Business Strategy, Master Course

Learning outcomes

The broad goal of Business Strategy is to cut across the whole spectrum of business and management. The purpose of the course is to create an understanding about the total enterprise – about the industry and the competitive environment in which it operates. The purpose is also to understand the long-term direction and strategy of an enterprise, its resources and competitive capabilities, and its prospects for success.

The specific goals of Business Strategy are:

- To develop your capacity to think strategically about a company, its present business position, its long-term direction, its resources and competitive capabilities, the caliber of its strategy, and its opportunities for gaining sustainable competitive advantage.

- To build your skills in conducting strategic analysis in a variety of industries and competitive situations and, especially, to provide you with a stronger understanding of the competitive challenges of a global market environment.

- To give you hands-on experience in crafting business strategy, reasoning carefully about strategic options, using what-if analysis to evaluate action alternatives, and making sound strategic decisions.

- To acquaint you with the managerial tasks associated with implementing and executing company strategies, drill you in the range of actions managers can take to promote competent strategy execution, such as writing and presenting strategic plans and evaluating and developing the plans of others.

- To heighten your awareness of how and why ethical principles, core values, and socially responsible management practices matter greatly in the conduct of a company's business.

- To develop your powers of managerial judgment, help you learn how to assess business risk, and improve your ability to make sound business decisions and achieve effective outcomes.

Content

Unlike other business courses that concentrate narrowly on a particular function of the business—accounting, finance, marketing, etc., strategic management is a big picture course. It cuts across the whole spectrum of business and management. We are going to cover the following topics: (1) what are the role and tasks of the strategy manager, (2) what strategy means, (3) how to formulate and implement a strategic plan, (4) how to use the tools and techniques of situation analysis, and (5) how to exercise good business judgment and make sound decisions. A major purpose of the course is to sharpen your abilities to "think strategically" and weigh things from the perspective of what is best for the enterprise as a whole.

Instruction

- Lectures by the instructors

- Practicing the tasks of managerial analysis and decision-making via use of actual case studies—analysis/discussion by whole class (students do most of the talking)

- Practicing the task of managing via the "learn-by-doing" simulation exercise

- Exams

- Oral team presentations

Assessment

Grades will be given in accordance with the Swedish grading system and, for international students, the ECTS grading system. The following grades will be used: VG (passed with distinction), which corresponds to A or B in the ECTS grading system, G (passed), which corresponds to C, D or E, and U (failed) which corresponds to the ECTS grade F.

To attain the learning goals performance is evaluated by the tasks listed below and measured in assessment units (AU) with a maximum of 100 AU for the course, divided as follows:

Performance on The Glo-Bus simulation exercise 30 AU

Written case assignment 15 AU

Participation in class discussion of cases and satisfactory completion of

case assignments. 15 AU

Satisfactory completion of tests on assigned chapters in the text 25 AU

Oral team presentation of assigned case 15 AU

100 AU

To obtain VG as a final grade, a student must attain a total grade exceeding 80 AU. To Obtain G as a final grade, a student must attain a total grade exceeding 60 AU.

In addition, any remaining assignments and supplements must be completed and handed in at least within four weeks after the end of the course otherwise this part of the examination has to be redone the following semester, provided there is space in the course.

Attention Swedish students: Only completed courses can be recognised in your degree.