In this course we develop a framework for managing organizations at the strategic level. We consider the essential long-term concerns of management in directing, building, and supporting organizational competences that enable organizations to perform effectively in their competitive environments. Through this framework, we develop a foundation for integrating the many perspectives -- financial, operational, human resources, technological, and others -- that must be brought together to provide effective strategic management of organizations.

We begin by developing and applying a model of the strategic management process at the individual business unit level that focuses on an organization’s Strategic Logic that defines the organization’s
• Business Concept -- its approach to creating customer value
• Organization Concept -- its plan for organizing value-creating processes
• Core Processes -- its processes for creating product offers, for realizing product offers, and for developing stakeholders who make those processes possible.
We also place the Strategic Logic in a dynamic context by elaborating three frameworks for monitoring and responding to change in the environment of the firm: a macro-environmental framework, an industry level framework, and the product life cycle in a product market.
We then extend this “business unit” model of strategic management processes to explore the objectives and methods of corporate strategic management (the coordination of multiple business units) and global strategic management (coordination across international boundaries).

Practical Application of Theory
Through both cases and intensive group project work, the course demonstrates and exemplifies how strategy theory can be used to analyze macro and micro-economic problems in both theoretical and practical terms.

Relation to a Business or an Institutional Setting
The course includes descriptions and analyses of different types of companies and institutions, industries, and markets, but also addresses the strategic management of government and other not-for-profit organizations. The course makes use of case analyses and exercises in all these organizational contexts.

Relation to International Business or Economics
The international perspective is emphasized to a substantial degree. This is done by analyzing international strategies of companies and the role of various culture3s in the strategic management process..

Research Based Teaching
The lecturer’s own research is included in curriculum by using the lecturer’s strategic management textbook and selected articles.

Required textbook:
The New Strategic Management: Organization, Competition, and Competence by Ron Sanchez and
Aime Heene, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 0 471 34400 1 (Note: Identical paperback edition is also
available at lower price).
Students will also receive a copy of “Designing Modular Platforms for Strategic Flexibility” by Ron
Sanchez, Design Management Journal (2004).