Business 3910

EGYPT Strategic Management

Course Syllabus
Faculty of Business
Instructor: Gary Evans, PhD
Office: 321
Mobile 213-3785
e-mail: gevans@upei.ca
website: Moodle Course Bus 3910 Strategic Management

Welcome to Business Strategy Bus 3910

Course Description:

This course looks at how organizations plan, develop and execute strategic plans. Using cases
and mini-cases the course helps the students understand the difference between tactical
planning and strategic planning. The world is changing and corporations need to re-invent
themselves if they are to survive. The course acknowledges the impact technology is having in
all businesses and considers how the corporation can use technology to its advantage.

The culture of the company dictates the best strategic plan necessary to match its culture.
Mergers, acquisitions and disposals are all part of building and reshaping of corporations in the
new world. The management style and culture are key ingredients for the formulation and
execution of a strategic plan that offers sustainable competitive advantage in the changing world
of today.

This course uses article and cases to aid the student in developing their understanding the
complex requirements in development of strategic plans. A corporation will normally spend 12-
18 months developing their strategic plan we will explore the challenges they face on this
journey. Good strategic plans become living documents that help guide the organization to its
future goals. Corporations understand this process is critical to their business success.

The course demand students to bring all their knowledge and skills to the table to try and solve
complex and messy real-life problems. The cases were selected for this course to give students
the opportunity to discuss and reflect on current and pressing problems facing corporations
today. Material is provided within the course that the participants can take home and apply to
problems they may be facing within their own business / corporate organizations. Strategy
combines all the skills of business with the need for creative thinking outside the box.

Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes

1. To introduce and provide a framework for analyzing organizational aspirations, mission,

and vision.

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 2. Identify the needs of various internal and external stakeholders that the company needs to
consider when formulating a corporate communications strategy

3. Vision, mission, and values; Strategic leadership; External and internal analyses;
Functional strategy, esp. operations management; Business models; Competitive strategy;
Innovation and technology strategy; Platform strategy and network effects; Learning
curve; Organizational culture and structure.

4. Understand the need for a corporate strategy. Understand how corporate strategy can
create positive and negative synergies. Understand the factors that influence a firm's
ability to capture the value from its corporate strategy. Understand the factors internal
and external to a firm that affect the firm's choice of corporate strategy.

5. Defines what technology strategy is and how it is different from competitive strategy.
Illustrates why it is important for a firm to develop a technology strategy. Identifies
internal and external factors that influence the technology strategy a firm should have and
how those factors affect the firm's success.

6. Understand the strategic tools that can be used in the formulation of a strategic strategy.

Required Readings:

All required readings are located on the Moodle site for this course. Each student is expected to
purchase the required course case material from the link to Ivey.
The course uses an open-source textbook as part of the required reading for this course whose
link can be found on the Moodle site.

Marks:

Participation Individual Performance 30%

Case Presentation and write-ups – individual: (Select any two of the three)
Case 1. Berkshire Hathaway, TCLK Blockchain or Falabella 25%

Case 2. Berkshire Hathaway, TCLK Blockchain or Falabella 25%

The submission dates are one week after the closing date of the discussion forum for that case.

Online Quizzes (Four) (Based on lecture and material) (Individual Mark)

20%
Case Write-Ups and Case Presentations:
All written work must be typed and double spaced. Please submit an electronic copy on the
assignment submission section on Moodle. The electronic copy is due on the Final due dates of
the discussion forums for a specific case.

You have three cases within the course structure two of which you are expected to make a
assignment submission on the location provided within Moodle. ALL students are expected to
participate for each of the three cases in the classroom forum discussions. One case hand-in is a

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report format outlining what you saw as the big issues of the case and your approach. Each case
has some questions, but these are only to help your focus and you can take a very board approach
to how you respond to the cases issue. Select only one between the Berkshire Hathaway, TCLK
Blockchain or Falabella for the write up type of report. Maximum of 2000 words.

A second hand-in assignment is either a video or presentation on your solution to a case. You
can select to do a video of your solution or alternatively submit a set of PowerPoint slides.
Maximum of 10 slides or 10 minutes of video. Again, you can select from the three cases but
you CANNOT do the same case for both hand-ins. This assignment is to be summitted using the
submission section on the Moodle site.

Office Hours: by appointment. (You can arrange a zoom meeting at a time that matches both of
our schedules)

Class Participation:

Class participation and group work are critical elements of this type of course. Poor online
performance or failing to participate online will have a negative impact on the final grade. You
MUST complete the online quiz by the closing date otherwise the system will allocate a mark of
zero. (See Moodle site for date of quizzes)

Preparation involves online participation of the readings and/or case for that week. For cases,
reading the case before class discussion is only half of the preparation you need. You should
also analyze the case so that you come ready to contribute your analysis, ideas and suggestions
online discussions. Your analysis should be backed up by the facts, logical reasoning, and
sometimes numerical analysis. At the very least, you should have answers ready for the assigned
questions for the cases. For non-case forums, you can prepare for class by completing the
required reading for the scheduled forum. (See workplan outline)

The skills you need to participate effectively in class are essentially the same as the skills you
will need to participate effectively in business meetings: (i) preparation, (ii) engagement, (iii)
willingness to take risks, and (iv) communication skills. Communication skills are important for
success. Many people are comfortable speaking to only a few people but are less comfortable in
front of larger groups.

During class forums, you will have the opportunity to ask questions on either the case being
reviewed or the material outlined. The aim is to make this course focused on your questions and
not just a set of presentation slides. The questions provided by you and your contributions will
count as part of your participation mark, so come prepared.

Online Quizzes (Individuals):

You will complete the four quizzes.

Quiz 1 (Introduction, Strategic Concepts, Competitive Advantage)
Quiz 2 (Industry Analysis / Tools)

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Quiz 3 (Strategy Trends and Technology)
Quiz 4 (Global Internationals and Strategic Implementations)

Each quiz is generated by a random generator so each student gets their own unique quiz. Each
quiz has 40 questions and 40 minutes to complete.

Failure to complete the online quiz will result in a mark of zero.

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