Bachelor 2024/2025

Strategic Management

Type: Compulsory course (Digital Product Management)

Area of studies: Business Informatics

Delivered by: Department of Strategic and International Management

Where: Graduate School of Business

When: 3 year, 2 module

Mode of studies: offline

Open to: students of one campus

Instructors: Sergei Titov

Language: English

ECTS credits: 4

Course Syllabus

Abstract

***Overall description: This course is designed specifically for the students of 'Digital Product Management' bachelor degree program. The course aims to prepare students for the increasingly competitive business world. The course deals with the development and implementation of organization strategy and focuses on the perspectives, analytical techniques and skills utilized by managers to improve an organization’s probability of attaining sustainable competitive advantage and success in the long term. In this course, students will be expected to integrate and apply knowledge and skills from courses in the business fields, work effectively in teams, demonstrate leadership skill, communicate effectively, engage in the analysis of complex business situations, and make their own decisions based upon perception. The course conceptually and practically synthesizes and systematizes the knowledge, frameworks and competences from other managerial disciplines. In this way the course not only enhances this knowledge, but also applies it to the strategic perspective of managing the whole business. It covers such topics as business transformation, dynamics of innovations and technology markets, frameworks of business description, external and internal strategic analysis, generic and innovative strategies, transforming companies for innovation strategy implementation, with special attention to digital business models, digital transformation, and digital distupts. ***Course structure: Lectures allow students to understand, learn and structure mostly theories, concepts, terms, and models of contemporary strategic management. Actively using mini-cases and stories, lectures illustrate the theoretical and conceptual materials of the course. Lectures are very helpful to study the recomendations related to models and frameworks application specific for the course. Seminars focus more on the practical side of the discipline and provide the opportunity to practice with the concepts, models, and frameworks through their application for case analysis and exercises. Seminars are necessary for the correct application of strategic tools and techniques needed for course team project and examination.***Special considerations: When preparing papers and answers to tests, examinations and other tasks, it is not allowed to use information prohibited for children or prohibited for distribution on the territory of the Russian Federation. Papers and answers containing such information will be cancelled. By submitting written and oral answers and works, students agree to the possibility of their use within the educational process by publicly discussing, commenting, analyzing them orally or in writing during face-to-face classes or correspondence communications. All official communications between students and instructors are organizied through corporate email service or LMS. Additional communications channels (such as messengers) are allowed as informal means of correspondence only if they exclude transborder data trasmission.***Grading orientation: Grades of 8 imply explicitely and unambiguously demonstrated knowledge based on main, additional and recommended literature and materials. They are also reflect competencies related to practical application of all tools, techniques, and frameworks studied in the course following the recommendations and rules provided from the instructor. Some recommendations and rules from other sources may be insufficient to excellent grades, and in some instances be so incompatible with the content of the course that it may lead to significant decrease of answers' quality. The answers, written or oral, prepared with the help of artificial intelligence are allowed only if they are marked as produced by AI. As almost all questions and tasks within the course imply as specific answers as possible, the answers or their parts of general or generic nature will not be considered as of high quality. ***Literature and learning materials: Literature mentioned as main is necessary to satisfactory completion of the course. For higher levels, students are expected to learn from additional literature, and also additional and recommended sources and materials provided in the course program. More sources and materials will be announced during the classes. Realistically considering the informational constraints imposed by foreing institutions on Russian universities, including HSE, notable part of the knowledge necessary for excellent grades will be delivered through live interactions within lectures and seminars. Students are expected to take notes, actively study presentations and remember the content by participation in discussions.

Learning Objectives

• implement search, critical analysis, and synthesis of information, apply a systematic approach to perform managerial tasks in long-term perspective
• define the range of actions leading to long-term business/ corporate goals, select the optimal tractories of their implementation within the dynamic contexts and limitations
• prepare and make commercially viable, socially responsible, and ecologically sustainable long-term business decision within the complex interplay of different factors
• communicate strategic information effectively and efficiently in English with all stakeholds of business
• perform industry analysis, identify, evaluate and select rational long-term decisions for business
• analyze, model and improve business to achieve its long-term goals with modern techniques and frameworks of strategy management

Expected Learning Outcomes

• analyze and elaborate competitive advantages of companies
• distinguish between strategy and operations, strategy and corporate actions
• describe the nature and types of competitive advantages
• apply generic strategies to practical contexts
• build business models for different companies and of different patterns
• describe the trends in business model transformation
• describe the nature of digital transformation
• build value chain
• analyze operations and functions, strengths and weaknesses, advantages and disadvantages with value chain
• elaborate key element of blue ocean strategy
• analyze value chain model of industries
• identify pluses and minuses of different integration strategies
• analyze the antecedents and concequences of making firm's scope decisions of different types and degrees (from full outsourcing to full inhousing)
• perform analysis of resources and competences
• analyze important types of competencies
• analyze the antecedents and outcomes of different growth strategies
• perform industry analysis in its statics and dynamics
• identify patterns of industry life cycle and technology cycle
• evaluate the appropriateness of different strategies at different stages of industry life cycle
• perform PESTEL analysis
• perform five forces analysis
• analyze competition with strategic group maps and strategy profile
• integrate the results of strategic analysis with SWOT-like tools
• perform portfolio analysis of corporation
• analyze limitations and opportunities of different diversification strategies
• describe benefits and risks of different new market entry modes
• describe the antecedents and outcomes of international expansion strategies
• describe key elements of strategy in their practical applications
• analyze limitations and benefits of different strategic metric systems
• elaborate roadmaps for strategy implementation
• analyze the links between strategy and financial indicators
• analyze the interplay between strategy, organizationa design and culture
• analyze limitations and contexts for successful implementation for different organizational designs
• describe key elements of flexible organizational design
• describe key element of corporate entrepreneurial and innovation system

Course Contents

• Strategic management and competitive advantage
• Business and its transformation
• Value chain analysis
• Scope of a business
• Resources and competencies
• Industry analysis
• Market forces
• Corporate strategies
• Strategy elaboration
• Strategy implementation

Assessment Elements

• Mid-course testing
  Conducted in the second part of the module. Implemented as testing with limited time. Resit is not possible. It is not blocking. Number and types of tests, proportions and sequence of different tests (by type, difficulty, ...), duration, day and time of the testing are defined by the instructor of the course and are announced in advance (at least 3 days before the day of the testing). Testing is planned with the of use Safe Exam Browser technology, which may require installing software on the computer and limit the use of equipment (number of screens, applications used, etc.). Maximum grade is 10. Excellent grade implies knowledge of main, additional, and recommended literature and materials; as well as theories, concepts, tools, frameworks, and cases discussed in classes during lectures and seminars.
• Group project
  The major academic purpose of the Group Project is to challenge students to apply theories, concepts, models and tools from the discipline including main, additional and recommmended literature and materials as well as learnt by students within their self-study beyond the scope of the discipline learning program but within the area of strategic management. The Group Project is a research & business practice project where students act as a consulting team to analyze a particular company and elaborate its strategy. Group Project is based on the case provided by the instructor (or approved by the instructor if the case is proposed by the student team). At the end of the course students should submit and present the key deliverables such as: 1. Written assignment report in docx format with answers to the tasks. 2. File with the references in xlsx format. 3. Presentation slides in pptx format. 4. Oral presentation within 12 minutes. Deadlines are strict.
• Exam
  Exam is based on all course materials. Students have to show their knowledge or ability in strategic management. It takes place at the end of the course. Exam include the blocks: 1) tests similar to ones in midcourse tests, 2) case-based tasks implying preparation of the written answers (the text of the cases can be open one day before the exam). Number and types of questions, proportions and sequence of different questions (by type, difficulty, ...), duration, day and time of the testing are announced before the exam session. Testing is planned with the of use Safe Exam Browser technology, which may require installing software on the computer and limit the use of equipment (number of screens, applications used, etc.). Excellent grade implies knowledge of main, additional, and recommended literature and materials; as well as theories, concepts, tools, frameworks, and cases discussed in classes during lectures and seminars.

Interim Assessment

• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.5 * Exam + 0.2 * Group project + 0.3 * Mid-course testing

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Michael A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, & Robert E. Hoskisson. (2020). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases: Competitiveness and Globalization, Edition 13: Vol. 13th edition. Cengage Learning.

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Alexander Osterwalder Yves, Er Osterwalder, Yves Pigneur, Tim Clark, Ellen Di Resta, Michael Anton Dila, Remko Vochteloo, Victor Lombardi, Matthew Milan, Ralf Beuker, Sander Smit, Norbert Herman, Karen Hembrough, Yves Claude Aubert, Wim Saly, Frank Camille Lagerveld, Andres Alcalde, Alvaro Villalobos M, Bernard Racine, … Praveen Singh. (n.d.). Business Model Generation A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers.
• David, F. R., & David, F. R. (2016). Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases, Global Edition. [Place of publication not identified]: Pearson. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1422985
• Hamel, G., & Prahalad, C. K. (2007). Competing for the Future. Bloomsbury Business Library - Management Library, 17. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=bsu&AN=26659560
• Harvard Business Review, Michael E. Porter, A.G. Lafley, Clayton M. Christensen, & Rita Gunther McGrath. (2020). HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy, Vol. 2 (with Bonus Article “Creating Shared Value” By Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer). Harvard Business Review Press.
• Hill, C. W. L., & Jones, G. R. (2012). Strategic management : #an #integrated approach. Slovenia, Europe: Houghton Mifflin. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.9B3B70BF
• Johnson, G., Whittington, R., Scholes, K., Angwin, D., & Regnér, P. (2017). Exploring Strategy (Vol. Eleventh edition). Harlow, England: Pearson Education. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1454974
• Porter, M. E. (2015). What is strategy? Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.C0E62A3B
• Porter, M. E., Kramer, M. R., & Magretta, J. (2014). Strategy and Competition : The Porter Collection. Harvard Business Review Press.
• Prahalad, C. K., & Hamel, G. (1990). The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 79–91. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=bsu&AN=9006181434
• Strategic management : an integrated approach, Hill, C. W. L., 2015
• Strategic management of technological innovation, Schilling, M. A., 2013

Authors

• Titov Sergey Anatolevich