Strategic Management

Semester and Year Offered: 3rd Semester

Course Coordinator and Team: Nidhi Kaicker

Email of course coordinator: nidhi@aud.ac.in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This course introduces the key concepts, tools, and principles of strategy formulation and competitive analysis. It focuses on the information, analyses, organizational processes, skills and business decisions that managers must make to devise strategies, position their businesses, define firm boundaries and maximize long-term profits in the face of uncertainty and competition.

Course Outcomes:

1. At the end of the course, the participants will be able to:
2. Understand the principles of strategy formulation, implementation and control in organizations
3. Develop skills for applying these principles / concepts to the solution of business problems
4. Develop skills to analyze the internal and external environment of business and identify their impact on profitability and strategic positioning
5. Prepare organisational strategies that will be effective in both local and global context
6. Evaluate challenges faced by managers in implementing and evaluating strategies

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Unit 1: Introduction to Strategic Management

Core concepts; Strategic management process; Mission, vision and objectives

Unit 2: External analysis

Identification of industry, opportunities and threats; Porter’s Five Forces Model of competitiveness; Concept of strategic groups; Industry life cycle model and the competitive environment

Unit 3: Internal analysis

Analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses – resources, capabilities, competencies; Building blocks of competitive advantage; Value chain and value creation; Distinctive competencies; Issues relating to durability of competitive advantage

Unit 4: Functional level strategy

Achieving superior efficiency, superior quality, superior innovation and superior customer responsiveness across the organisation

Unit 5: Business level strategy and industry environment

Competitive positioning; Business models; Generic business level-strategies; Strategic groups and business-level strategy; Strategies in fragmented, embryonic, mature, sunrise and sunset industries

Unit 6: Corporate strategy

Horizontal and vertical integration; Diversification; Strategic alliances - internal new venturing, acquisitions, joint ventures, and review of corporate portfolio

Unit 7: Strategy in the Global Environment

Determinants of national competitive advantage (Porter’s Diamond); Profiting from global expansion, 3As model, strategic choice, entry strategies, global strategic alliances

Unit 8: Strategy implementation and Evaluation

Organisational structure and design, Strategic control systems; Culture and rewards systems; Alignment of structure and strategy, and strategic leadership; Strategy Evaluation

Assessment Details with weights:

Reading List:

• Ghemawat, P. (2013). Redefining global strategy: Crossing borders in a world where differences still matter. Harvard Business Press.
• Grant, R. M. (2005). Contemporary Strategy Analysis: Concepts, Techniques, Applications (5th edition), Wiley Blackwell
• Kim, W. C., and Mauborgne, R. (2015). Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Porter, M.E. (2010). Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Simon and Schuster Editions

ADDITIONAL REFERENCE:

• A set of readings and cases are provided to the participants in form of a course manual as the commencement of the session.