and economic scenario, we may invite some CEOs and senior managers from selected group of Indian business organizations. They will be persuaded to speak to the class on their appreciation of these changes and the strategies formulated by their organizations to meet the emerging threats and to seize the new opportunities. Most of these presentations shall be schedules in the evenings in consultation with the colloquia secretary.

Course Organization

The course consists of both lecture sessions and case discussion every week. The case discussions shall be held in each section on the days indicated in the schedule. Any team called out by the instructor will present the cases and the presentations will be graded.

The attendance is compulsory for the case discussion sessions. Though only two or three groups shall be making formal presentations, all others must read and prepare for the case discussion. They are expected to participate in the case discussion after the formal presentation. Quizzes too may be administered on the case(s). These shall be unannounced.

The PGP office will make a set of readings available. Many of these are old articles, but given as they are considered to be classics what have shaped the development of strategic management. Some readings will be put up on the course web. In addition we have been granted permission to use the internet link by Prof. Paul Meising of State University of New York. This link is:
http://www.albany.edu/faculty/pm157/teaching/stratman.html

Course Evaluation:

The final evaluation will be based on quizzes, written examinations, case analysis, class participation, and written assignments. The marks assigned to different tasks are likely to be as indicated below(they may be altered marginally):

Case Analysis & Write up 20%
Quizzes and class tests 10%
Class participation 10%
End Term Exam 60%