MGT 699 Syllabus

MGT 699 - Business Policy and Strategy

This page was last updated on 17 OCT 2004. Please direct questions and comments regarding this page to walter.ferrier@uky.edu

COURSE OVERVIEW

Strategic management is an integrative capstone course - the only course that challenges students to study and experience sets of multifunctional problems that confront top management. The course requires students to bring together all of their learned functional skills (i.e., accounting, finance, marketing, etc.) and use them to study organizational problems within the context of hands-on exercises/simulations, real-world business case studies, and open discussion forums.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of Strategic Management 699 are:

To introduce students of business to the perplexities of multifunctional organizational problems.
To acquaint students with the idiosyncrasies of top management as opposed to functional management.
To actively involve students in the exploration of current ideas, issues, problems and techniques associated with those of top management and the total organization.
To familiarize students with the current literature and theories of Strategic Management.
To improve and sharpen report writing and presentation skills.

PEDAGOGY

Procedures to accomplish these objectives include: readings, cases, lectures, class discussions, videos, oral reports, and internet-based business strategy computer simulations.

COURSE MATERIALS (all required)

ORAL CASE REPORTS

Each student will be assigned to a MGT 699 team, which will have the opportunity to “bid” on a case study of its choosing to present in class. These reports are to be presented on the date we plan to discuss in class (see MGT 699 Course Schedule).

Oral reports will be strictly limited to 20 minutes, and followed by 5-10 minutes of Q&A. You are welcome to adopt any presentation style you see fit. However, you and your team will be graded on not only the substance of your presentation, but also the professionalism of the presentation. Further, if you are concerned about the basic elements/content of these reports, or need ideas about presentation style/quality, I invite you to take a look at some sample case reports located at my Guidelines for Written and Oral Case Reports.
Presenting teams are required to provide copies of a 1-page executive summary and the PowerPoint handouts (4 or 6 slides per page format) to the class (~25 copies).

COMPETITIVE STRATEGY REPORT

Each team will conduct a competitive analysis of a pair of head-to-head rivals of its choosing (but, must be approved by instructor). The analysis will consist of the collection and systematic analysis of the competitive strategies and tactics carried out by the two companies over a 2 year period.
This report will also include a competitive strategy recommendation that covers both pricing strategy (with the use of the Price Strategy Simulator) and a plan and timetable to implement a series of non-price strategies and tactics.

CAPSTONE SIMULATION

The class will be organized into teams to carry out the Capstone simulation. After a pre-game briefing and practice session, teams will be required to conduct SEVEN (7) official decisions. Team grades will be evaluated on the outcome of the simulation (i.e., the group’s company stock price, market share, profit, etc.).
In order for the class to stick to the decision schedule, it is absolutely imperative that all decision uploaded via the web on the due date: Late uploads will not be accepted. Keep in mind that the Capstone simulation comprises 30% of your grade.
Each team will also be required to submit a 3-5 page pre-simulation strategic plan on the due date identified in the course schedule.

MERGER PLAN SIMULATION

Each team will participate in an interactive simulation that involves both the strategy and decision-making processes associated with the post-merger integration of two simulated banks. Teams will be evaluated on the basis of a team interview with the instructor (Q&A regarding the team’s choice of strategy and the decision making process encountered). Teams will also be evaluated on the simulation scores.

PARTICIPATION

One of the critical factors in making this course a successful experience for everyone is the quality of student participation. Thus, students are expected to read all assignments before class and contribute to class discussions. The solutions to case and theory problems in this course can and will be varied. Often, the most complete understanding of and best solutions for important issues and challenges are arrived at only after substantial class debate and discussion; that is, learning from one another.

Meaningful participation could consist of any of the following:

suggestion that a certain area of the case needs to be explored
significant chunk of analysis
structuring of logic taking some points raised earlier and bringing them to a logical conclusion
discussion of alternative not previously identified
suggested plan of action or implementation
identification of a key assumption
meaningful summary

ATTENDANCE

You are expected to attend all scheduled class meetings, as well as all team meetings on group projects. Much of the most important material and perspectives relevant to successful case reports are covered in class. In addition, failure to attend regularly will result in a poor participation score

SELF-MONITORING AND PEER EVALUATION LOG

At the end of the semester, each student is required to submit a log that systematically tracks each team members’ attendance, participation, and contribution in all the group projects and activities. A template will be provided by the instructor near the beginning of the semester. This log should be updated regularly and routinely. A mid-semester “spot check” will be carried out by the instructor to ensure that teams and team members are working together as expected.

GRADING

Assignment	Weight
Oral Case Presentation (Group & Individual)	25%
Capstone Simulation Performance (Group)	20%
Capstone Pre-Simulation Strategic Plan (Group)	5%
Competitive Strategy Report (Group)	15%
MergerPlan Simulation Interview (Group & Individual)	10%
MergerPlan Simulation Scores (Group)	10%
Self-Monitoring and Peer Evaluation Log (Individual)	5%
In-Class Participation/Discussion (Individual)	10%
TOTAL	100%