Links:
Seeking a Group or Group members.
A summary of Recent Changes to this site.
Assessment.
Thought questions about the cases.
Old papers from past years.
How to write a business plan and some further study recommendations.
How to perform a SWOT analysis.
SEC Filings.
Competitive Strategy as you feared it could be.

This course introduces major concepts of business strategy. The main focus is on the interaction of firms and strategies aimed at sustainable profits. The major goal of the course is provide skills that would allow you to perform a strategic analysis, write it up for consideration, and defend it in a meeting.

The course uses a mix of lectures and case studies. Case studies are run in the socratic style, with the professor asking questions and trying his best not to blurt out the answer. As a consequence of this method, however, class participation is essential and graded. If you regularly miss a significant fraction of your classes, this isn't the course for you. Success in management requires expressing your ideas publically, and that necessity is reflected in this class. While most of the theory discussed in class has mathematical foundations, there is only a slight amount of mathematical analysis used in class, which makes it harder because the problems are amorphous and ill-defined.There is a significant writing component to the class. To survive in management, it is necessary to express your ideas coherently in writing. Finally, as a matter of style, I go on a lot of digressions. If you detest professors who don't proceed in a linear fashion to a well-defined goal, but instead spend half the lecture on asides, this isn't the course for you. (The goals, by the way, are well-defined below.)

I'm considering trying something new, in which I assign to each student the job of assessing the participation of two others on activity, insight, relevance and depth, and use that as the basis of my participation scores. I am happy to take comments on this plan.

Text: Competitive Solutions: The Strategist's Toolkit, by R. Preston McAfee, Princeton University Press, 2002. In addition, you must purchase a case packet, which includes the cases covered in class (which collect royalties around $2 each paid to owners of the cases) as well as some assigned reading. The packet is available from Barbara Estrada, Baxter 331. The case packet is the same as last year, so you may find a previous student to sell one.

I find www.business.com a surprisingly useful business research website.

Handouts are in pdf format. The Foxit reader is free and much faster than Acrobat.

Please do not read case overheads in advance of the case discussion even if you find them! You must read the case itself, of course.

Schedule
Dates are tentative; check back frequently. You should read the listed sections prior to the class.
	Topic 1: Industry Analysis
Goal	Understand "six forces" industry analysis, and major concepts of market evaluation
Reading	McAfee, Chapters 1 and 2
Case	Fox Broadcasting (No case writeup handed in)
Reading	Porter, Michael, "What is Strategy?," Harvard Business Review, November 1996.
Jan 7a	Introduction, 5 forces analysis
Jan 7b	Introduction, 5 forces analysis, continued
Jan 14a	Case: Fox
	Topic 2: Differentiation I
Goal	Introduce differentiation theory and apply to Enterprise; integrate complements force with differentiation.
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 4
Reading	Judith Chevalier, "The Pros and Cons of Entering a Market," Financial Times Mastering Strategy
Jan 14b	Differentiation (started)
Jan 21a	Case: Enterprise Rent-a-Car
	Case writeup question: What positioning strategy does Enterprise employ which reduces the threat of entry and competition?
Jan 21	One page (2 max) project summary due by email
Jan 21	Presentation Sign-Up Form due, in class or by email
	Topic 3: Bargaining and The War of Attrition
Goal	Understanding of strategy for winner-take-all contests.
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 14
Jan 21b	War of Attrition
	Topic 4: Differentiation II: Sources of Competitive Advantage
Goal	Judo Entry: Product positioning as a means of hobbling a superior force.
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 3
Jan 28a	Case: Feature Animation Industry in 1995: Challenging Disney's Supremacy
	Case writeup question: Did the design of the film "The Prince of Egypt" reduce the incentive of Disney to respond to the entry of Dreamworks into animated films?
Jan 28b	Product Life Cycle
	Topic 5: The Product Life Cycle
Goal	Understanding the product life cycle theory and its application in the EMI case.
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 5
Reading	Farrell and Saloner, "Competition, Compatibility, and Standards: The Economics of Horses, Penguins, and Lemmings," in Gabel, Product Standardization and Competitive Strategy, Elsevier, 1987, 1-21.
Feb 4a	Case: EMI and the CT Scanner (A), (B)
	Case writeup question: Should EMI have made the original CT scanner, or licensed the rights?
Feb 4b	Product Life Cycle
	Topic 6: Organizational Design and Industry Structure
Goal	Understanding how the structure of the organization should fit the product and six forces environment in which the firm operates, along with the determinants of fragmented industries.
Reading	McAfee, Chapters 7 and 8
Feb 11	First Draft Due
Feb 11a	Cases: The Household Furniture Industry in 1986, Masco (A), (B)
	Case writeup question: What are the major elements of Masco's strategy and does the furniture industry fit with these elements?
Feb 11b	Organizations and Incentives
	Topic 7: Cooperation
Goal	Understanding the circumstances in which cooperation succeeds and when it will fail; along with means of establishing cooperation.
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 6
Reading	Brandenberger and Nalebuff, "The Right Game: Use Game Theory to Shape Strategy," Harvard Business Review, 7-8/95, 57-71.
Feb 18a	Cooperation
Feb 18b	Case: General Electric vs. Westinghouse in Large Turbine Generators (A)
	Case writeup question: GE proposes a "Most Favored Customer Clause," wherein it guarantees all customers the best prices for the past six months, audited by an accounting firm. Should Westinghouse adopt a similar clause? Why or why not?
	Topic 8: Antitrust and Signaling
Goal	Understanding basic antitrust constraints on strategy and the strategic use of antitrust against competitors
Goal	Understanding signaling and the strategic use of signals
Reading	McAfee, Chapter 9, 13
Feb 25a	Antitrust
Feb 25b	Organizations Continued
Mar 4	Mystery Case
Mar 11	Final Paper Due by 9 AM! (Paper submitted in Word or PDF to me by email, no paper copy necessary)
Mar 11	Signaling

Presentation Schedule

	Friday, Mar 13, 2009
1PM-5PM	Afternoon Session, Baxter 125
	Circuit City
	Authors: Flora, Benjamin Jack; Petersen, Sierra Victoria; Robertson, Nicholas Anthony; Tan, Meng Zhou; de Alwis, Thimal Suranga
	Hyundai
	Authors: Choi, Sean Seol Woong; Do, Hyung Wan; Shin, Sang Ha
	Bacardi
	Authors: Lester, Brian James; Peters, Kathryn A; Szalay, Tamas; Tanabe, Noah
	Frozen Yogurt
	Authors: Chen, Bettina Jade-ming; Familier, Eythan; Paolini, Robert Eugene; Yee, Lisa
	Saturday, Mar 14, 2009
1PM-5PM	Afternoon Session, Baxter 125
	Intel
	Authors: Leighton, Daniel; Littler, Kyle Richard
	Blizzard
	Authors: Feldman, Matthew Solomon; Leszczynski, Philip Mark; Pulst-Korenberg, Johannes Benjamin
	Kiva
	Authors: Chang, Arthur Hsu Chen; Huang, Fan; Wang, Esther
	McDonalds
	Authors: Coleman, Daryl Bennett; Gao, Connie Wu; Kim, Heejae
	Sunday, Mar 15, 2009
1PM-5PM	Afternoon Session, Baxter 125
	Adidas
	Authors: Dogiamis, Georgios Christos; Vijayashanker, Narain Kumar
	Google Phone
	Authors: Ko, Albert; Ng, Justin K; Rukavina, Dane Nenad
	GM
	Authors: Chen, Jeddy Chang; Li, Christopher Qijin; Morabito, Gerardo Antonio; Rosi, Tommaso
	Sunday, Mar 15, 2009
7PM-10PM	Evening Session, Baxter 125
	Smart Phones
	Authors: Lu, Dingchao; Moore, Joseph Ellis; Raythattha, Mahipal Dilip;
	Ultimate Fighting
	Authors: Kandasamy, Ram; Li, Victor; Ye, David Dawei

Presentation notes

Assume that others have read your paper. The goal is to lead a discussion of your paper as a case, so be prepared to ask questions and generally provoke discussion. For class participants, you may want to challenge the paper's conclusion. A professional approach is expected of all participants.

Changes to this website since Jan 2, 2009

• Mar 8: Order of Friday presentations perturbed.
• Mar 6: Presentations in Baxter 125
• Feb 25: Change in schedule; signalling pushed to Mar 11
• Feb 11: Cases posted.
• Jan 23: Tentative presentation schedule posted, email me with corrections ASAP; dates will be locked down next week.
• Jan 21: Proper Presentation Sign-Up Form is now posted, one per group, sorry for the delay
• Jan 19: Project proposals should come directly to me
• Jan 15: Update to Seeking page
• Send case writeups to Barbara, email above
• Jan 7: Barbara Estrada office info updates, along with case packet info.