Strategic Management, Intra/Entrepreneurship, Alliances and VenturingLaajuus (5 ECTS)

Objective

The objective of this course is to gain a comprehensive understanding of the strategy, management and leadership, and comprehend the basics of doing business, such as strategy planning, strategy implementation, company management systems, and strategic operating environments.

This course is focused on these basic themes: scrutinizing the strategy process, building blocks of a management system, and analyzing fundamentals of people leadership. Discussions in class are devoted to the art and practice of strategy making and help formulate strategic vision and key targets for a company. The course analyzes business cases which enabled greater competitiveness for a business.

The student gains an understanding of the interrelated cornerstones of the job of a boss and is able to conceptualize the strategy of his/her parent organization. He/she gets competence to establish a robust management system for his/her own field of responsibility and is ready to take the first steps as an effective people leader. The course equips the student for the design/development of new service offerings, including the formulation of a customer value proposition, setting strategic targets, defining a strategy, and establishing an effective management system.

Content

Sessions of the course include:

01. Global economy and company strategic operating environment – challenge for the service business? • Shift from the manufacturing economy to a services economy • Combining product and services offerings • Establishing a process for service design and service innovation • Prospects for the services economy and the path to success in industrial services.

21. Strategic management • The triangle of strategy, management, and leadership • Identifying and mapping the company strategy: core processes, functions and process owners (roles and responsibilities) • Core competences • Designing value chain and value proposition • Balanced Scorecard and competing approaches to a strategy • Measuring performance in services • Managing the product/service lifecycle.

23. Mergers, acquisitions, alliances • Basic principles and logic behind mergers and acquisitions; strategic decision-making • Post-M&A integration, sustainability and profitability • Challenges of change management and organizational development • Trends of M&A in the emerging markets.

24. Venturing: strategic perspective • Entrepreneurism and intrapreneurism • Venture capital and capitalists.

25. Strategic planning • Operative and strategic mindsets • Strategy planning process (strategy formulation, action plan, implementation) and strategy tools • Major challenges for a company strategy: true strategic choices, management commitment, practical implementation • A robust strategy summary (vision; growth and competitive strategy; customer value proposition; strategic key targets) • The logic of internalizing a strategy • Internalizing the strategy at the individual level: personal scorecard as an internalizing tool.

26. Strategy implementation • Post-war evolution of organization structure: from hierarchy and control to self-steering • Basic architectures of organization structure: an interplay of functions and processes • Key factors for strategy implementation: communication, involvement and incentives • Main traps of strategy implementation.

27. Company management system and business models • Analysis of business models • Establishing/improving the company management system and processes • Meetings as a key component of company management system • Business case: testing your company’s structural complexity • Sharing best practices in service management systems.

Assessment criteria, satisfactory (1)

The following criteria are used for assessing the IM Master’s coursework (lecture involvement, discussion, written assignments and discussion leaders).

The coursework meets with many of the above criteria. The assignment meets more than three of the above criteria in a satisfactory manner.

• The student shows an understanding of the relevant course content in relation to the contents of the articles, lectures and discussion.
• The student's texts/presentations demonstrate an understanding of the article/lecture content and an ability to select, interpret and justify key messages in a grounded manner.
• The student shows interconnections between the proposed concepts and current business practice, showing abilities of reflection, evaluation and discussion.
• The student shows professional initiative, active participation and responsibility in both individual and team work.
• Student assignment is written in line with academic writing practice and instructions for Master’s Thesis, using the Harvard Referencing system, with references both in the text as well as reference list. The texts are written in coherent, fluent English.
• The student shows the ability to collect valid knowledge for his/her topic from outside the course sources by using scholarly search tools, by questioning current business practice and by practicing source critique.

Assessment criteria, good (3)

The coursework meets with most of the above criteria. Additionally the assignment shows good quality performance in three or more of the criteria or otherwise good interpretation.

Assessment criteria, excellent (5)

The coursework meets with all the above six criteria. Additionally the assignment shows excellence in three or more of the above criteria or otherwise deviating excellence.