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2015/2016  KAN-CINTO1019U  Strategy Making in Global Environments

English Title
Strategy Making in Global Environments

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems, BSc
Course coordinator
  • Niels Bjørn-Andersen - Department of IT Mangement (ITM)
Main academic disciplines
  • Strategy
Last updated on 13-08-2015
Learning objectives
To achieve the grade 12, students should meet the following learning objectives with no or only minor mistakes or errors: After completing the course students should demonstrate:
  • An understanding of the main corporate strategy theories
  • An understanding of how MNEs grow in the global environment using information and IT as strategic resources
  • An understanding of the key strategic challenges for Information Management and IT related to global environments
  • An understanding of how important IT is for the ways MNEs chose to organize
  • An ability to analytically reflect on the international strategy issues related to information and IT management
  • An ability to utilize theories on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for analysis of real cases
Prerequisites for registering for the exam
Number of mandatory activities: 5
Compulsory assignments (assessed approved/not approved)
Before nine sessions, students must do a case analysis and upload their case solution. There will typically be 2 - 3 questions, to be addresses in relation to the case, and the students need to prepare a short analysis (maximum one page) of these questions. For the HBR type cases, this requires the students to read the case and perhaps discuss it with fellow students before answering the questions. For the living cases, students should only use publicly available information on the Internet (company web-page, newspaper articles about the company etc.). The case analysis must be uploaded before class, and students will be called upon to defend or further augment their analysis in the class discussion. To go to the exam, 7 case analyses have to be uploaded.
Examination
Strategy Making in Global Environments:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Written sit-in exam
Individual or group exam Individual
Assignment type Case based assignment
Duration 4 hours
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and external examiner
Exam period Winter and Winter
Aids allowed to bring to the exam Closed Book: no aids
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If the number of registered candidates for the make-up examination/re-take examination warrants that it may most appropriately be held as an oral examination, the programme office will inform the students that the make-up examination/re-take examination will be held as an oral examination instead.
Description of the exam procedure

Individual 4 hour written closed- books exam based on a case analysis answering a set of questions. An exam Q&A session is arranged, after the instruction is completed, but before the exam.
Course content and structure

The overall objective of this course is to provide the student with an understanding of the field of corporate strategy in relation to information and IT, and provide them with tools and methodologies enabling them to take a key role in developing a global IT strategy. The pedagogical model is intended to familiarize the students with issues in international business strategy as it relates to information management and IT, and to take the students from theory to strategy application through the use of case studies regarding multi-national enterprises (MNE’s).
 
On the bachelor level, we have almost exclusively looked at the organization as one integrated business primarily operating only in one market. In this course we look at global companies and companies made up of a large number of Strategic Business Units, where the challenge and requests for governance for the IT function are dramatically different.
 
The course is basically bridging the gaps between corporate strategy, information management and IT management. The pedagogical model takes into account that students have different entry level qualifications, since it is assumed that students come with the skills acquired from the BA(im) HA(it) programs and international students taking the course as an elective. No technical skills are required. However, it is required that students have a certain familiarity regarding strategy literature. This means that students without any knowledge about strategy will need to study somewhat harder than those who have this background.
Teaching methods
The course will consist of ten 3-hour sessions, distributed over w. 36-37, 39-41, 43-44 and 46-48. In addition, there will exam Q&A in week 48 or 49.

The first session will introduce the course, and wrap-up the essential pre-knowledge that attending students are supposed to be familiar with. It is also strongly recommended that the students with a HA it bachelor degree also take part in this session, although it will be substantial overlap with the course on strategy from th 4th semester of the HA it.

Sessions 2-10 will each focus on a different IT-strategy challenge facing large companies acting in global environments. The typical format for the following sessions 2 – 10 will be a lecture, interactive dialog elements and an in-class discussion of the case. Some of the cases will be traditional teaching cases (HBR type but provided free of charge to students), while the remaining cases will be living cases, where I will invite CIOs of major MNEs to present their IT and information management challenges and how they deal with these.

Before each of the nine sessions, students must do a case analysis and upload their case solution. There will typically be 2 - 3 questions, to be addresses in relation to the case, and the students need to prepare a short analysis (maximum one page) of these questions. For the HBR type cases, this requires the students to read the case and perhaps discuss it with fellow students before answering the questions. For the living cases, students should only use publicly available information on the Internet (company web-page, news-paper articles about the company etc.). The case analysis must be uploaded before class, and students will be called upon to defend or further augment their analysis in the class discussion. To summarize, before each class every student must do an independent analysis of the case and upload the answer. Students are encouraged to collaborate, but must hand in individual assignments.
Student workload
Preparation for classes 90 hours
Preparation for 9 cases including submission of written solutions to 3 – 5 questions 70 hours
Class attendance 30 hours
Preparation for examination 26 hours
Sitting the 4 hour exam 4 hours
Last updated on 13-08-2015