Course outline.docx

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University of Ghana Business School (UGBS)

Course Outline

: UGBS 402: Business Policy

Year

: 2

st

_{Semester 2017/2018 Academic Year}

Programme

: BSc Administration

Instructor

: Dr Obi Berko

Lecture Time

: 5:30 – 7:30

Lecture Venue

: A & B Classes, Main Building, Old Campus

Background & Introduction

The course presents an overview of business policy and strategy. Being an undergraduate course, the module aims to exposes students to the concepts and principles of business policy and strategy in detail. Unlike a master’s course, the objective is to ensure that students have a comprehensive knowledge of the core elements of business policy and strategy in order to build on it in the work place and their subsequent master’s programme. Overall, the module aims to equip students with management and strategic thinking skills in the competitive market place.

Course Objectives

After completing this course, students should be able to:

 Become aware and understand the core management skills required for early career professionals in particular, time management, interpersonal, conceptual, diagnostic, communication and decision making skills

 Perform a rigorous analysis of a company's strategic direction;

 Identify and explain a company's mission and vision statement and relate and critique these statements to the company's strategic direction;

 Prepare a SWOT (strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats) analysis and explain and evaluate the relationship between the SWOT and a company's strategic direction;

 Identify and explain all micro and macro forces that shape a company's strategic plan and determine performance;

 Analyze a company's strategic plan in the context of the industry life cycle and environment in which it operates;

 Analyze, evaluate, and draw conclusions on the effectiveness and performance of control and integration mechanisms.

Expected Skills

By participating fully in the course students will be equipped with the following skills:  Critical thinking;

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 Research & IT;  Analytical;  Communication;  Interpersonal

Course Outcome

At the end of the course, participants and/or students should be able to:

 Define key theories, concepts and principles of business policy and strategy;  Work in any consultancy firm that offers strategic planning services to clients

 Carry out a strategic review of any organization, viz. commercial, governmental and not-for-profit

Teaching Method/Procedure

 Lectures

 Case studies

 Group and individual assignments  Group presentation

Teaching Materials

 Lecture slides

 Recommended Textbooks  The Worldwide Web

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Course Outline

Weeks Lecture/Topics Venue Required readings Activity/reading

1 - Overview of business policy

and strategy

- The concept of business policy

- Strategic decisions differ from other decisions that managers make

- Benefits and risks of a participative approach to strategic decision making - Model of strategic decision making

A & B

Pearce & Robinson (2014) Strategic

management; managing for global and domestic competition, Chapter 1

Case # 1 Bristol Myers Squibb

2 - Company mission

- Corporate goals - Social responsibility - Business ethics and ethical responsibility

A & B Pearce & Robinson (2014) Strategic

management; managing for global and domestic competition, Chapter 2 & 3

Case# 21: Good Hotel: Doing Good, Doing Well?

Case # 17: Cargill

3 - Internal analysis

- The value chain analysis

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- Resource-based view of the firm

- Three circle analysis - Financial analysis

4 - External analysis

- PESTLE

- Global environment - MESO

Case #26: Movie Exhibition Industry

Case# 24: Leica Camera

5 - Long-term objectives

- Attributes of long-term objectives

- Generic strategies - Grand strategies

Case# 22: Google’s Acquisition of Motorola

6 - Business strategies

- Requirement for business success

- Multi-business strategy - Portfolio approaches to business analysis

Case # 18: Chipotle

Case# 11: Apple vs. Samsung

7 -Strategy implementation

- Identify and apply the qualities of good short-term objectives to your own experiences

Cases# 27 and 28: Netflix (A) and (B)

- Interim assessment

8 - Organisational structure - Traditional organisational structures

management; managing

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for global and domestic competition, Chapter 11 9 - Leadership & Culture - -

Strategic Control - Leadership - Team building - Management skills

Case #30Yahoo.

10 Strategic control A & B Pearce & Robinson

(2014) Strategic

11 Innovation &

entrepreneurship

Case # 5: Southern New Hampshire University

12 Other group presentations A & B Other group presentation

13 Summary & synthesis A & B Summary and conclusion

14 Revision

15 & 16

Final exams – 70 points

References

Recommended

Pearce, J. A. and Robinson, R. B. (2014). Strategic management: managing for global and domestic competition; (14th_edition), McGraw-Hill/Irwin Inc., New York.

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Supplementary readings

Dess, G. G. & Lumpkin, G. T. (2003), Strategic Management: Creating competitive advantages, McGraw-Hill/Irwin Inc., New York. Johnson, G., Scholes K. & Whittington R (2008), Exploring Corporate Strategy: Text and Cases, Pearson Education Limited, England

In addition:

 Any good introductory text in Strategic Management/Business Policy  Business section of any newspaper

 Strategic Management publications (consult the library).

Class Participation

 Be prompt for all classes.

 A great deal of valuable learning takes place through discussion of the course topics. You are expected to attend all classes and participate in the class discussions regularly.

 You are expected to stay current with business news that relates in some way to the course content through available media: newspapers, radio, TV and the Internet.

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Pastoral Details Dr. Obi Berko

Office Location: 3rd_{Floor – Graduate Block Room GBS 13 (inner)}

Office Hours: Wednesdays & Tuesdays 4:00 pm – 5.30 pm