Topic

Readings and Cases

What is Strategy?
Course Overview

Lewis, “The Case Study Method of Learning”.

Ghemawat, “Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective”, HBS Press, 1997. A similar version is available online from BHR

Case: Argyle Diamonds

• Video: The Oppenheimer Diamond Empire & Artificial Scarcity (1994)
• Discovery and Mining of the Argyle Deposit

Industry Analysis - Porter's Five Forces

Grant, “The Determinants of Industry Profit”, in ‘Contemporary Strategy Analysis’, Blackwell, 1998, pp54-70.

Skim: Michael E. Porter, “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy,” Harvard Business Review 1979 (pp. 32-41)

Case: Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc (HBS 378-024)

• CCS website
• Collecting cown caps
• crown cap magic

Competitive Positioning via Cost Leadership

Ghemawat & Rivkin, “Creating Competitive Advantage”, HBS Press, 1998.

Case: Honda A. HBS-9-384-049(1989)

Quantitative Exercise - Learning curves (password required)

• Honda ads around 1980
• The Honda Heritage
• Honda CB350
• Recent Honda ad (The Cog)in which 2 of only 6 existing hand-made Accords are taken apart and used .
• Honda Choir: original vs spoof

Competitive Positioning via Differentiation; sustainability.

Porter, M.(1996), What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, p 61-78.

Optional: N.Kumar (2006), Strategies to Fight Low-cost Rivals, Harvard Business Review Dec 84(12):104-112

Optional: Besnahan, Stern and Trajtenberg (1997), "Market Segmentation and the Sources of Rents from Innovation: Personal Computers in the late 1980's", RAND Journal of Economics S17-S44.

Case: Ducati HBS-9-701-132 (2002)

• Ducati Power- how is Ducati positioned in this video?
• Ducati Legacy
• Don't try this at home!
• Ducati Financials 2001
• Ducati info on Wikipedia

Industry Analysis and Positioning: Putting together the ideas from weeks 1-4

Revise the materials covered in sessions 1-4

Optional: Doug Dow, “An Introduction to the 5C's”, 2007(password required)

Optional paper on sustainability : Anita Mcgahan (1999), "Competition, Strategy and Business Performance", California Management Review Vol 41, no 3.

Optional: Misangyi et al (2006), A Multilevel Approach to Industry, Corporate and Business Unit Effects, Strategic Management Journal Vol 27, pp 571-590.

Case: Cola Wars Continue: Coke and Pepsi in 2006. HBS-9-706-447.

• Coke+Mentos=Boom!
• Coke+Pepsi Ad (1995 )and this classic one
• Spy vs Spy
• The Real Dope on Koca Nola
• Pirates make fake Coke & Pepsi
• Wikipedia: Coke , Pepsi
• Financial Info: Coke , Pepsi
• Pepsi overtakes Coke (2005):

Resource Based View - Internal Competencies and Capabilities

Read: Saloner, Shepard & Podolny, “Strategic Management”, 2001, Chapter 3, pp39-53.

Read: Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton, "Having Trouble with your Strategy? Then Map It", Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct 2000.

Skim: Stalk, Evans & Shulman, “Competing on Capabilities”, HBR, 1992.

Optional: Susan Athey and Scott Stern, "An Empirical Framework for Testing Theories About Complementarity", NBER Working Paper . See commentary on O&M and an application to the Auto industry .

Optional: Peteraf (1993), The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View, Strategic Management Journal Vol 14(3), pp 179-191.

Case: Wal*Mart Stores, Inc. HBS-9-794-024.

• Wal*mart- High Cost of Low Price
• Jerry Seinfeld on Supermarkets
• Eddie Izzard on Supermarkets
• Wikipedia: Wal-mart
• Google Finance: Wal-mart
• Wal-mart Investor Information

Technology as a Capability

Skim: Bower, Joseph L.; Christensen, Clayton M..(1995), Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave, Harvard Business Review, Jan/Feb95, Vol. 73 Issue 1, p43-54.

Optional: Zilin He, Kwanghui Lim and Pohkam Wong (2006), "Entry and Competitive Dynamics in the Mobile Telecommunications Market", Research Policy, 20th Anniversary Special Issue of "Profiting from Innovation" by David Teece. Earlier version (IPRIA)

Optional: Gans and Stern (2003), "The Product Market and the 'Market for Ideas': Commercialization Strategies for Technology Entrepreneurs", Research Policy 32(2)

Case: Microsoft Xbox: Changing the Game? HBS-9-707-501(2007)

• Video interview with Seamus Blackley , creator of the Xbox (free)
• Funny Xbox commercial (German)
• Seamus on cnet
• Wikipedia: Xbox
• Xbox & EA
• An enthusiast's review of the xbox (2001)
• Steve Ballmer (CEO, Msoft) believes developers are valuable Comp Assets . Here's the video

Resource Based View- Acquiring New Capabilities

Read: Rahul Kapoor and Kwanghui Lim (2007), "The Impact of Acquisitions on the Innovation Performance of Inventors at Semiconductor Companies". Forthcoming, Academy of Management Journal (passwd needed)

Skim: Hsu-Lim paper on knowledge bridging.

Optional: Coyne, K.P. (1997), Is Your Core Competence A Mirage? McKinsey Quarterly, pp 40-56.

Case: The New HP: The Clean Room and Beyond. HBS-9-404-064(2004)

Capabilities

• Wow - someone amazing. When you lack some resources, innovate to develop new capabilities!

HP-Compaq

• HP-Compaq post-merger
• HP-Compaq 5 yrs on
• knowledge@wharton on the merger

Game Theoretic Approach

Read: Brandenburger and Nalebuff, "The Right Game: Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review (July-Aug 1995).

Review: the book Co-opetition by Nalebuff & Brandenburger (1996) which you read in Managerial Economics.

Optional paper on rivalry : Ming-jer Chen, Kuo-Hsien Su and Wenpin Tsai (2007), "Competitive Tension: The Awareness-Motivation-Capability Perspective", Acad of Mgt Journal.

Case: Google, Inc. HBS-9-806-105(2006).

Game Theory and Strategy:

• Joshua Gan's Economics Blog
• War Games And Business Strategy (Economist.com)
• Bob Gibbons (MIT):

Google Case:

• Larry Page's Keynote address at CES 2006
• Google Inside Look Video and Factory Tour
• Life at Google - The Microsoftie Perspective
• Two Giants but they aren't twins (NYtimes)
• Search Engine Strategy- interview with Avinash Kaushik (Google Analytics )
• Google Adsense Optimization

Game Theoretic Approach

For a great introduction or a quick revision, visit Joshua's website on Game Theory and Strategic Thinking

Read: Erhun & Keskinochak (2003), Game Theory in Business Applications, Stanford Working Paper

Case: Bitter Competition A. HBS-9-794-079(2000)

Game Theory and Strategy (also see above):

• Gametheory.net
• Intro by Dixit and Nalebuff
• Intro notes and Boeing/Airbus Example by Nicholas Economides
• Ramon Casadesus-Masanell: interesting examples (Wintel, itunes vs filesharing, microsoft vs opensource)
• MIT- McAdams (15.040)

Duncan Bucknell, Introduction to Strategic issues in managing Intellectual Property. Brought to you by MBS and IPRIA.

Ric Lamont, Applying Business Strategy in managing Information Technology at MBS

Review & Discussion of the Syndicate-based case writeup (with examples from your submissions)

• Duncan Bucknell
• IP Australia: intro to patents, trademarks, designs
• Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (ipria.org)
• WIPO

Ric Lamont, Applying Business Strategy in managing Information Technology at MBS

Review & Discussion of the Syndicate-based case writeup (with examples from your submissions)

Kwanghui Lim, Introduction to Managing Intellectual Property.

• IP Australia: intro to patents, trademarks, designs
• Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (ipria.org)
• WIPO

Summary and Review, Implementation.

Hamel & Prahalad, “Strategic Intent”, HBR, 1989.

Review: Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton, "Having Trouble with your Strategy? Then Map It", Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct 2000.

Read: Mintzberg, “Crafting Strategy”, HBR, 1996.

Q&A on topics covered this semester

• Steve Jobs discusses the path dependent nature of his becoming a CEO
• Jeff Bezos, Amazon
• Bill Greene, Accenture CEO
• Akamai: From Theory to Practice

Rescheduled