Course Preparation and Group Assignment Quiz
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Questions and Answers

What should be included in emails to the instructor concerning individual work?

  • Previous emails regarding group work.
  • Course materials and deadlines.
  • Tutorial group and student number. (correct)
  • Personal opinions on the course.

    • When are office hours for the course conducted?

  • Every Monday from 8:00-10:00 am without appointments.
  • Every Wednesday from 10:00-12:00 pm.
  • Every Friday from 9:00-11:00 am by appointment. (correct)
  • Every Friday from 9:00-11:00 am walk-in basis.

    • What should students do regarding group work emails?

  • CC all group members to ensure everyone is informed. (correct)
  • Send them to the instructor only.
  • Include only the student number in the email.
  • Send emails without any additional information.

    • When is the first lecture scheduled?

    <p>Wednesday, November 13.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the maximum percentage of the grade allocated to the Class discussion for case analysis?

    <p>45%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which deliverable has the highest percentage in the Group Assignment grading?

    <p>Written Report</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT one of the tags for creating questions in PeerWise?

    <p>Market_Strategy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What score range indicates that a team's response is solid and showcases depth of reasoning?

    <p>7.5-8.5</p> Signup and view all the answers

    When is the deadline for submitting the Group Assignment?

    <p>January 15, 2025, at 5:00 P.M.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In which score range do teams provide a response that extends knowledge for the participants?

    <p>9-10</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the minimum group size for the Group Assignment?

    <p>5 members</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is a requirement for team members when presenting at the highest scoring level?

    <p>Ownership and advanced mastery over the topic</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What factor does NOT play a role in the leadership actions according to the content?

    <p>Cultural background</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In a critical evaluation, what aspect should be evaluated alongside strengths?

    <p>Weaknesses of the presentation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes the Upper Echelons Theory?

    <p>Top management team values influence organizational outcomes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What aspect is NOT emphasized in the highest scoring team's response?

    <p>Avoiding interaction with the class</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What role does the tutor play if a student is not in a group?

    <p>The tutor helps form groups</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary focus of the case assignments in the course?

    <p>Focusing on key learning objectives for that week.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following options describes a requirement for group members?

    <p>Members should be from the same tutorial group</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Critical thinking and depth of reasoning are expected at which score range?

    <p>7.5-10</p> Signup and view all the answers

    In the evaluation components, what percentage of the final grade does the case presentation contribute?

    <p>15%</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What outcome is expected when a presentation is linked to both required and recommended readings?

    <p>Evocation of new discussions</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is a characteristic of team members who score between 7.5 and 8.5?

    <p>Mastery over the topic</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following components is NOT part of the evaluation structure?

    <p>Final exams</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How does a team demonstrate a great response according to scoring criteria?

    <p>By providing depth and showcasing reasoning</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How is active participation evaluated in the course?

    <p>Using the Peerwise Score.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is NOT mentioned as part of the course material?

    <p>Guest lectures</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which statement reflects a consequence of the Upper Echelons Theory?

    <p>Strategic choices are shaped by personal circumstances of top managers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the primary goal of conducting firm analysis?

    <p>To understand managerial responsibilities and guide a business to success</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is NOT an element of a good analysis?

    <p>Proposing a new business model that is unrelated to the issues</p> Signup and view all the answers

    When is the deadline for submitting a draft for interim feedback?

    <p>January 5th</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best describes the 'interim feedback' process?

    <p>It can be requested if needed but is not compulsory</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the focus of weeks 5 and 6 in the suggested timeline?

    <p>Comparative analysis and report drafting</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is one of the benefits of enhancing business judgment through firm analysis?

    <p>Avoiding reliance on authoritative sources for answers</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following is a suggested action during group assignments?

    <p>Have all team members present during interim feedback meetings</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What does the quote by Rudyard Kipling emphasize for firm analysis?

    <p>The need to ask fundamental questions about the firm's situation</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What best describes the relationship between deliberate and emergent strategies?

    <p>They exist on a continuum where real-world strategies lie.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following best defines realized strategy?

    <p>The actual strategy that is implemented in practice.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    How do strategies like 'Imposed' and 'Consensus' differ in approach?

    <p>Imposed strategies are forced upon the organization, while consensus strategies arise from collective input.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What best defines 'strategy' in the context of business management?

    <p>An overarching plan for resource deployment to establish favorable positions.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which of the following statements correctly describes competitive advantage?

    <p>It refers to superior performance compared to competitors in the same industry.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    What is the key difference between strategy and tactics?

    <p>Strategy is a long-term plan, while tactics are specific actions taken to achieve that plan.</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which strategy is characterized by the decisions that emerge from individual managers' interpretations?

    <p>Emergent strategy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Which type of strategy involves a proactive approach to establishing long-term goals?

    <p>Entrepreneurial strategy</p> Signup and view all the answers

    Study Notes

    Strategy and Management (2024-25)

    • The course covers strategy and management, focusing on the concept of strategy.

    Lecture 01: What is Strategy?

    • Session Plan:
      • Introduction
      • What is strategy?
      • Course plan
      • Q&A
    • Composition of the group:
      • Details of the group members for the course, thoughts of the team
      • There was an outline of the conceptual framework.
    • Course Material:
      • Covered course material, evaluation plan, administrative issues, instructor assumptions, role and recommendations.
    • Research Interests (Rajani Singh):
      • Corporate governance in emerging markets
      • Emerging market multinationals
      • Social entrepreneurship
    • Teaching Focus (Rajani Singh):
      • Strategy and Management
      • Strategic management innovation
      • Market Dynamics and innovation
      • Strategy and Organization
      • Thesis supervisions

    About Students

    • Academic Focus:
      • 84% of students focused on economics
      • 19% had multiple interests
      • 7% focused on economics and management
      • 9% had other interests
    • Strengths:
      • Supervisory experience: 27%
      • Preference for numbers: 31%
    • Number of students enrolled: 150
    • Current date: 10 AM today morning (for the poll data, this was done at the time of the slide)

    Group's Thoughts

    • Success
    • Analysis
    • Brainstorming
    • Consulting
    • Innovation
    • Planning
    • Optimization and problem-solving
    • Decisions

    Relevance of the Course

    • Economist vs. Strategist:
      • Economist: Social welfare (curbing supernormal profits, increasing competition)
      • Strategist: Firm performance (maximizing supernormal profits, curbing competition)
    • Interdependencies across business functions
    • Career growth: Opportunities for professional advancement within an organization
    • Making choices: Analogy to life decisions

    Overarching Questions and Implications

    • Why do firms differ in performance?
    • How do I analyze a firm's external environment?
    • How do I create competitive advantage?
    • How do I sustain competitive advantage?

    Learning Objectives

    • Strategy's role in competitive advantage
    • Definitions of competitive advantage, disadvantage, and parity
    • Evolution of strategic thinking over time
    • Challenges of strategy-making

    Definitions of Strategy

    • Strategy:
      • a plan, method, or series of actions to achieve a specific goal or effect – Wordsmyth Dictionary
      • determination of long-run goals/objectives, resource allocation – Alfred Chandler, Strategy and Structure
      • pattern of objectives, purposes, or goals, major policies and plans for achieving those goals (defines business/company) – Kenneth Andrews, The Concept of Corporate Strategy

    Evolution of Strategic Management

    • 1950s: Operational & capital budgeting
    • 1960s: Corporate planning
    • 1970-1980s: Emergence of strategic management
    • 1980-1990s: Quest for competitive advantage
    • 2000-2015: Adapting to turbulence

    Describing Strategy

    • Overall plan: Deploy resources for a favorable position (profitability, market share)
    • Examples:
      • Sam Walton (Walmart): Lower prices
      • Steve Jobs (Apple): "Put a ding in the universe"
      • Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook): Open, connected world
      • Larry Page & Sergey Brin (Google): Accessible information

    Types of Strategies

    • Deliberate and Emergent Strategies (Mintzberg & Waters 1985)
      • Planned
      • Entrepreneurial
      • Ideological
      • Umbrella
      • Process
      • Unconnected
      • Consensus
      • Imposed

    Pure Deliberate, Pure Emergent

    • Deliberate:
      • Precise, concrete and explicit leadership intentions
      • Firm and pervasive control over actions
      • Benign, controllable, and predictable environment
    • Emergent: Reverse characteristics of Deliberate

    Planned Strategy

    • Clear and articulated intentions
    • Backed by formal controls
    • Acquiescent (predictable) environment

    Entrepreneurial Strategy

    • Less precise intentions than planned strategy
    • Entrepreneur's ability to impose vision
    • Acquiescent and predictable/cooperative environment
    • Common in small/crisis-filled organizations

    Ideological Strategy

    • Collective vision, not individual vision
    • Difficult to change collective vision
    • Stable environment
    • Highly deliberate, unlike other strategies

    Umbrella Strategy

    • Relaxation of control
    • Leadership sets guidelines/boundaries
    • Allows strategies to emerge within the boundaries
    • Environment unlikely to impose change

    Process Strategy

    • Leadership focuses on the strategy process itself, rather than content
    • Leadership controls who makes strategy, not what

    Unconnected Strategy

    • Discretion exercised by part of the organization in the absence of strong oversight from senior management
    • A subunit or individual exercises discretion

    Consensus Strategy

    • No prior intention but rather mutual adjustments
    • Not based on ideologies; therefore, emergent
    • Difficult to predict its final direction

    Imposed Strategy

    • Environment imposes choices on the company.
    • Seldom offer unlimited choices
    • Example: Clients return to a firm demanding the same services again and again

    Designing vs. Emergent Strategy

    • Intended Strategy: Top-level management team's concept of strategy
    • Emergent Strategy: Decisions that arise from complex processes where managers interpret the intended strategy and adapt to environmental constraints
    • Realized Strategy: The actual strategy implemented.

    Corporate, Business, and Functional Strategy

    • Corporate Strategy: Where to compete
    • Business Strategy: How to compete in a specific market (SBU)
    • Functional Strategy: How to implement business strategy in specific functions

    Strategy vs. Tactics

    • Strategy: Plan for deploying resources to gain favorable positions (plan to win a war)
    • Tactics: Scheme for specific actions (manoeuvre to win a battle).
    • Example: Amazon Prime vs. Free shipping by Amazon

    Competitive Advantage

    • Superior or better performance relative to competitors or industry average.
    • Competitive advantage is relative not absolute.
    • Benchmark:
      • Compare firm to competitors in the same industry
      • Compare firm to industry average

    Sustainable Competitive Advantage

    • Outperforming competitors or industry average for a prolonged period.
    • Example: Apple vs. Samsung in the smartphone industry.

    Competitive Disadvantage & Parity

    • Competitive Disadvantage: Underperforming rivals or the industry average.
    • Competitive Parity: Two or more firms performing at the same level

    Gaining a Competitive Advantage

    • Vision: What the business ultimately wants to achieve
    • Mission: How the business accomplishes goals
    • Values: Company commitments and safeguards for legally and ethically pursuing vision/mission

    Vision

    • Outlines firm's stretch goal and captures aspirations
    • Spells out organization's long-term objective and should be inspiring.
    • Action based on vision should build necessary resources and capabilities.

    Vision as Strategic Intent

    • Research shows vision statements and firm performance align (especially when customer-oriented, with stakeholder involvement and the alignment with organization structures).
    • Voluntary assignment: Students analyze a firm's vision, mission, and actions.

    Mission

    • Explains what the organization actually does.
    • Outlines products/services
    • Specifies the markets in which it will compete.
    • Credible actions supporting the organization's vision.
    • Voluntary assignment: Analyze if the mission adequately supports the vision of a particular firm

    Vision, Mission, & Values

    • Example: Whole Foods Market (vision, mission, values given).

    Profit and Purpose

    • Profits are essential but not the sole purpose of business
    • Companies now consider stakeholders beyond shareholders (ethical reasons, reasons of self-interest).
    • Examples: Sustainability, reputation, and the license to operate

    Strategic Leadership

    • Who is a strategic leader? What do they do? How does one become a strategic leader?
    • Leaders can increase or destroy shareholder value.

    How Do You Become a Strategic Leader?

    • Function of innate abilities and learning.
    • Actions reflect: age, education, career experiences, and personal interpretations of situations.
    • Organizational outcomes reflect the top management team and its unique perspectives; shaped by personal circumstances, values, experiences
    • Outcomes include strategic choices and performance levels

    Big Picture for Strategy & Management

    • Outline of the complete curriculum. Includes:
    • External analysis
    • Internal analysis
    • Business strategy I
    • Business strategy II
    • Corporate strategy
    • Global strategy

    Course Material

    • Textbook: Foundations of Strategy Grant, RM. and Jordan J. 2015
    • Case studies: Mini cases, and guiding questions
    • Assigned papers (links in course manual)

    Evaluation Components

      1. Case assignment and active participation (25%)
      1. Group assignment (25%)
      1. End Term exam (50%)

    Case Assignments and Active Participation

    • Case Presentation: 15%
    • Active Participation: 10% (using PeerWise Score)
    • Students will present on mini cases every week.

    Class Discussion Cases

    • Critical evaluation of presentation strengths/weaknesses
    • Team's conceptualization of the strategic problem or if it was well done.
    • Generation of appropriate options/alternatives
    • Evaluation of options to arrive at the best solution
    • Solution fit
    • Employing key ideas/theories; engagement with case concepts
    • Logical presentation of arguments

    Case Assignments and Active Participation

    • PeerWise (10%): Create questions, topics, and deadlines for questions
    • Questions to be created by students and tagged under topics

    Group Assignments

    • Written Report (15%)
    • Recorded Presentation (10 minutes, 10%)
    • Submission Deadline (January 15, 2025) via Blackboard

    Group Formation

    • Students can form their own groups.
    • Teams of 5 people.
    • Group members should be in the same tutorial group.
    • Contact tutor to share group details during first tutorial.
    • Final groups by the end of the first tutorial.

    Suggested Timeline (for Group Assignments)

    • Firm selection and initial research (Weeks 1-2)
    • Detailed strategic analysis (Weeks 3-4)
    • Comparative analysis & report drafting (Weeks 5-6)
    • Report finalization & presentation preparation (Week 7)
    • Report submission & group presentation (Week 8).

    Guide to Firm Analysis

    • Framework for firm analysis: What, Why, When, How, Where, Who

    Why do we do Firm Analysis?

    • Increase business understanding
    • Build skills in identifying competitive strengths & weaknesses

    Elements of a Good Analysis

    • Identify pertinent management issues.
    • Perform analysis and evaluation.
    • Propose action plan/recommendations.

    Identification

    • Provide a sharp diagnosis.
    • Understand the firm's present situation and strategy.
    • Pinpoint strategy implementation issues.

    Analysis and Evaluation

    • Assess underlying factors impacting success/failures.
    • Evaluate if the firm capitalizes on resource strengths.
    • Determine satisfactory results and reasons (if any) for the lack of them
    • Evaluate the competitive forces confronting the company.

    Analysis and Evaluation

    • Use evidence to back conclusions
    • Demonstrate command of strategic concepts & analytical tools in discussions
    • Objective and reasonable interpretations.

    Recommendations

    • Address identified problems/issues.
    • Recommendations should logically follow from analysis
    • Offer a reasonable prospect for success
    • Explain how recommendations solve the problems.

    A Final Word

    • Presentations should be well-organized.
    • Use strong logic, present convincing evidence, and create persuasive arguments

    End Term Exam

    • Date: January 20, 2025 (8:30 am - 10:30 AM, via reminder)
    • Format: Multiple Choice Questions (20) & Open Ended Questions (3-4).
    • Material covered in lectures & real-world examples.
    • At least 1 open-ended question and a few MCQs from each book chapter are included.

    Early Exit Students

    • Specific details/criteria given by email later that day (to avoid confusion with the larger groups)

    Recommendations: Key Processes

    • Attendance
    • Learning from peers, preparation, readings
    • Individual/group work, participation
    • Critical questioning, teamwork, case analyses and PeerWise insights.

    My Assumptions and Role

    • Mutual respect is assumed for all participants.
    • Expectations for maximum learning experience during the course.
    • The onus must lie with all group participants.

    Course Administration

    • Lecturer: Rajani Singh ([email protected])
    • Tutor: Anne-Sophie Halbertsma ([email protected])
    • Slides/lectures available on Blackboard.
    • Preparation and Punctuality: Important for all parts of the course

    Course Administration (e-mail instructions)

    • Include class/student number in emails to instructor.
    • CC group members for group work information

    Office Hours

    • 9:00 - 11:00 AM, every Friday (appointment needed) via Teams

    To Keep an Eye On

    • Lecture dates & times for the course.
    • Tutorial dates & times (check timetable).

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    Related Documents

    ECB3SM (2024-25) Lecture 01 - Strategy and Management PDF

    Description

    Test your knowledge on the expectations for student preparation, punctuality, and group work in our course. This quiz includes questions about email protocols, office hours, grading percentages, and more. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the course guidelines to succeed!

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