Spring 2018
Ms. Bonita Austin
Professor (Lecturer) - Strategy
Asst. Department Chair – Entrepreneurship & Strategy
Office: SFE 4117
Email: Use Canvas email
Phone: 801-585-1112
Office Hours: M/W 11:00AM- 12:00PM. Other times available by appointment.
TA’s: Jeff Letsinger, Garrett Holm, Hayden Shettig (contact via Canvas email)
Credits: STRAT 5700 is 3.0 credit hour course
Required Text: Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage: Concepts and Cases - Barney and Hesterly 5ed Edition. The text is included in your course fee and is provided to you on Canvas through the RedShelf link in Canvas. Please textbook section below for more information.
Course Description
Enrollment Requirement: Prerequisites: C- or better in ((FINAN 3040OR FINAN 3041) AND (MGT 3680OR MGT 3681) AND (MKTG 3010OR MKTG 3011)) AND Full Major status in the School of Business.
Components: Lecture
This course teaches students important theories in strategy and allows them to apply the theories to real business situations through the extensive use of cases. Students learn key frameworks and analytical tools that help managers allocate company resources, and develop strategies to gain competitive advantages over rival firms. Course topics include industry analysis, internal analysis, business level strategies, diversification, strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions. The course carries a substantial reading and writing load. Students are expected to actively participate in class and case discussions.
Course Overview
The central question of this strategic management course, and of much of strategy research over the past thirty years is “Why do some firms outperform others?” We will spend the term learning strategy theory and applying it to real business situations presented in cases and classroom exercises. The class will explore questions such as “What is the structure of the video game industry?”; “Is Apple’s iTunes business a relic of the past?”; “What will it take to gain mass adoption of the electric car in the US?”; “Is Walmart a better company than Target?”; “Do acquisitions ever create value for the acquirer or does all the money inevitably go to the shareholders of the company that sells out?” At the end of the term, students will be able to answer the central question of the course.
Strategy is an integrative discipline. That means students are required to use the principles, analytic tools, and communication skills learned in prerequisite courses WRTG 2010/MGT 3810, MKT 3010, FIN 3040, and MGT 3680 in the class discussions and projects. All students MUST have completed the prerequisite courses to be enrolled in STRAT 5700. If you have not completed the prerequisites, drop the course and re-enroll once you have completed them.
We will use a variety of both traditional and not-traditional learning tools throughout the course such as short simulations, games, cases, role play, experiential exercises, topic guides, quizzes, and exams. CANVAS is an important part of the course. In order to keep up with course work, you should plan to check CANVAS regularly. I will post lecture notes, answers to in-class exercises, resources for the team project, and other study materials on CANVAS. Our course is organized as a series of wiki pages. Nearly everything you need for the course is located on CANVAS/Pages. The course calendar appears on the home page. The dates for assignments are “set in stone” and will not change once the term begins.
This course requires substantial individual preparation and class discussion, and has a relatively heavy reading and writing load. If you have difficulty with writing, please work with the writing lab on every written assignment. In order to succeed in the class, you must attend every class.
Students must earn a C- or higher in STRAT 5700 to graduate.
What You Will Learn: Course Objectives (CO)
Each student will be able to:
D CO1: identify and analyze business unit and corporate strategies using the tools provided by the instructor and the textbook, basic financial analysis, marketing principles, and organizational management concepts;
D CO2: assess the past performance and likelihood of future success of real strategies,
D CO3: formulate recommendations for meeting competitive and organizational challenges managements face;
D CO 4: communicate his/her recommendations effectively, succinctly, and persuasively both orally and in writing; and
D CO 5: evaluate team members effectively and work in a team.
Why Learn It?
Management is about choices. Successful managers choose resource allocations that give their firms sustainable, profitable market positions. Strategy guides resource allocations and separates successful firms from unsuccessful firms. Unsuccessful firms eke out an existence or fail outright. Their cost of capital is higher than for successful firms. They have limited flexibility and opportunities for growth. High performing employees defect to successful firms and the top employee prospects are unavailable to them. Successful firms have superior financial performance, lower cost of capital, options for growth, and good prospects for hiring the best employees and retaining them.
Understanding strategic management will help you personally in several important ways. First, studying strategic management will give you the tools to evaluate future employers. You have a better chance of selecting an employer that you are compatible with and offers you the opportunity for personal growth and advancement if you understand the firm’s competitive position and management’s plans for the future of the company.
Second, learning how to conduct external and internal analyses and the key elements of business level and corporate strategies as well as how to analyze and write up cases will improve your chance of success in interviews. An increasing number of employers rely on case interviews to grant second interviews and select college graduates for positions in management, finance, marketing, accounting, and OIS. I personally know former undergraduate and graduate students who credit their job offers to learning how to analyze cases and write them up in the PO format in my classes.
Third, the process and principles you learn in STRAT 5700 will help you position your own business for success. Many students either operate their own business or plan to open their own business after graduation. As the CEO of your own company, you must figure out how to address your customers and use your firm resources differently than your competitors in order to succeed in the long run.
Fourth, strategy is a key element of a successful business plan. Many students plan to compete in the Utah Entrepreneur Challenge. My former students have won the challenge in the past, largely due to their superior analysis of the external environment and understanding of how to address competitive challenges by using a unique business model for their industry (noted by the judges in their feedback to the team).
Finally, studying strategic management will make you a more valuable employee. Most college graduates can plug figures into a spreadsheet and calculate answers. The most valuable graduates understand what numbers to come up with based upon an understanding of the firm’s strategy.
How You Will Learn It
Course Objective / Type / Activity / DirectionD CO1 / Read / Textbook / Self Directed (Individual)
D CO1; D CO2; D CO3;
D CO 4 / Analysis / Cases / Instructor & Self Directed (Individual)
D CO1; D CO2; D CO3;
D CO 4 / Analysis / In Class Exercises / Instructor & Self Directed (Group)
D CO1; D CO2; D CO3;
D CO 4 / Analysis / Case Briefs, Case Write Ups (PO’s) / Self Directed (Individual)
D CO1; D CO2; D CO3;
D CO 4 / Analysis / Team Project / Self Directed (Group)
D CO1 / Evaluation / Quizzes/Exams / Instructor Directed
D CO1; D CO2; D CO3;
D CO 4 / Lecture & Discussion / Class Participation / Instructor & Self Directed (Individual and Group)
D CO1; D CO2 / Personal / Review Learning Objectives for Each Course Segment / Self Directed (Individual)
D CO 4; D CO 5 / Team / Team Project / Self-Directed (Group & Individual)
Textbook Information
All sections of STRAT 5700 use Strategic Management & Competitive Advantage: Concepts & Cases -5ed Barney & Hesterly. This year, we have been able to negotiate a significantly lower price for an electronic version of the text that the publisher has made available previously. You have already paid for the textbook in the form of your course fee. Do not buy another copy of the book.
Although Amazon sometimes has rental copies of the text available at lower prices than the $58 course fee, the nearly 800 DESB students that take this course annually cannot obtain the correct text at more favorable prices. To get your copy of the text, simply log on to Canvas. Click on the RedShelf e-book link on the left side of the home page. To access the advanced features of the text, such as highlighting sections or creating flash cards from the text, go to Canvas/Pages/Textbook information and view the tutorials posted for you. If you prefer to have a haard copy of the text, the campus bookstore has an arrangement with the publisher to apply your $58 course fee plus an extra charge (but at reduced prices) to give you a hard copy. If you want to opt out of the arrangement and the course fee, follow the instructions posted on Canvas/Pages/Textbook information. Note that if you choose to get the text elsewhere, you must make sure that your copy includes all of the current cases that appear in the 5ed. This has been a problem for students in the past – missing cases or the wrong cases in the books they purchase that do not come directly from the publisher or the campus bookstore. We use this text extensively in the course. I believe it enchances your chance of success in the course and greatly aids your understanding of strategy concepts and application to have access to the correct text.
About Your Instructor
Bonita Austin is a Professor (Lecturer) and the Assistant Department Chair for Entrepreneurship & Strategy in the David Eccles School of Business at the University of Utah. She received the Marvin Ashton Award for Teaching Excellence in 2015, Brady Award for Superior Teaching for 2014 as well as the Daniels Award for Leadership in Ethics Education and the Daniels Award for Ethics Education for 2013.
Ms. Austin served as Director - Management Undergraduate Studies from 2010-2012. She also served on the University of Utah Ad Hoc Committee on Auxiliary Faculty from 2012-2013 and the Academic Senate Sub-Committee on Auxiliary Faculty RPT in 2012. Ms. Austin was a member of the undergraduate program planning committee as part of the David Eccles School of Business strategic planning initiative in 2010-2011. Her teaching interests include undergraduate and graduate courses in Strategic Management, and Business Turnarounds.
Ms. Austin was the faculty advisor for the DESB Case Competition Club and served as the coach to the 2015 and 2011 ACG Utah Cup winners (an annual case competition on mid-market mergers & acquisitions for graduate students). In Spring 2012, Ms. Austin launched a DESB Ethics competition open only to undergraduate students. Thanks to funding from the Daniels Ethics Grant, the winners of the competition travel to Denver each spring to compete against other schools in our region as part of the Daniels Ethics Initiative. Our DESB teams placed 3rd in 2012 and 3rd in 2014 in the Denver competition. Ms. Austin also has hosted/coached several other case competitions and teams for both undergraduate and graduate students since 2011.
Since joining the DESB in August 2008, she has written and published five teaching cases with accompanying teaching notes. Three cases of the cases are contained in Barney & Hesterly Strategic Management and Competitive Advantage 5 ed – True Religion Jeans: Will Going Private Bring Back Its Congregation; You Say You Want a Revolution: Sodastream International; and Starbucks: An Alex Poole Strategy Case. The other two cases appeared in earlier editions of Barney & Hesterly Strategic Management – True Religion Brand Jeans and the Premium Jeans Industry and True Religion Brand Jeans and the Premium Jeans Industry: Cyclical Downturn or Secular Slowdown?
From 1986-August 2008, Ms. Austin was a Securities Analyst. She followed the household products, personal care and cosmetics companies for three major brokerage firms -- Wertheim Schroder, Lehman Brothers, and Prudential Securities. As an Institutional Investor’s All American All Star Analyst, Ms. Austin became a Senior Vice President at Lehman Brothers. In her capacity as an industry expert, sheappeared as a special guest on Wall $treet Week with Louis Rukeyser. She also served on the Prudential Securities Investment Committee. Ms. Austin was a long-time member of the Wall Street Transcript’s annual roundtable on her industry and was recognized by the Wall Street Journal for earnings estimate accuracy. Her work received frequent citations in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Business Week, Fortune, and Forbes. NPR and a variety of television shows also regularly interviewed Ms. Austin. Most recently, Ms. Austin was featured in the 2010 book “Chasing Stars: The Myth of Talent and the Portability of Talent” by Harvard Professor, Dr. Boris Groysberg.
For the 9 years prior to joining the DESB, Ms. Austin worked as an analyst consultant for two hedge funds following consumer products companies ranging from toy manufacturers to high-end jeans makers to all types of retailers. She has analyzed more than 65 companies in the course of her career. Prior to becoming a securities analyst, she worked as a cost analyst in the Beech Island, SC Mill for Kimberly-Clark Corporation. Ms. Austin holds an MBA from University of Alabama, and a BS from Troy University (math and economics).