BA 469
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT AND BUSINESS POLICY
Monday and Wednesday
8:00AM – 9:50AM
10:00AM – 11:50AM
2:00PM – 3:50AM
417 Bexell Hall
Instructor: Dr. Donald Neubaum
Office: 330 Bexell Hall
Phone 541-737-2616
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday between classes and until 4:30PM or by appointment
Text
Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach Sixth Edition. Charles W. L. Hill and Gareth Jones
Supplemental course materials, such as the syllabus, class notes and PowerPoint slides, and assignment guidelines are available on COB – Storage.
Overview and Objectives
BA 469 is the capstone course in the College of Business curriculum. Throughout the semester, you will explore different elements of the strategic management process. The goal of the course is to help you feel comfortable applying the concepts and tools of strategic management to current and future business situations. To this end, you will complete a series of real-world exercises, cases and written and oral assignments. To be successful in this course, you will need to integrate and apply material previously learned in all the functional areas of business.
Each of you has had, or are currently enrolled in Marketing, Finance, Accounting, Economics, and MIS classes. The presumption is that you actually learned something in those courses, and can put those tools to work here. You will have to integrate that knowledge in the analysis of businesses in this class. As you develop strategic planning skills, you will also be provided an opportunity to refine your skills in teamwork, communication, creative thinking, and adapting to change.
TEAMWORK You will use your teamwork skills as you work with other class embers on strategic plans and presentations and case analyses.
COMMUNICATION You will have the opportunity to build stronger business communication skills through participation in oral presentations and written assignments.
CREATIVE THINKING The development of solutions to real world problems facing
the companies you will study requires a high level of creative thinking.
ADAPTING TO CHANGE Furthermore, the course will teach you how organizations can anticipate and adapt to changes over which the organization has little control.
Writing Intensive Course
BA 469 is a University-approved WIC Course. As such, you will be doing a considerable amount of graded and ungraded writing in this course. The guidelines below explain the criteria adopted by the OSU Faculty Senate.
Criterion 1: Writing intensive courses shall use student writing as a significant approach to learning. To meet this criterion, courses shall:
A. Give students regular and frequent opportunities to write, including both graded and ungraded writing;
B. Include at least one paper that addresses a controversial question and that asks students to integrate information from more than one source;
C. Require at least 5,000 words (including drafts, in-class writing, informal papers, and polished papers); 2,000 words of this total should be in polished papers which students have revised after receiving feedback and criticism;
D. Ungraded writing could include course journals; in-class writing focusing on a particular problem, concept, or reading; short (one page or less) summaries of readings; short lists of questions or answers to questions, and the like. Whatever their form, such short (and usually) unrevised assignments ask students to write about what they read and about what they hear in class. This writing could be simply recorded as turned in (or not), or it could be graded quickly on some sort of + (top quality), or 0 (acceptable), - (incomplete) scale. Graded writing could include academic essays, position papers, microthemes, responses to cases, and the like. Students should expect to revise graded writing based on feedback and criticism.
Criterion 2: Writing intensive courses shall base a significant part of the grade on evaluation of writing. Grades for papers should form at least 30% of the overall grade, with at least 25% of the overall course grade based on evaluation of individually written papers. Collaborative writing projects are appropriate in WIC courses, but individually written papers which have been revised after feedback must also be a significant part of the grade. Writing intensive courses may also use various tests or quizzes which do not involve writing.
Criterion 3: Writing-intensive courses shall focus on content related to the major disciplines and be taught by faculty knowledgeable about that discipline. A writing intensive course should be a course, or sequence of courses, in the discipline and integral to the degree program. The course should have a structured syllabus with disciplinary content and an enrollment of students who interact with each other and with their professor on a regular term schedule. Part of the learning in a WIC course occurs when students share, discuss, and respond to each others' written work in the context of the common course content over a period of time. Writing intensive courses are not English courses or grammar and punctuation courses; they are discipline courses which use writing tasks to help students learn.
Criterion 4: Writing intensive courses shall discuss writing issues pertinent to that discipline, as such issues apply both academically and professionally. In determining the course content for a writing intensive course, instructors should also include some discussion of how writing is used by graduate/professionals in that particular discipline.
More information about WIC and services and information available to students is available at http://wic.oregonstate.edu/survivalguide. Please refer to that page before handing in any assignments.
Course Assignments and Grading
Grades will be determined as follows:
Individual Grades
Midterm Exam 20%
Final Exam 20%
Industry Analysis 20%
Case Write Ups 15%
Strategic Issue Summary 5%
Group Grades
Strategic Plan - Presentation 15%
In-class Case Exam 5%
Final grades will be determined based on the following percentages:
A 93-100 A 90-93
B+ 88-90 B 83-88
B- 80-83 C+ 78-80
C 73-78 C- 70-73
D+ 68-70 D 63-68
D- 60-63 F 60 or lower
Individual Grades
Midterm and Final Exams
Midterm and final exams will be a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions. For the most part, questions will come from the lecture notes. However, your text has a number of bolded terms in each chapter. Those terms are certainly fair game for multiple choice questions. As the quarter progresses, I will give you a list of discussion questions that will help you prepare for the exams. In general, make-up exams are discouraged. Should you have a prior conflict, please see me about arranging a mutually agreeable time to take a make-up exam. Failure to make arrangements to take the first exam in a timely fashion could result in the final exam being worth 40% of your grade, substituting for your first exam score.
Industry Analysis
Early in the quarter, each student will be assigned one of several previously selected industries. You are then required to conduct an individual external and competitive analysis of that industry. This individual paper is expected to be approximately 15 pages long and is worth 20% of your grade. Students are referred to my COB-Storage website to find more explicit instructions and expectations for this paper. Papers are due at the beginning of class – 20% deducted for every 24 hour period the paper is handed in late.
I will calculate a team average for this Industry Analysis paper. Every member of the team with the highest average in each lab section will get 5 points add to their Industry Analysis paper.
Case Write Ups
As you will note from the class schedule, we will cover four formal cases this quarter (Napster, AOL, Perdue Chicken and Nike). You are required to write up three of these cases, each worth 5% of your grade, for a total of 15%. These cases are due at the beginning of the class we are scheduled to discuss them. For each of these cases, you will be assigned a series of questions you will need to answer in your case write up. Each of these write ups will be precisely 4 pages. I will not read past the 4th page. You may choose to write all 4 analyses. Doing so will enable you to drop your lowest score. You may also choose to re-write 2 of the cases after receiving feedback. These revised write ups are due the day of the final exam. Papers are due at the beginning of class – 20% deducted for every 24 hour period the paper is handed in late.
Strategic Issues Paper and Presentation
In an effort to avoid subjecting you to the cruel and unfortunate fate of having to listen solely to me the entire quarter, I am soliciting your skills to help relieve your classmates of this punishment. In particular, you are required to identify an article related to a specific aspect of strategy. Articles from the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Forbes, Portland Business Journal and alike are best suited for this assignment. You are required to:
1) complete a two-page summary of the article. In particular, you are to take course material and directly apply it to the article, explaining how strategy concepts are found and relevant in the real world. You will hand in this summary for grading.
2) create a SHORT PowerPoint presentation (2-3 slides, less than 5 minutes) and presents your findings to the class. You will hand in a copy of your slides for grading.
This assignment is worth 5% of your grade.
Group Assignments
Early in the quarter, you will be divided into groups (or better yet, you will divide yourself into your own groups) of four or five. In these groups, you will work together on ungraded activities, as well as on two graded assignments, namely an in-class case and a strategic plan – presentation.
In-class Case Exam
On October 26th, you will work in your groups and complete a team-based case analysis. A week before the exam, you will be given a case to read and prepare. On the morning of the exam, you will be emailed a series of questions to answer. Your team will use computers/laptops to answer the questions. You will have the better part of the remainder of the day to complete the exam. This group exam is worth 5% of your grade.
Strategic Plan – Presentation – As a team, you will conduct an analysis of a firm of your choosing. You, however, must get prior approval of your choice from me. Your research will culminate with a 25 minute presentation of your analysis and strategic plan, including recommendations. These presentations will be presented to the class over two class periods right after Thanksgiving. Sign up sheets for time slots are posted outside my office. This assignment is worth 15% of your grade.
One Minute Papers
At the end of each class, I will ask you to write what I call a “one-minute paper.” This is an ungraded assignment, but is considered part of your class participation. In this one minute paper, you may write on a variety of topics, including 1) something you learned in class, if anything; 2) giving an example of a topic we spoke of in class; 3) asking a question or clarification; 4) making a comment about class; or 5) anything else. I will read these after each class and respond, if necessary, to your comments or thoughts.
Peer Evaluation
After your group presents its strategic plan, each team member must submit a Peer Evaluation form for each member in their group. These forms will eventually be available on my COB-Storage website. I will use these forms to calculate an individual Peer Evaluation score for every member in your group. These forms will be used to adjust individual grades on the strategic plan – presentation up or down by the amount warranted by your peers evaluation of your contribution. If your group members you did little to no work on the project, then your grade will reflect this. If your group members report that you when beyond the call of duty to aid the group, then your grade might get boosted accordingly.
Participation
I will also assess your attendance and participation throughout the quarters, and your one-minute papers. Students who regularly participate will receive more credit than those students who are either not prepared or do not contribute during these exercises and assignments. While your participation and attendance are not specifically graded, final letter grades might be adjusted upwards, or downwards, (up or down a full letter grade) based upon my assessment of your level of engagement. Students that are present every class session for the entire quarter will earn a 5 bonus points on their final exam.
Academic Dishonesty
“Cheating is a violation of student academic behavior standards. The common forms of cheating include: Unauthorized assistance; communication to another through written, visual, or oral means. The presentation of material which has not been studied or learned, but rather obtained by someone else's effort and used as part of an examination, course assignment or project. The unauthorized possession or use of examination or course related material may also constitute cheating. Plagiarism, whereby another's work is deliberately used or appropriated without any indication of the source, thereby attempting to convey the impression that such work is the student's own. Any student failing to properly credit ideas or material taken from another is plagiarizing. A student who has assisted another in any of the aforementioned breach of standards shall be considered equally culpable. When a violation of student academic behavior standards becomes known, the instructor shall take appropriate measures,” including removal of the offender from the course with a grade of F" to recommendation of further disciplinary action (taken from the Golden Rule Handbook, UCF Student Handbook). This action is permitted by Academic Regulations and Procedures as described in the Schedule of Classes. I expect you to know and understand these policies and procedures. If there is any doubt, about their meaning and interpretation, ask me for an explanation.
Both of the Strategic Presentations and Industry Analysis require substantial research. You are expected to use both the library and the Internet to find information about the industries/companies that you are researching. You must, however, properly cite your source material. This includes a complete bibliography, as well as references imbedded into the text of the paper.