Week |
Dates |
Topic |
Readings and Cases
|
Optional & Fun |
1 |
31 Jan &
1 Feb |
What is Strategy?
Course Overview |
Lewis, “The Case Study Method of Learning”.
Richard Koch, Introduction to The Financial Times guide to Strategy, 2nd Ed.
Case: Argyle Diamonds
|
- Video: The Oppenheimer Diamond Empire & Artificial Scarcity (1994)
- Discovery and Mining of the Argyle Deposit
- Optional: Ghemawat, “Competition and Business Strategy in Historical Perspective”, HBS Press, 1997.
|
2 |
7 & 8 Feb |
Vision, Mission and Articulating your Strategy |
Collis + Rukstad, Can you say what your Strategy Is, HBR, April 2008
Thompson & Strickland, "Establishing Company Direction", Chapter 2 of Strategic Management Concepts and Cases, pp 31-41 only.
The McKinsey Mind, Chapter 1.
Case: Narayana Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital. An older version of the case is available online at the hospital's website. |
- Steve Jobs discusses the path dependent nature of his becoming a CEO
- Jeff Bezos, Amazon
- Akamai: From Theory to Practice
|
Industry Analysis |
3 |
14 & 15 Feb |
Industry Analysis - Porter's Five Forces |
Grant, “Industry Analysis: The Fundamentals”, Chapter 3 in ‘Contemporary Strategy Analysis’, 6th Edition.
Ghemawat & Rivkin, “Creating Competitive Advantage”, HBS 9-798-062.
Case: Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc (HBS 378-024)
(HAND OUT SYNDICATE ASSIGNMENT) |
- Video interview with Michael Porter
- CCS website
|
4 |
21 & 22 Feb |
Competitive Positioning via Cost Leadership |
Besanko, et al., Strategic Positioning for Competitive Advantage, Chapter 11 in Economics of Strategy, 4th Edition. Only pages 343 – 378.
revisit Ghemawat & Rivkin from last week.
Optional: Argote & Epple (1990), article in Science on Experience Curves.
Case: Honda A. HBS-9-384-049(1989)
Optional: Quantitative Exercise - Learning curves (download from LMS)
|
Honda
- Honda adverts
- 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
Optional Articles:
- Wikipedia on Learning and Experience Curves.
- Economies of Scale: see Sharon Oster's book on Modern Competitive Analysis.
|
5 |
28 Feb & 1 Mar |
Competitive Positioning via Differentiation |
There is only 1 new article and 1 case this week. This should give you a bit of time to spend on getting started with your syndicate assignment.
Review Besanko (from last week), section on Differentiation
N.Kumar (2006), Strategies to Fight Low-cost Rivals, Harvard Business Review Dec 84(12):104-112.
Case: Ducati: In Pursuit of Magic (A). IESE Case 168 by Mitchell & Cassiman
|
Ducati
- Ducati Legacy
- Don't try this at home!
- Ducati Financials 2001
- Ducati info on Wikipedia
Advanced: Saloner, Shepard and Podolny book: Appendix of Chap. 7, A model of product differentiation. |
6 |
7 & 8 Mar |
Game Theoretic Approach |
Joshua Gans, Game Theory Chapter 5.
Brandenburger and Nalebuff, "The Right Game: Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy", Harvard Business Review (July-Aug 1995).
Case: Google, Inc. HBS-9-910-036(2009).
Optional: Google's Innovation Machine, HBR April 2008
|
Optional:
- Erhun & Keskinochak (2003), Game Theory in Business Applications, Stanford Working Paper, pp 1-35 only.
- Traveller's Dillema, Scientific American, 2007.
- Gametheory.net
- Boeing/Airbus Example by Nicholas Economides
- Ramon Casadesus-Masanell: interesting examples (Wintel, itunes vs filesharing, microsoft vs opensource)
Game Theory and Strategy:
- Core Economics
- War Games And Business Strategy (Economist.com)
- Bob Gibbons (MIT):
- Intro by Dixit and Nalebuff
|
Resources and Capabilities. |
7 |
14 & 15 Mar |
Resource Based View - Internal Competencies and Capabilities
|
Hoskisson, Hitt and Ireland, "The Internal Organization", Chapter 4 of Competing for Advantage.
Stalk, Evans and Shulman, Competing on Capabilities: The New Rules of Corporate Strategy, Harvard Business Review (1992).
Case: Wal*Mart Stores, Inc. HBS-9-794-024. |
Wal*Mart
- Wal*mart- High Cost of Low Price
- Wikipedia: Wal-mart
- Google Finance: Wal-mart
- Wal-mart Investor Information
Optional: Peteraf (1993), The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View, Strategic Management Journal Vol 14(3), pp 179-191.
Optional: Ethiraj, et al., Where do capabilities come from and how do they matter? Strategic Management Journal 2005. |
8 |
21 & 22 Mar |
Mapping Capabilities and Sustainability |
Read: Porter, M.(1996), What is Strategy? Harvard Business Review, p 61-78.
Kim and Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy: HBR, Oct 2004 Article and Chapter 2 of their book.
Robert S Kaplan and David P Norton, "Having Trouble with your Strategy? Then Map It", Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct 2000.
Case: IMAX: Larger than life. IVEY 909M19-PDF-ENG. |
- Optional: How to Design a Winning Business Model, HBR 2011.
- Optional: McGahan, 1999. Competition, Strategy and Business Performance. California Management Review.
- Optional: Helfat, et al., 2007. Dynamic Capabilities, Chapter 4
- Optional: Strategy Maps: A Step-by-Step Guide, Journal of Business Strategy 2006(3), pp 12-19.
|
9 |
28 & 29 Mar |
Resources & Capabilities |
Doug Dow - Guest speaker
Coyne, K.P. (1997), Is Your Core Competence A Mirage? McKinsey Quarterly, pp 40-56.
Saloner, Shepard & Podolny, “Strategic Management”, 2001, Chapter 3, pp39-63. This article helps you to integrate lessons learnt in the first 8 weeks.
Case: Southwest Airlines 1993(A). |
- Optional: Doug Dow, “An Introduction to the 5C's”. These are powerpoint slides, not an article.
|
10 |
No session on 4 & 5 Apr. Review on 9th instead |
|
Review Session by Teaching Assistant, Woody Lo will be held on 9th April at 1pm at MLR3. It will last 90mins.
Read:
- The Coherence Premium, HBR.
- Hamel & Prahalad, “Strategic Intent”, HBR, 1989.
|
|
11 |
11 & 12 Apr |
Knowledge as a Strategic Capability |
Read: Gans and Stern (2003), "The Product Market and the 'Market for Ideas': Commercialization Strategies for Technology Entrepreneurs", Research Policy 32(2)
Case: David Weston and Kwanghui Lim, Blackberry, IPRIA/WIPO Case 2008.
|
BlackBerry vs NTP
- BlackBerry Parody
- Crackberry
- ieee article
- CNN article
Intellectual Property
- IP Australia: intro to patents, trademarks, designs
- Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia (ipria.org)
- WIPO
He, Lim and 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) |
Syndicate-based Case writeup due on FRIDAY 15 April at 5pm. |
12 |
18 & 19 Apr |
Syndicate Assignment Discussion |
Presentation and discussion of Syndicate Assignments.
- Each syndicate will discuss the report written by another syndicate.
Readings to help you get started with your syndicate assignment:
- Chapter 1 from The McKinsey Mind.
- The McKinsey Way (not the same book). A summary is available here.
|
|
Deadline to submit your entry for the Best Strategy Application Contest. |
13 |
28 Apr |
Summary and Review.
|
A review session will be held this week, covering a course summary and how to approach the exam. This should help you revise for the final exam. The session will be held on Thursday afternoon 28 April at 1:15-4:30pm (FT) and THR evening 28t April at 6pm-915pm (PT). Venue: CUB (FT) and MLR3 (PT).
- Past exam questions are on the LMS and Strategic Thinking. Please review them.
- Case: Target (last year's exam)
Readings.
- Mintzberg, “Crafting Strategy”, HBR, 1996.
- Revisit: The Coherence Premium, HBR.
- Revisit: Hamel & Prahalad, “Strategic Intent”, HBR, 1989.
Voting for the contest entries
Q&A on topics covered this semester; thoughts on the syndicate assignment |
|
Exam: Tuesday 3rd May at 2pm. Both PT & FT students will be taking the exam at the same time.
It starts 2pm with 15 mins of reading time. Writing time of 2 hrs starts at 2:15pm
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