Business Strategy & Policy

Winter 2021
Course Syllabus

Class meets in online Microsoft Teams meeting room from 1pm to 4pm on weekdays from
November 30th to December 20th.

Instructor: Dr. Jun Yan

E-mail: Jun.Yan@csulb.edu
Address: Department of Management/HRM, College of Business, California
State University, Long Beach, 1250 Bellflower Boulevard,
Long Beach, California 90840

Course Description
Unlike other business courses that concentrate narrowly on a particular function or piece of the
business—accounting, finance, marketing, production, human resources, or information systems,
strategic management is a big picture course. It cuts across the whole spectrum of business and
management. The center of attention is the total enterprise, the industry and competitive
environment in which it operates, its long-term direction and strategy, its resources and competitive
capabilities, and its prospects for success.

Throughout the course, the spotlight will be trained on the foremost issue in running a business
enterprise: “What must managers do, and do well, to make the company a winner in the game of
business?” The answer that emerges, and which becomes the theme of the course, is that good
strategy-making and good strategy-execution is the key ingredients of company success and the
most reliable signs of good business performance. The mission of the course is to explore why
good strategic management leads to good business performance, to present the basic concepts and
tools of strategic analysis, and to drill you in the methods of crafting a well-conceived strategy and
executing it competently.

You will be called upon to probe, question, and evaluate all aspects of a company’s external and
internal situation. You will grapple with sizing up a company’s standing in the marketplace and its
ability to go head-to-head with rivals, learn to tell the difference between winning strategies and
mediocre strategies, and become more skilled in spotting ways to improve a company’s strategy or
its execution.

Required Texts and Materials:

Crafting and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage (concepts and cases) by
Margaret, Peteraf, Gamble, and Strickland (22nd ed.), International Student Edition.

Course Objectives
Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
a. Identify the components of the strategic management process
b. Conduct internal and external analyses of organizations
c. Apply the tools of industry analysis in understanding both domestic and international market
environments
d. Identify business-level, corporate-level, and international strategies
e. Evaluate factors contributing to sustainable competitive advantage
f. Explain the impact of globalization on strategic management
1
g. Explain the purposes and mechanisms of inter-organizational relationships
h. Evaluate the design of organizations for the international environment
i. Incorporate knowledge of world business and social and political events into strategic decision
making
j. Develop ethical and social responsibility mind-sets towards local, regional, and global
communities.

Grading Plan/Performance Evaluations

Your course grade will be based on the following components and points allocation:

Points
Class quiz (10@10points) 100

Letter grades are based on the following scales:

Total Class Points
A 900-1000
B 800-899
C 700-799
D 600-699
F Below 600

There are 10 required-to-take closed-book and closed-note quizzes. Each accounts for 10 points.

Tentative Class Schedule

Day Assignment/Activity____________________________________________________

Nov
30 Orientation and course preview; Chapter 1

Dec
01 Lecture/discussion of Chapter 2
02 Lecture/discussion of Chapter 2
03 Quiz 1 (Chapter 2), lecture/discussion of Chapter 3

06 Quiz 2 (Chapter 3, part 1), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 3

07 Quiz 3 (Chapter 3, part 2), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 4
08 Quiz 4 (Chapter 4, part 1), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 4
09 Quiz 5 (Chapter 4, part 2), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 5
10 Quiz 6 (Chapter 5), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 7

13 Lecture/discussion of Chapter 7, Movie “Gung Ho”

14 Quiz 7 (Chapter 7), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 8
15 Lecture/discussion of Chapter 8
16 Quiz 8 (Chapter 8), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 9
17 Quiz 9 (Chapter 9), Lecture/discussion of Chapter 10

20 Quiz 10 (Chapter 10)