Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Leadership Syllabus 2
Leadership Syllabus 2
08
LEADERSHIP IN A TIME OF CHANGE
Spring 2009, Wednesday, 2-4:30 p.m.
Room 340A
This course is designed for future business journalists, as well as for future directors and
managers in advertising and corporate communications who will be working directly
with media and technology executives – and aspire to someday lead a media or digital
enterprise.
It builds on the skills acquired in other courses. Therefore, undergraduate students should
have completed at least one of the following: Digital Media Economics and Behavior,
Economic Reporting, or Business Reporting. Graduate students should have relevant
professional experience – or completed at least one of these courses.
Course Requirements: Since this is a seminar, students are expected to attend class and
actively participate in discussions, which will be based on assigned readings and select
case studies. Students should read assigned texts and case studies in advance and come to
class ready to volunteer insights and perspectives. A well-informed future media
executive regularly reads The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times business section,
paidcontent.org, BusinessWeek, Fortune and Forbes. In addition, students should sign up
to receive updates from at least two of the following websites:
workingknowledge@hbs.edu (Harvard), gbs.columbia.edu/ideas@work
(Columbia),Wharton.upenn.edu (knowledge@wharton), mckinseyquarterly.com
(McKinsey & Co.), strategy-business.com (Booz Allen Hamilton).
Grading and Assignments:
In addition, students who wish to receive an “A” for the semester’s work – or the
graduate equivalent of “Honors” – should deliver to the professor in the second class
(Jan. 21) a sealed one-page letter explaining how they will earn that grade. This letter is
the first leadership exercise and is designed to help students clarify their own personal
and professional goals for this course. It will be opened and read by the professor ONLY
at the end of the semester, after the case study is submitted. Please read Chapter 3,
“Giving an A” in The Art of Possibility (see below, required reading) before composing
the letter.
Leadership Profile: In consultation with the professor, students should choose a media
or technology executive and research his or her leadership skills and style. This can be a
well-known executive – such as Steve Jobs, Meg Whitman, Punch Sulzberger or Ted
Turner. Or it can be a lesser-known, lower-ranking executive who has dealt successfully
with a major change initiative.
Students will be responsible for producing a 4-page paper examining the executive’s
strengths and weaknesses, strategic vision and effectiveness at mobilizing and
implementing organizational change. Students will also be responsible for leading a 20-
to 30-minute class discussion focusing on the executive and the company they lead.
Selection of executive due by January 28. Due date for written profile and class
discussion assigned by the professor in second half of semester.
Historical Book Report: Choose one of the following historical accounts and prepare a
2-to 3-page paper discussing the leadership skills displayed by the historical figure or
figures profiled in these books:
Selection of book is due by January 21. See course calendar for due date for written
report and class discussion.
Written Case Study: In consultation with the professor, you will choose a local media
company and produce a 7- to 10-page case study on a change initiative the executives are
implementing or considering. In addition, you will produce a teaching outline of one to
two pages that suggests what important leadership lessons are highlighted and illustrated
by the case study.
During the semester, you will work closely with the company you are profiling and
researching. Depending on the quality of the work you produce, you may be asked to
present directly to the company’s executives.
Selection of case study is due by January 21. Outline of case study is due March 4.
Final written case study is due April 27.
Also, graduate students are expected to help research case studies that I am co-authoring
this semester with Yale School of Management professor Richard Foster.
Required Reading:
Creative Destruction: Why Companies That Are Built to Last Underperform the Market,
Richard Foster and Sarah Kaplan, Currency Doubleday.
The Strategy-Focused Organization, Robert Kaplan and David Norton, Harvard Business
School Press.
The Wisdom of Teams, Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith, Harvard Business School
Press.
The Art of Possibility, Rosamund Stone Zander and Bejamin Zander, Harvard Business
School Press.
This course is designed to help you begin to acquire a “library” of seminal leadership
texts. While numerous books on leadership are published each year, these have been
chosen because the material in the book has been extensively researched and vetted, often
in an academic setting.
Required Cases:
In addition, you will be assigned six to eight case studies that we will discuss in class
during the semester. These cases will include:
Additional cases will be assigned by January 28. These cases will focus very specifically
on the special issues confronting the companies you are profiling in your case studies.
Course Calendar:
Break
March 18: Leadership Across Disciplines
Certain Trumpets, Wills.
Book Report on The Prince
Leadership Profile # 1
April 22: Discussion of the various case studies produced by students, and lesson
learned