Strategic Management and Planning

Objectives

The objective of this course is that the student acquires knowledge of business strategy. The student will master the language, concepts, and perspective of the strategic management. The purpose of the subject is enabling the student to manage a company or organisation by analysing its strengths and weaknesses. This process should take into account its competitive and institutional location. The primary objectives of the subject are listed below:

1. Develop the capacity to devise strategies at the corporate level and implement this strategy through all the functional levels of the organisation.
2. Select, design and use strategic analysis tools applied to organisations and their contexts.
3. Obtain an understanding of the strategic issues in a wide range of organisations.

Learning outcomes

Once the student passes the course, he/she should have:

• Comprehensive knowledge of the strategy.
• Develop a holistic understanding of the principles of strategy.
• Knowledge of the language and the concepts of the strategic planning.
• Be able to analyse the type or types of strategies implemented by companies.
• Be able to present their arguments and debate in terms of strategy in front of a group.
• Reason the appropriate competitive strategies to achieve the success of the organisation.
• Understand the importance of strategic intent, purpose, and culture in determining organisational effectiveness.

Competencies

General skills

• Show ability to adapt to contexts and changing business and social realities within a global environment.

Specific skills

• Devise integrated business plans for development of business initiatives.

Basic skills

• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.

Core skills

• Be a critical thinker before knowledge in all its dimensions. Show intellectual, cultural and scientific curiosity and a commitment to professional rigour and quality.
• Use oral, written and audiovisual forms of communication, in one's own language and in foreign languages, with a high standard of use, form and content.

Content

1. Key concepts of strategy
2. Competitive advantage
3. Internal context: Organisational design
4. Internal context: Organisational ambidexterity
5. External context: Industry analysis
6. The spectrum of competition and niche markets
7. Competition in concentrated market
8. Entry and the advantage of incumbency
9. Creating and capturing value in the value chain
10. Strategic management in changing environment
11. Managing platforms
12. Blue Ocean Strategy: Creating new markets
13. Open innovation strategy

Evaluation

The evaluation of the subject aims to measure the degree of global learning achieved by the student. Specifically, the assessment consists of:

• Class participation: 10%
• Follow-up of the work done: 15%
• Specific evaluation tests: 50%
• Realisation of work or projects required (i.e., final project): 25%

Methodology

The study method of the subject requires the student to attend class consistently, where the general framework and the essential aspects of each subject will be taught in the whole class and in small groups. In the class sessions the teacher will explain the theoretical knowledge of each of the different topics, during these sessions the teacher will create a set of questions associated to the theory to check student's knowledge. In the directed work sessions, a company or organisation is analysed in order to complement and establish the knowledge of the session. The student will select one of these organisations with the help of the teacher, to analyse, apply the theory learnt, and make a presentation of their conclusions to the class.

It is recommended that the student dedicates a few hours of personal work to this subject each week in order to consolidate the knowledge acquired. The subject benefits from the collaboration of companies with the university to bring experienced professionals into the classroom.

The subject, despite having an important theoretical part in order for the basic concepts to be acquired correctly, is mainly a very practical subject that is taught face-to-face.

In the study plan of the subject the student can find the specific activities of each week detailing what will be done in the class sessions, for the hours of directed work and personal work.

Bibliography

Bibliography

• Grant, R. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis (9 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
• Saloner, S., Shepard, A., Podolny, J. (2005). Strategic Management. John Wiley and Sons Ltd.

Reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.