ArgosyUniversity

COURSE SYLLABUS

B6023

Strategic & Operational Planning

Summer I 2009

Faculty Information

Faculty Name: Elias Demetriades, Ph.D.

Campus: Chicago

Contact Information: , 312-301-1025 (cell)

Office Hours:By Appointment

Short Faculty Bio:

I have spent most of my career in various managerial and consulting engagements in the US, Europe and Africa. I have taught undergraduate and graduate course for fifteen(15) years.

I currently teach undergraduate math and economics courses, as well as economics, management and finance at the graduate level while consulting in finance (quantitative modeling, alternative investments, risk management).

I hold a BS in Business Administration (concentration in Marketing), an MBA from IMD in Switzerland and a PhD in Management Science (concentration in Finance).

Course description: Students learn how to develop the skills and concepts needed to ensure the ongoing contribution of a firm's operations to its competitive position. Typically this requires the firm to achieve, at a minimum cost, quality and economic parity, responsiveness and adaptability to customer needs and desires, rapid time to market, process technology, and sufficient and responsive capacity. Topics encompass all elements of coherent operation systems, process analysis, cross-functional and cross firm integration, product development, and technology and operations strategy.

Course Pre-requisites: None

Required Textbook:

/ Operations Management: Creating Value Along the Supply Chain
Author: / Russell, Roberta
Edition: / 6TH 08
ISBN-10: / 0-470-09515-6
ISBN-13: / 978-0-470-09515-7
Publisher: / John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Recommended Textbooks and Resources:

Week 1:

  • Platts, K., & Tan, K. H. (2004). Strategy Visualisation: Knowing, Understanding, and Formulating. Management Decision Vol. 42, Issue. 5/6; p. 667, London.
  • Smart, A. (2006). Operations, Strategy, and Technology: Pursuing the Competitive Edge. International Journal of Operations & Production ManagementVol.26,Issue.1/2;pg.222,2pgs, Bradford.
  • De Toni, A., & Tonchia, S. (Dec 2005). Definitions and Linkages Between Operational and Strategic Flexibilities. OmegaVol.33,Issue.6;pg.525, Oxford.
  • Hui, L. T. (2004). Business Timeliness: The Intersections of Strategy and Operations Management. International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 24, Issue. 5/6; p. 605, Bradford.
  • Golovin, J. (Winter 1973). Operations Management: Analysis for Decisions. Sloan Management Review Vol. 14, Iss. 2; p. 101.

Week 2:

  • Petrini, C. (Feb 1996). The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations.Training & Development,Vol.50,Issue2;pg.73, Alexandria.
  • Katz, J. H. (Jan 1996). Models of Management: Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Perspective.Industrial & Labor Relations Review,Vol. 49,Issue.2;pg.367, Ithaca.
  • Eisler, R. (Feb 1995). From Domination to Partnership: The Hidden Subtext for Organization Change.Training & Development,Vol.49,Issue.2;pg.32, Alexandria.
  • Wu, C. W., & Chen, C. L. (May/Jun 2006). An Integrated Structural Model Toward Successful Continuous Improvement Activity. Technovation Vol.26,Issue.5,6;pg.697, Amsterdam.

Week 3:

  • Hogan, L. M. (Aug 2005). TEAMing for Strategic Learning and Performance Improvement. Performance Improvement, Vol. 44, Issue 7; pg. 8, Silver Spring.
  • Colby, S. J., & Rubin, A. (2005). The strategic value of a shared understanding of costs. Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 33, Issue. 2; p. 27, Chicago.
  • Leavy, B. (2004). Outsourcing strategies: opportunities and risks. Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 32, Issue. 6; pg. 20, Chicago.

Week 4:

  • Gupta, M., & Kohli, A. (May/Jun 2006). Enterprise Resource Planning Systems and Its Implications for Operations Function. Technovation Vol.26,Issue.5,6;pg.687, Amsterdam.
  • Swafford, P. M., Ghosh, S., & Murthy, N. N. (2006). A Framework for Assessing Value Chain Agility. International Journal of Operations & Production ManagementVol.26,Issue.1/2;pg.118,23pgs, Bradford.
  • Acur, N., & Bititci, U. (2004). A Balanced Approach to Strategy Process. International Journal of Operations & Production Management Vol. 24, Issue. 3/4; p. 388, Bradford.
  • Swafford, P. M., Ghosh, S., & Murthy, N. N. (2006). A Framework for Assessing Value Chain Agility. International Journal of Operations & Production ManagementVol.26,Issue.1/2;pg.118,23pgs, Bradford.

Week 5:

  • Frery, F. (Fall 2006). The Fundamental Dimensions of Strategy.MIT Sloan Management Review,Vol.48,Issue.1;pg.71, Cambridge.
  • Chambers, C. (July 2006). US Embraces Vertical Integration.Euromoney,pg.1, London.
  • Trim, P. J., & Lee, Y. (2006). Vertically Integrated Organisational Marketing Systems: A Partnership Approach for Retailing Organisations.The Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing,Vol.21,Issue.3;pg.151, Santa Barbara.

Week 6:

  • Hadlock, C. J., Ryngaert, M., & Thomas, S. (Oct 2001). Corporate Structure and Equity Offerings: Are There Benefits to Diversification?The Journal of Business,Vol.74,Issue.4;pg.613, Chicago.
  • Matsusaka, J. G. (Jul 2001). Corporate Diversification, Value Maximization, and Organizational Capabilities.The Journal of Business,Vol.74,Issue.3;pg.409, Chicago.
  • Fan, J. P. H., & Lang, L. H. P. (Oct 2000). The Measurement of Relatedness: An Application to Corporate Diversification.The Journal of Business,Vol.73,Issue.4;pg.629, Chicago.

Course length: 7.5 Weeks

Contact Hours: 45 Hours

Credit Value: 3.0

Program Outcomes:

  1. Communication
  2. Oral/Written – Present business information orally and in writing using appropriate technology that is concise, clear, organized, supported, and persuasive in a professional manner appropriate to the business context
  3. Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
  4. Critical Thinking– Incorporate and synthesize information, theory, and practice in order to implement appropriate business actions
  5. Problem Solving/Decision Making – Given a business situation, diagnose the underlying causes of the situation, evaluate possible solutions, and determine and defend appropriate course of action
  6. Information Literacy– Access information from a variety of sources, evaluate the credibility of the sources, and apply that information to solve business problems
  7. Team
  8. Leadership – Describe the requirements of team members and leaders to work effectively and creatively in achieving team goals
  9. Collaboration – Collect, categorize, and consider the views of all stakeholders
  10. Ethics
  11. Ethics – Identify the ethical principles related to personal and corporate behavior in specific business situations and explains the potential consequences
  12. Diversity
  13. Diversity – Identify the impact of both cultural and economic factors on the modern enterprise and explain the potential consequences
  14. Analysis/Application
  15. Applied Technology– Select and defend business technology solutions to typical business problems
  16. Integration– Describe the interrelationship of the functional business areas of statistics, accounting, finance, marketing, operations, and strategy within the context of specific organizational goals

Course Objectives:

  1. Demonstrate practical strategic operations bydiagnosing, implementing and evaluating strategic operations to gain competitive advantages in an organizational setting through collaborative and productive team work. (Program Outcomes: 2.1; 2.2; 2.3; 3.1; 3.2)
  2. Analyze an organization’s processes to effectively and efficiently produce goods and services to meet the goals of an organization. (Program Outcomes: 6.1; 6.2)
  3. Construct an integrative plan designed to address an operational issue for an organization.(Program Outcomes: 6.2)
  4. Apply the concepts and methods related to designing and managing operational functions (Program Outcomes: 6.1).

Assignment Table

Topics / Readings
1 /
Overview of SFL
Emergent versus Intended Strategies
Developing a Competitive Strategy
Industry and the Environment
/ Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 1-4
2 /
Analyzing Organizational Structure
Management
/ Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 7 & 7S (Operations decision making tools: Facility location models)
3 /
Financial Management
Cost Leadership Strategies
Competitive Advantage
International Management
/ Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 14 & 15
4 /
Process Improvement
The Resource-Based View
The VRIO Framework
/ Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 56
5 /
Vertical Integration: The Need for Vertical Integration
/ Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 9, 10 & 16
6 /
  • Corporate Diversification
---Introduction
---Strategies
---International / Russell & Taylor Textbook - Chapters 11, 12 & 13
7 /
  • Strategic Alliances
- Defining
- Types
- Benefits
- Competitive Strategies / Read and discuss in class sites that discusses mergers, acquisitions, or joint ventures such as
8 /
  • Operational Planning
- Course Summary / Presentation of Final Plan

Grading Criteria

Grading Scale Grading requirements

A / 100 – 93
A- / 92 – 90
B+ / 89 – 88
B / 87 – 83
B- / 82 – 80
C+ / 79 – 78
C / 77 – 73
C- / 72 – 70
F / 69 and below
Attendance/participation / 30%
Weekly Assignments / 20%
Final paper / 50%
100%

Library

All resources in ArgosyUniversity’s online collection are available through the Internet. The campus librarian will provide students with links, user IDs, and passwords.

Library Resources: ArgosyUniversity’s core online collection features nearly 21,000 full-text journals and 23,000 electronic books and other content covering all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Career & General Education, Computers, Engineering & Applied Science, Humanities, Science, Medicine & Allied Health, and Social & Behavior Sciences. Many titles are directly accessible through the Online Public Access Catalog at Detailed descriptions of online resources are located at

In addition to online resources, ArgosyUniversity’s onsite collections contain a wealth of subject-specific research materials searchable in the Online Public Access Catalog. Catalog searching is easily limited to individual campus collections. Alternatively, students can search combined collections of all Argosy University Libraries. Students are encouraged to seek research and reference assistance from campus librarians.

Information Literacy: ArgosyUniversity’s Information Literacy Tutorial was developed to teach students fundamental and transferable research skills. The tutorial consists of five modules where students learn to select sources appropriate for academic-level research, search periodical indexes and search engines, and evaluate and cite information. In the tutorial, students study concepts and practice them through interactions. At the conclusion of each module, they can test their comprehension and receive immediate feedback. Each module takes less than 20 minutes to complete. Please view the tutorial at

Academic Policies

Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: In an effort to foster a spirit of honesty and integrity during the learning process, ArgosyUniversity requires that the submission of all course assignments represent the original work produced by that student. All sources must be documented through normal scholarly references/citations and all work must be submitted using the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition (2001). WashingtonDC: American Psychological Association (APA) format. Please refer to Appendix A in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th Edition for thesis and paper format. Students are encouraged to purchase this manual (required in some courses) and become familiar with its content as well as consult the ArgosyUniversity catalog for further information regarding academic dishonesty and plagiarism.

Scholarly writing: The faculty at ArgosyUniversity is dedicated to providing a learning environment that supports scholarly and ethical writing, free from academic dishonesty and plagiarism. This includes the proper and appropriate referencing of all sources. You may be asked to submit your course assignments through “Turnitin,” ( an online resource established to help educators develop writing/research skills and detect potential cases of academic dishonesty. Turnitin compares submitted papers to billions of pages of content and provides a comparison report to your instructor. This comparison detects papers that share common information and duplicative language.

Americans with Disabilities Act Policy

It is the policy of ArgosyUniversity to make reasonable accommodations for qualified students with disabilities, in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If a student with disabilities needs accommodations, the student must notify the Director of Student Services. Procedures for documenting student disability and the development of reasonable accommodations will be provided to the student upon request.

Students will be notified by the Director of Student Services when each request for accommodation is approved or denied in writing via a designated form. To receive accommodation in class, it is the student’s responsibility to present the form (at his or her discretion) to the instructor. In an effort to protect student privacy, the Department of Student Services will not discuss the accommodation needs of any student with instructors. Faculty may not make accommodations for individuals who have not been approved in this manner.

The ArgosyUniversity Statement Regarding Diversity

ArgosyUniversity prepares students to serve populations with diverse social, ethnic, economic, and educational experiences. Both the academic and training curricula are designed to provide an environment in which students can develop the skills and attitudes essential to working with people from a wide range of backgrounds.

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