University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
GSBA 519B: CORPORATE AND GLOBAL STRATEGY
Term IV, 2015
Professor: Carl W. Voigt, Ph.D.
Office: Bridge Hall 303-F
Phones: USC Office: (213) 740-0764, Mobile (213) 446-1753
Fax: (213) 740-3582
Email:
Office Hours: On the evenings we have class I will be available for sure, between 5:00-6:00 pm; Wednesdays between 5-6 pm at Main Campus, and Thursdays, 5-6 pm at OCC. I am available for phone appointments at other times. In person appointments at other times will mostly likely need to be on main campus but can be arranged for OCC with significant advanced notice.
Professor: Michael W. Coombs, Ph.D.**
Office: Bridge Hall 303
Phones: USC Office: (213) 740-9290, Mobile (213) 327-4263
Fax: (213) 740-3582
Email:
Office Hours: I am available to meet or chat. Please send an email and we will determine a time to talk.
**Professor Coombs will teach the MBA.PM Saturday Core. The content for all cores will be essentially the same, but the course sequence, assignments and exams, may be a little different.
Prerequisites: Completion of all first year MBA.PM core courses
Attend your Section: You are required, as with all your prior Core classes, to attend your own assigned Core. If work or other obligations, are going to require you to miss a session, we would rather you attend another Core than miss the course material. Prior approval of any change is required. Attending another Core class session requires prior approval in advance. Attendance will be noted, but no class participation points can be earned.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
GSBA 519B is concerned with strategy-making in global multi-businesses corporations. The course is designed to follow GSBA 519A, which focused on strategy-making within single-businesses, in single-industry contexts, in domestic national markets. Large companies must of course be concerned with developing sustainable winning competitive strategies for the individual markets in which they have a presence. However, they must also be concerned with choosing the industries, and global locations, in which they will compete, and with selecting the kinds of activities they will undertake inside (or outside) the company, from among the many opportunities that present themselves. As firms grow they are confronted by choices as to whether or not to expand the scope of the activities into new markets or new businesses. Some businesses choose to diversify horizontally in new markets. Some choose to vertically integrate backwards and/or forwards into other activities in their value chains. Still others choose to expand geographically into similar market in new locations, often across national borders. Some choose combinations of all three.
Corporate and global strategy is concerned with managing a global multi-business organization so as to maximize the value of the total enterprise. This means ensuring that the value of the whole corporation is greater than the sum of the values of its parts (its divisions or subunits). The three fundamental issues addressed in the course can be stated as follows:
· How does a corporation create economic value through its global multimarket activities?
· How must the corporation be structured and managed to realize the benefits of its global multimarket activities? That is, how can it create corporate or global advantages not available with a single market focus?
· Why should those activities be undertaken inside the corporation, rather than accessed through contracts, joint ventures or strategic alliances?
The course will offer analytical frameworks developed to address these questions, and will examine how these frameworks apply in concrete international business situations. The frameworks include, but are not limited to, the resource-based view of the firm, theories of strategy and structure, transaction cost economics, and theories of national competitive advantage.
COURSE ORGANIZATION
This course is the second in a two part course sequence. GSBA 519B builds on GSBA 519A and expands its focus to examine corporate and global strategy issues such as managing diversification and growth, vertical integration and strategic alliances, corporate restructuring and renewal processes, competing with global players and the
multinational corporation, creating and sustaining global competitive advantages, and designing dynamic organizations and decision-making processes.
DIFFERENT SECTIONS – SAME COURSE
Our MBA.PM program is designed to offer fully-employed students the same learning experience as MBAs in other MBA programs. It is delivered, however, in a different format; in the evenings in longer more intense sessions. As you know there are even different delivery modes within the MBA.PM program itself; some have a twice per week learning mode while others have a once per week mode.
Our goal is to deliver the same learning experience across all sections of the MBA.PM program. As such, we (Professors Coombs and Voigt) will use the same materials and same cases. However, because of the different class schedules and length of classes, the delivery of the course material will not be lock-step. In some cases, some sections will be ahead or behind other sections. This presents an obvious opportunity or temptation to sample across sections. We recommend against this.
This learning experience is for you. Just as spending time “googling” the companies in the assigned cases, destroys the real value of learning experience, asking colleagues for their notes and insights on cases and classes will also depreciate the value of your education. The grey area between helping a colleague and being involved in academic dishonesty is rather narrow!
Please pay close attention to the schedule for your own section. The calendar this year, with holidays, has made for an irregular class schedule. Please note class dates now.
CORPORATE STRATEGY THEMES
The course is divided into three broad strategic themes around issues in Corporate Strategy: Corporate Diversification and the Scope of the Corporation, Vertical Integration and Efficient Firm Boundaries, and Issues in Global Strategy and Competing in a Global Marketplace. Within each theme students will learn a different set of issues, theories, concepts, and analytical skills that need to be applied in formulating corporate strategy and making corporate-level strategic decisions. While carefully sequenced, the themes are not exclusive. Subjects and issues covered in the various themes will continuously reappear as the course proceeds.
COURSE FORMAT
The majority of class time will be devoted to the analysis and discussion of corporate strategy and global business cases. Short lectures (and selected videos) will also be used to elaborate on key theoretical models and frameworks or to reinforce crucial concepts. These lectures, however, will be subordinate to the case analysis. Cases provide a natural "test-bed" for theory and provide vivid examples that aid memory of concepts. While nothing can surpass first hand personal industry and managerial experience as a basis for analysis and decision-making, case analysis is an indispensable proxy for the kind of knowledge that can only be gained through years of experience and research.
There are other reasons for employing the case discussion method of instruction. First, it allows students to develop their skills at problem definition in addition to problem solving. Cases typically do not have an obvious set of tasks whose performance will lead to mastery. Rather, they force students to sift through a mass of information, some of it irrelevant or contradictory, in order to identify the important or strategic issues. Second, the case method gives students a chance to deal with ambiguity. Most cases do not have obvious "right" answers. Managers must be able to function in situations where the right answer is not known, without falling into the trap of assuming that any answer is as good as another. Some analyses and proposed strategies are clearly wrong, and some are clearly better than others. A popular phrase in case analysis classes is "There are no right answers, but there are wrong answers." Case discussion techniques provide a chance to learn the meaning of analytical rigor in situations other than open-and-shut problems.
COURSE EVALUATION
Course grades will be determined by students’ relative performance on the following three course components:
Course Participation/Commitment 15%
Group Case Analysis 20
Final Exam 65
100%
In order to successfully pass this course, a passing grade (> 50%) must be achieved in each individual course component. Grading standards will conform to USC guidelines for required courses: a mean GPA guideline of 3.3 [Faculty Handbook, 1994: 30).
COURSE PARTICIPATION/COMMITMENT
Course participation will be evaluated in a number of ways: in-class participation, turn-ins, group presentations, occasional quizzes, peer evaluation of group performance, and attendance (see MBA.PM program policies).
In-Class Participation. Case courses work well, and are enjoyable effective learning experiences, if everyone is an active productive participant. Your overall class participation will be closely monitored. In grading in-class participation, I will look at both the quantity and quality of your class contributions/interventions. In-class participation is obviously a function of preparation, skills, attitude, and a willingness to actively commit yourself in front of me, and your colleagues. A classroom is a cost-free environment for experimenting and learning to "play the game." Make use of it. I recognize that some students are far more comfortable than others with in-class participation. However, it is important you make an effort every class to contribute in some meaningful way. Please feel free to come and discuss with me ways to enhance your participation.
With regard to quality, the dimensions that I look for include:
Relevance -- does the comment bear on the subject at hand? Comments that do not link up with what the discussion is focusing on can actually detract from the learning experience.
Causal Linkage -- are the logical antecedents or consequences of a particular argument traced out? Comments that push the implications of a fact or idea as far as possible are generally superior.
Responsiveness -- does the comment react in an important way to what someone else has said?
Analysis -- is the reasoning employed consistent and logical?
Evidence -- have data from the case, from personal experience, from general knowledge been employed to support the assertions made?
Importance -- does the contribution further our understanding of the issues at hand? Is a connection made with other cases we have analyzed?
Clarity -- is the comment succinct and understandable? Does it stick to the subject or does it wander?
It is expected that all students will make brief notes or outlines -- identify critical problems, "crank-all-the-numbers," do the financials, generate alternative recommended courses of action, and generate ideas about how to implement them. You should rely on these notes when contributing to the class discussion.
Students may/will be called on, at random, to take the lead in various aspects of class discussions. Typically, I will ask one or more participants to start the class by answering specific questions such as “If you were the person in charge in this situation, what would you do?” The quality of the contributions made during these periods will weigh heavily on a student’s overall participation grade. Factual misstatements, comments that demonstrate a lack of adequate preparation, or comments that come late in a discussion that distract the class and indicate that the student has not been actively listening will be noted as “negative” course participation. Your participation will be evaluated based on the evaluation form described in Appendix 1.
Participation Cards. Students are encouraged/required to submit “participation cards” at the end each class session in which they actively participated. These cards should list your name, the date, the case or topic discussed that day, and a very brief synopsis of your contributions during that session’s discussion. The Participation Cards will be used in combination with the instructor’s own daily evaluations to determine your participation grade for the session. For this purpose, please purchase a package of 3x5 index cards and bring them to each class.
Turn-ins: Recognizing that it is not always possible for every student to contribute to every case discussion, and that some students are naturally more reserved than others, students can turn in individually prepared, but brief, answers to group case assignment question for that case. (These should be a maximum of one typed page. Preferably they would be in management report/consulting format; that means, making use of bullets and annotated diagrams liberally.) These “turn-ins” will be noted toward a student’s participation grade. Any “turn-ins” must be turned in at the beginning of class to receive credit. You cannot submit a “turn-in” to make up for a class absence. (These notes will not be graded but will be checked with a plus, check or minus depending on quality and thoroughness.) Note, however, that these notes do not substitute for contributing to our core learning environment. Each student has a responsibility to help his or her core learn from their interventions in class. Students are encouraged/required to turn in at least two (2) “turn-ins” and can turn in a maximum of four (4) during the term. However, if your group is turning in the group assignment, you may not additionally submit an “individual turn-in.” There are turn-in opportunities in all four Sessions.
Group Presentations. When groups submit a group case analysis they will be asked, somewhat randomly, to present orally some component/part of their group case analysis to the class. You will not get to do a full presentation on the case. You must be prepared to discuss any portion of the assignment. For example, on days where multiple groups are submitting reports, one group may be asked to present their quantitative analysis, another group may be asked to present their competitor analysis, while a third group may be asked to present and defend their recommendations. Consequently all groups should bring both a hard copy and a USB containing their case analysis for us when called on to present to class. I will try to ensure that all groups will get approximately an equal number of opportunities to present. This will likely mean only one chance, but we will try for more opportunities. Please be sure that your presentation focuses directly on the assignment questions described below in the separate class session descriptions.
Occasional Quizzes. Several short unannounced quizzes may be given during the course to test mastery of course concepts and assigned readings. These quizzes will be given to check our mastery of the basic concepts of the course. These quizzes will be given at exactly the beginning of class (i.e., 6 pm for an evening class). (We often give them out earlier for those wanting a little extra time). This is an added encouragement to be on time. Expect four or five pop quizzes (may be even six or seven) to sharpen and test your acquisition of strategic knowledge. Missed quizzes may not be made up. Quiz scores are used to determine your course contribution/participation grade. Quizzes are not returned. The answers are discussed immediately after the quizzes are collected. Students may not make copies of quiz questions in any way, including using devices to capture images of the questions. Accessing prior quizzes, if available, is considered an academic integrity violation, as is sharing/discussing the questions and answers with other cores before they have completed similar quizzes. You may come during office hours to check and review your quizzes.