KELLEY DIRECT MBA PROGRAM

C562: DEVELOPING STRATEGIC CAPABILITIES

Instructor: Philip L. Cochran, Ph.D.

Professor of Management
Kelley School of Business

E-Mail: Through Canvas (preferred) or plcochra@indiana.edu

Office Phone: 317-274-2481

Linkedin Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/philipcochran

COURSE MATERIALS

Frank T. Rothaermel, Strategic Management 4e, McGraw Hill, 2018,

ISBN: 9781259927621

COURSE OVERVIEW

Some companies tend to consistently outperform others. Why is this so? While there can
be many specific answers to this question, much of what drives company success can be
inferred by examining managerial, organizational, and strategic commonalities among
successful companies. This course is designed to explore the practices and characteristics
that enable companies to sustain a high level of performance. Its purpose is to introduce
the student to some frameworks and theoretical lenses through which superior firm
performance can be explained and predicted. Of particular interest in this course will be
an examination of the tension between corporate level strategy and business level strategy
and the differences in leadership and organizational capabilities needed to enable
companies to sustain superior performance.

ASSIGNMENTS

Students are responsible for:

1. Introductory activities: Students will participate in a number of preparatory and

orientation assignments including participating in discussion forums, reviewing
certain materials, and completing a plagiarism quiz.

2. Online Sessions: I will conduct online sessions during the term. Although I
encourage all of you to participate live, I understand that all of you have very busy
schedules. Therefore, I will record all of these sessions for your review and delayed
participation.

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3. Discussion Forum contributions. Discussion Forum contribution is weighed
heavily. Each set will be graded separately. Acceptable contribution to the forums
involves being prepared and participating in discussions of text material and assigned
readings on a regular and consistent basis.

Each of the discussion forums will be open only for a certain number of days, as
indicated in the relevant forum and on the course schedule. You are expected to
participate in the discussion forums within the indicated time periods. No credit will
be given for postings after the identified closing dates of the discussion forums. In
extraordinary circumstances, some alternative arrangements may be made discussion
forums in which you are unable to participate, but you must contact me directly and
within an appropriate time frame. If you wait until the end of the course to let me
know of an emergency, there is little that can be done. So, please let me know of
situations as they emerge.

See “Conduct of the Course” module online for additional information.

4. Deliverables. The primary project for this course will be the strategic analysis of a
firm of your choosing. This analysis will be accomplished in a set of separate written
assignments which will be developed and submitted during the term. You will
complete these assignments as a member of a five person team. You will form
teams as outlined in the “Conduct of the Course” module.

There are several sections to your analysis. Each module will call upon your team to
complete a section of your strategic analysis. The final report will consist of specific
and detailed recommendations supported by a brief business case for these
recommendations and specific suggestions as to how to implement them. This final
report must be built upon information gathered and analyzed in the preceding four
written assignments.

Your written analysis will be evaluated using three criteria:

• How well you analyze and evaluate the problems or issues? This is in part a
function of how thoroughly you address the key questions.
• The quality of your final recommendations, the coherence with which they
flow from your analysis, the strength of your business case supporting them,
and the feasibility of your implementation plans.
• The quality of your writing, logic, and organization and the overall impact of
your presentation.

5. Evaluation of Team Members. At the end of the term, each of you will evaluate the
performance of each member of your team. These evaluations will be used to
differentiate, if necessary, the contributions and performance of individual team
members. You and your team members will answer the following question for each
member of your team:

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 How much did (insert name of individual team member) contribute to the overall
quality and content of your team project (includes all deliverables)?

You must assign a percentage score (0 to 100) to each person in your team, excluding
yourself, based on your perception of that person’s contribution to the total team
project effort. You should feel free to also include a written evaluation of your
team’s members, or an explanation of the scores you have assigned to these
individuals, if you so desire.

If each person in your team has contributed equally and, in your opinion, deserves full
credit, assign a score of 100 to everyone. Scores of less than 100 should be assigned
at your discretion depending upon your evaluation of any team member’s less-than-
equitable contributions. Again, you should not evaluate yourself.

If a person is evaluated at less than 100% by only one team member, I’ll likely
consider that an aberration and not downwardly adjust the team deliverable scores of
the downgraded individual. However, if two or more team members assign scores of
less than 100% to one of their fellow members, I reserve the right to assign a lower
grade to the downgraded team member.

I take the internal team equity issue very seriously. At the outset, all teams should
have an explicit discussion about what is expected from each of their members in
order to be regarded as a “100%” contributor to the team effort. No one should be
caught off guard or surprised by being downgraded by their team members. Also, if
certain individuals are not pulling their share of the load, he, she or they should be
confronted with this belief and given an opportunity to rectify the situation.

Under extreme circumstances, one or more members of a team may consider

separation from the team, in which case the original team may be divided. If this
happens, each of the new teams will work independently. They may continue to work
on the same firm. If any individual or group of individuals on a team wishes to
separate he/she/they must get approval from me. If a team is split because one or
more team members failed to participate in the deliverable (without the express
consent of the rest of the team) then I may ask those who do not contribute to write a
new deliverable.

Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Some plagiarism is obvious and intentional; the
majority is inadvertent. Simply put, you can avoid plagiarism by clearly
differentiating which words and ideas are yours and which are from other
sources. All words in your reports that are not your own (i.e. from other sources)
must be appropriately punctuated and cited. Please understand that any plagiarism
is a very serious matter and will be dealt with harshly. There is more information
within the online course dealing with plagiarism and related issues. Also please
refer to the section on ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND STUDENT’S RIGHTS AND
RESPONSIBILITIES below.

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Grading Scale

The following percentages will define the grade ranges in this course:

Percentage Letter Grade

97.00 - 100.00% A+ 77.00 - 79.99% C+
93.00 - 96.99% A 73.00 - 76.99% C
90.00 - 92.99% A- 70.00 - 72.99% C-
87.00 - 89.99% B+ 67.00 - 69.99% D+
83.00 - 86.99% B 63.00 - 66.99% D
80.00 - 82.99% B- 60.00 - 62.99% D-
Below 60.00% F

Please note that because of the narrow grade range used in graduate courses there will be
no rounding up. So, for example, an 89.99 overall percentage score will result in a B+
grade, not an A-

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND STUDENT’S RIGHTS AND

RESPONSIBILITIES

Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception, and
is the educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not
limited to cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of information or citations, facilitating acts of
academic dishonesty by others, unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting
work of another person, or work previously used without informing the instructor, or
tampering with the academic work of other students. Any violation of academic integrity
will be thoroughly investigated, and where warranted, administrative action will be
taken. All work that is turned in (including but not limited to papers, posts, book
comments, etc.) may be run through one or more programs that test such submissions for
evidence of plagiarism.

MAPPING COURSE GOALS AND STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Course Goals SLO

To classify market structures and match them to effective business 4.1
strategies.
To examine and evaluate of the behavior of effective general
managers.
To learn the language and concepts of strategy and strategic
management.
Identify, communicate, and act upon competitive advantage. 8.1

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To integrate the processes of performance evaluation and strategic
capabilities analysis into a consistent plan.
Position technology and information flow to be a strategic asset. 8.4
To enable you to understand how dynamic, self-renewing
organizations are built.

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