General Information
Promotional Video
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Target Audience
How do you implement a strategy once it has been formulated? The perspective taken in this course is that all managers require the conceptual frameworks and skills to enact change and implement strategy. Any student who will be expected to enact change with or without formal authority (e.g., brand managers; project leaders) are expected to benefit from this class. Students interested in a consulting career (as an external or internal consultant) should also benefit greatly from this course.
This course qualifies for the Strategy emphasis.
Format
In Fall 2024, this course will have twelve 2-hour classes (1 class per week).
Course Scope and Mission
In today’s VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) world, discontinuity is a norm and pace of change is accelerating. Therefore, successful organizations must make strategic shifts and change. However, implementing change is extremely difficult and 70% of the transformations fail. A great strategy is useless unless you can implement it. An organization’s leaders are responsible for rapidly addressing and resolving competing claims for the organization’s limited resources. Critical, therefore, are the sophisticated leadership and skills required to translate one’s technical knowledge into effective actions in order to implement the strategy. In this course, students will learn about aligning strategy to the context and aligning the various elements – organization’s formal structure, people, reward systems, processes, and culture- to its strategy and drive strategic change. In this course, we take the view that there is an interactive relationship between strategic intent and strategy implementation. In short, this course is about translating strategic intent into organizational action.
Students will adopt the perspective of the general manager responsible for the long-term health of the entire organization or a major division. Given the importance of the role of the leaders in driving transformations, in the course we will also cover the role of leaders in influencing and empowering organizations, building alignment and buy-in for driving strategic change.
The course will have a mix of multi-media and written cases, simulation, lectures and discussions on real life challenges and success factors in strategic implementation and how the key course concepts are applied in the real world. We will also have a couple of business leaders as guest speakers to share their perspectives on leading change.
Evaluation and Grade Breakdown
| Component | Weight |
|---|---|
| Class Participation | 20% |
| Team Assignment | 25% |
| Individual Assignments (including final paper; no final exam) | 55% |
Required Resources
Course reading packet. Each assigned article or chapter will help you address the issues in the corresponding cases. While we may not discuss each non-case reading, failing to read and think about each reading will limit your ability to address that day’s assignment.