Strategic Management

Dr. LE THANH LONG

Course Objectives
This course provides students with the basic knowledge
and tools necessary to:
 Conceptualise a firm’s competitive environment and
resources.
 Understand how a firm develops and changes its
strategic position
 Formulate, implement and evaluate a competitive
strategy.

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Course Contents

 Course Schedule

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Methodology

 Students are expected to pre-read the chapters in the

textbook
 Most of time in the class will be used for discussion
 Students are encouraged to ask questions in the class.
 Students are required to prepare assignments/homeworks
 Students are suggested to visit related websites and get
additional information to prepare assignments/homeworks

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Materials
Required Textbook
 Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases.
Fred David. Prentice Hall, 12th Edition

Additional Materials
 Strategic Management - Planning for Domestic
& Global Competition. John A. Pearce II and
Richard B. Robinson, Jr., 12th Edition

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Assessment
 Class Attendance 5%
 Individual Homework 5%
 Case Analysis 10 %
 Group Assignment 20 %
 Individual Assignment 10 %
 Final Exam 50%
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Case Analysis
1. Each student is assigned a case
2. Analyzing the case:
 Introduce the case and the organization/ company.
 What did the company do in a weak economy?.

 Lesson learned for Vietnamese Companies

3. Submitting report and Presenting case.
4. Q&A

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Homeworks

1. Each student has to do homework

2. Submitting report next lecture (softcopy)
3. Homework can be used for discussion

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 Group Assignment
1. Students will be divided into 3 groups
2. Each group choose a company for group assignment.
The group has to:
 Describe company vision, mission and long term objectives
(company profile)
 Analyze external and internal environment
 Analyze Company’s existing strategy/ activities
 Identify strategic problems/challenges of the company
 Suggest solutions to solve strategic issues/problems of the
company.
3. Submitting assignment (on week 8, hardcopy & file)
4. Presentation (week 9,10)
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 Individual Assignment

1. Each Student choose one function of the company of

Group assignment (Marketing, Finance, R&D, …)
2. Discuss about the role of the functional activities in
Company strategy
3. Comment about the advantage and disadvantage of
functional activities of the company
4. Give suggestions (if any)
5. Submitting assignment together with group
assignment (on week 8, hardcopy & file)

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Contact
Dr. LE THANH LONG
Department of External Relations and Project Development
Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City
Office: Room 221
Tel: 37242181 ext:1456
HP: 0918041187
Email: lethanhlong.sg@gmail.com

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Suggestions

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Chapter One
The Nature of Strategic Management
Dr. LE THANH LONG
Learning Objectives
1. Describe the strategic-management
process.
2. Discuss the three stages of strategy
formulation, implementation, and
evaluation activities.
3. Illustrate the comprehensive strategic-
management model.
4. Describe the benefits of engaging in
strategic management.
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Defining Strategic Management

Strategic Management
the art and science of formulating,
implementing, and evaluating cross-
functional decisions that enable an
organization to achieve its objectives

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Defining Strategic Management
 Strategic management is used
synonymously with the term strategic
planning in this course.
 Sometimes the term strategic
management is used to refer to strategy
formulation, implementation, and
evaluation, with strategic planning
referring only to strategy formulation.

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Defining Strategic Management
 A strategic plan is a company’s game
plan.

 A strategic plan results from tough

managerial choices among numerous
good alternatives, and it signals
commitment to specific markets, policies,
procedures, and operations.

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Stages of Strategic Management

Strategy Strategy Strategy

formulation implementation evaluation

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Stages of Strategic Management
Strategy Formulation
 developing a vision and mission
 identifying an organization’s external
opportunities and threats
 determining internal strengths and weaknesses
 establishing long-term objectives
 generating alternative strategies
 choosing particular strategies to pursue

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Strategy Formulation Decisions

 What new businesses to enter

 What businesses to abandon
 Whether to expand operations or diversify
 Whether to enter international markets
 Whether to merge or form a joint venture
 How to avoid a hostile takeover

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Stages of Strategic Management
Strategy Implementation
 requires a firm to establish annual
objectives, devise policies, motivate
employees, and allocate resources so
that formulated strategies can be
executed
 often called the action stage

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Stages of Strategic Management
Strategy Evaluation
 Determining which strategies are not
working well
 Three fundamental activities:
 reviewing external and internal factors
that are the bases for current strategies
 measuring performance
 taking corrective actions

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Key Terms in Strategic Management
Competitive Advantage
 any activity a firm does especially well
compared to activities done by rival firms,
or
 any resource a firm possesses that rival
firms desire.
 A firm must strive to achieve sustained
competitive advantage
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Key Terms in Strategic Management

Vision and Mission Statements

 A vision statement answers the
question “What do we want to
become?”
 A mission statement answers the
question “What is our business?”

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Key Terms in Strategic Management
External Opportunities and Threats
 economic, social, cultural, demographic,
environmental, political, legal, governmental,
technological, and competitive trends and
events that could significantly benefit or harm
an organization
Internal Strengths and Internal Weaknesses
 an organization’s controllable activities that
are performed especially well or poorly
 determined relative to competitors
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Some Opportunities and Threats
 Availability of capital can no longer be taken for
granted.
 Consumers expect green operations and
products.
 Marketing is moving rapidly to the Internet.
 Commodity food prices are increasing.
 An oversupply of oil is driving oil and gas prices
down.

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Key Terms in Strategic Management
Long-Term Objectives
 specific results that an organization
seeks to achieve in pursuing its basic
mission
 long-term means more than one year
 should be challenging, measurable,
consistent, reasonable, and clear

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Key Terms in Strategic Management
Strategies
 the means by which long-term
objectives will be achieved
 may include geographic expansion,
diversification, acquisition, product
development, market penetration,
retrenchment, divestiture, liquidation,
and joint ventures

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Key Terms in Strategic Management
Annual objectives
 short-term milestones that organizations
must achieve to reach long-term objectives
 should be measurable, quantitative,
challenging, realistic, consistent, and
prioritized
 should be established at the corporate,
divisional, and functional levels in a large
organization

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Key Terms in Strategic Management

Policies
 the means by which annual objectives
will be achieved

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The Strategic-Management Model

Where are we now?

Where do we want to go?

How are we going to get there?

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Comprehensive Strategic-Management Model
Chapter 10: Business Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Sustainability

Perform
External Audit
Chapter 3

Implement
Generate, Implement Strategies—
Develop Vision Establish Measure
Evaluate, Strategies— Marketing,
and Mission Long-Term and Evaluate
and Select Management Finance,
Statements Objectives Performance
Strategies Issues Accounting, R&D,
Chapter 2 Chapter 5 Chapter 9
Chapter 6 Chapter 7 and MIS Issues
Chapter 8

Perform
Internal Audit
Chapter 4

Chapter 11: Global/International Issues

Strategy Strategy Strategy

Formulation Implementation Evaluation
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Benefits of Strategic Management
 Strategic management allows an
organization to be more proactive than
reactive in shaping its own future;

 It allows an organization to initiate and

influence (rather than just respond to)
activities—and thus to exert control over
its own destiny.

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Benefits to a Firm That Does Strategic
Planning

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Financial Benefits
 Businesses using strategic-management
concepts show significant improvement in
sales, profitability, and productivity
compared to firms without systematic
planning activities
 High-performing firms tend to do
systematic planning to prepare for future
fluctuations in their external and internal
environments
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Nonfinancial Benefits
 Enhanced awareness of external threats
 Improved understanding of competitors’
strategies
 Increased employee productivity
 Reduced resistance to change
 Clearer understanding of performance–
reward relationships

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How to Gain and Sustain Competitive
Advantage

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Excerpts from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War
Writings
 War is a matter of vital importance to the
state: a matter of life or death, the road
either to survival or ruin. Hence, it is
imperative that it be studied thoroughly
 Know your enemy and know yourself, and in
a hundred battles you will never be defeated
 Skillful leaders do not let a strategy inhibit
creative counter-movement

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Homework 1

 Why do some firms do not engage in

strategic planning, and some firms do
strategic planning but receive no support
from managers and employees?
 What are the pitfalls in strategic
management?
 Compare business strategy and military
strategy
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