Course Objectives
This course aims to familiarize students with the basic concepts of Strategic Management and
enable them to formulate, implement, and evaluate strategies for businesses. The course also aims to develop comprehensive and integrated view of business. The ultimate objective is to develop skill of practical and integrated application of different fields of management in order to make strategic decisions.
Course Description
Starting from the establishment of a company’s direction by preparing mission statement and vision, this course will proceed to the identification of opportunities and threats emerging from the external environment and assessment of strengths and weaknesses arising from the internal environmental forces. Development of tools needed to match opportunities and threats with strengths and weaknesses will be the next step. Concepts of removing possible hurdles in the implementation of strategy will be followed by the discussion on the implementation of strategy. Finally, issues related to strategic evaluation and control will be discussed.
Course Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:
▪ Establish and evaluate mission statement, long term objective, vision, and short term plan
for the business;
▪ Analyze the external and internal environment and identify opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses of the firm and thereby formulate appropriate strategies for
business;
▪ Plan pre-implementation and implementation phase; and
▪ Monitor and evaluate implemented strategies.
Course Contents
BCIS 8th Semester
Unit 1: Introduction
Meaning of strategy and strategic management, Strategic Management Model, Characteristics of strategic management, Formality in strategic management.
Unit 2 : Company Direction
Mission and mission statement, Vision, Strategic intent, Strategic objective vs. Financial
objective, Policies, Long term and short term objectives.
Unit 3: External Environment Analysis
PEST analysis – political, legal, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and
international environment analysis framework (individualism vs. collectivism, totalitarian system vs. democracy, common law vs. civil law system, Determinants of culture, State of technological stage, Impact of ecological and international factors), Industry and competitive analysis – Porter’s five force model, Strategic group mapping; Monitoring competition.
Unit 4: Internal Analysis
Resource to competitive advantage pyramid, Internal analysis approaches – value chain,
functional approach, and Resource based view (RBV), Benchmarking.
Unit 5: Strategic Options and Choice Techniques
Porter’s generic strategies: Cost leadership, Differentiation, Grand Strategies (concentration,
market development, growth and expansion, product development, innovation, vertical and
horizontal integration, concentric and conglomerate diversification, retrenchment/turnaround, divesture, liquidation, bankruptcy, joint venture, and strategic alliance), Corporate level analytical tools – BCG and GE nine cell matrices; Business level analytical tools – grand strategy selection matrix and grand strategy cluster.
Unit 6: Strategic Implementation
Concept and steps of strategy implementation, Operationalization of strategies: Annual
objectives, functional planning (Finance, Marketing, Human Resource, R&D, Production
Operations, MIS and General Management), Communications, Guidelines and policies,
Institutionalization: structure, types, matching structure with strategy; Resource allocation and budgeting and role of leadership in strategy implementation.
Unit 7: Strategic Evaluation and Control
Difference between strategic and operational control, Strategic control tools – premise control, strategic surveillance, implementation control, and special alert.