Jay Barney describes how he teaches Strategic Management for Executive Education, giving examples of Walmart, Southwest Airlines and their success in very tough industries.
Jay Barney on Strategy
1
Author Archives: RussCoff
Short Compilation of Experiential Exercises
Class Closers
- “On the first day of class I choose a simple, one-page Fortune article that seems to cover many complex strategy issues. I have students attempt to summarize and describe the strategy and its merits and limitations to the class. In the closing session, I bring out the article again and repeat the exercise. I use this to dramatize how much the students have learned.”
- “I close the class by outlining the different aspects of business and corporate strategy in a general framework and then ask for students to explain how the class has helped them to make sense of each aspect. Its pretty exciting to see them show how much they have learned and helps me to re-tool the class for the next time I teach it.”
- “I close the class by taking the basic strategy tenets and apply them at the level of the individual — to show how the students can use what they have learned to further their own interests, in addition to those of the firms for which they will work.”
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Simulation Resources
- ABSEL (Association for Business Simulation and Experiential Learning) Click Here to Access
- Encyclopedia of prisoner’s dilemma Click Here to Access
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Acquire Box Game
“Acquire is a box game that is easy to learn and can be played in about an hour by four players. I bought a dozen games and break the class up into teams and link the game to cases on rivalry, competition, and acquisitions. It does a great job of putting students in the position to see how serendipity and strategy interact, and how your wins are a function of others’ actions, intentions and hubris. The first site below actually has a couple of free and simple DOS versions of the game that students can use for practice and familiarization.” Click Here to Access
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Quarter-length and Semester-length Simulations
Attention simulation users: It would be great to have a separate page for each simulation below. If you have used it and can summarize strengths, limitations, and some tips for implementing, please submit a full entry on the simulation.
Click the links below to access quarter and semester length simulations
- Business Gaming Simulations (multiple sims) Click Here
- Business Policy Game Click Here
- Capstone & Foundation Sims Click Here
- Competitive Strategy Game Click Here
- Desert Exercise – The desert survival exercise is on paper. I tried to find it online but could not find it for free (see http://www.humansynergistics.com/). The website also explains how the exercise works.
- Forio (multiple sims) Click Here
- Interpretive Click Here
- Looking Glass Inc. Click Here
- Marketplace Click Here
- Mikes Bikes Click Here for my undergraduate strategy syllabus using MikesBikes
- Prisim Business War Games Click Here
- Strategy Dynamics Click Here
- Thiagi’s Sums–Free plus book sims Click Here
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Learning Through Simulations and Exercises
I’ve been using simulations to tie together segments in my class and to give students a better experience with the process of strategy. It is important to allocate a good chunk of time — from one to three hours — to fully debrief the sim. This debrief includes some sharing of emotions, since simulations can result in conflict and anxiety — I’ve had teams explode and almost come to blows. It is useful to point out to participants that although this is a simulation, part of the results are a reflection of the individual themselves, along with their particular role, and the context provided by the simulation. Three readings that may be helpful regarding sims are (Also see Brian Boyd’s website for additional resources below under OTHER TOOLS & LINKS:
Keys, J. Bernard, Robert M. Fulmer, and Stephen A. Stumpf. 1996. Microworlds and simuworlds: Practice fields for the learning organization, Organizational Dynamics, Spring.
Orbanes, Phil. 2002. Everything I know about business I learned from Monopoly, Harvard Business Review, March.
Stumpf, Stephen A. and Jane E. Dutton. 1990. The dynamics of learning through management simulations: Let’s dance, Journal of Management Development, 9(2) 7-15.
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Article and Short Videos on Excellent Teachers
Great article (click here) and series of short videos on developing teaching capabilities. Even though this is set in the context of elementary schools, I can see the relevance for my undergrads, MBAs and executive.
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Mini Cases
I developed a number (39!) of mini-cases to demonstrate a range of strategy topics. I usually use the cases and their attached questions at the beginning of a lecture or part way through to break up the pace. I find that they provide a strong, shared basis for talking about particular subjects in strategy, and can be used to promote debate and discussion. These are found in the Test Bank accompanying the Hitt, Ireland, Hoskisson Strategic Management textbook, Fifth Edition (2003).
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Strategy BINGO exercise
The BINGO (actually called STRATEGY). This consists of two documents that are attached. First, I created 16 different playing cards by putting on words I expected to use in class. Then, I created a list of additional words that I expected to use. I instructed students to take one of the playing cards and then fill in the blanks with words from the list. By partially completing the card, I saved class time. By having students finish the card themselves, I ensured that each card would be different.
I only used this approach once, but should use it again. The particular topic the day I used it was ‘competitive dynamics’. I think the topic was a bit too hard for the students, but they seemed to like the game. The two winners in each section received a $5 Subway gift certificate.
Additional Words: Resources, Learning, Differentiation, Risk, Hot Topic, People, Information, Payoff, Second Mover, Royalties, Average, Product, Training, Scale, Value Chain, Saturn, Winner, Technology, Subway, Barriers To Entry, Brand, Tomorrow, Generic Strategy, Trillion, Groups, Delay, Plant, Time,
Thai Chempest: International JV Negotiation Exercise
“I have the students do an international JV negotiation exercise with the case “Thai Chempest” (available through Prentice Hall’s database of cases). One team plays the role of the U.S. company, one team is the local Thai company, and the rest of the class are individual Thai government agencies (their job is to hash out an incentive package to entice the foreign investment–not as easy as it sounds, as each gov’t agency has its own set of priorities). This exercise takes 2 hours and the students really get into it.”
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Envisioning the Future: Write your own BHAG
“I teach the topic of Strategic Vision at the beginning of the semester in Strategic Management for undergraduates, and was drawing on Collins & Porras’ HBR article dealing with this topic (Sept/Oct 1996). They discuss envisioning the future as one aspect of developing a strategic vision for a company. Envisioning the future includes having a long term goal they call a “BHAG” (big, hairy, audacious goal) and writing a vivid narrative description of how things will look when the BHAG is achieved. My senior undergraduate 
in-class exercise was for them to write their own BHAG for their career 5 years from now, along with a vivid description of what a day in their professional life would be like (as they might describe it to a former classmate in five years). For some of them, this is the first time they thought in concrete terms this far into their professional futures. I got very positive feedback from the class on this exercise and some of them did a remarkably good job with it. I read two of them aloud to the class (anonymously). I sometimes find it difficult to craft meaningful exercises early in the semester before we have gotten into the “meat” of the concepts of Strategic Management, and was glad to get a good response from my students on this one.”
Teaching extended (multi-part) cases
At the 2003 SMS Conference, Mason Carpenter (me), Amy Hillman, W. Gerry Sanders, & Gerry Keim presented a program on challenges and opportunities of teaching extended session strategy classes. The hand-out with several of the pertinent suggestions are provided in the attached handout.
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
“Where have you been” ice breaker
In classes that have a distinct international bent, I use a simple case-based exercise to kick off the first class. The Ivey Case 9B11M107, “Where have you been: An exercise to assess your exposure to the rest of the world’s people,” is a fun way to show participants both how diverse the world is, along with how little exposure they’ve actually had to the rest of the world’s people than they previously thought.
Industry Profitablity Analysis Opener
“In my opening graduate class I talk about my objective of getting students to think strategiclly. I put up a slide showing industry performance (any industry will work, although the simpler the better). Last semester I used a slide showing downward stock prices in the four largest bagel companies in the U.S. I ask the students why this is happening. We ramble for a few minutes. I then give a very quick overview of what I think is happening. I then return to the OH in the last class to drive home the message that hopefully, they now have the vocabulary and conceptual knowledge to quickly draw some conclusions on their own.”
Team Assignment Ice Breaker
“Perhaps this qualifies. To assign teams, I use a 5-minute drill that (1) helps the students mix and get to know a few others, and (2) results in heterogeneity on at least one dimension. I have the class line up in a row. The first in line is the person whose home (i.e., parents home, not campus housing) is closest to campus. The last in line is the student whose home is most distant. In mingling to decide where they stand in line, they get to meet lots of people as they work out the logistics. Then, we number off (according to how many groups are necessary) 1-X. I suppose other sorting criteria could be used by schools where most of the students come from the same geographic area. But at a school like ours, they span the globe and it works quite well.”
Name Game
“The closest thing I do as an ice-breaker is that I try to memorize the students’ names before the first class and then when the students introduce themselves I can connect their names and faces right away. Good teaching in strategic management requires relationship building in order to have any hope of students achieving “double-loop learning” (e.g., questioning underlying goals and assumptions). I try to begin to establish this relationship in the first class.”
Preparing Future Faculty Program
Click here to open the link. This is an NSF sponsored teaching initiative. However the resources are not specific to business or strategy.
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Brian Boyd’s (ASU) Teaching Page
Click here to access the web page. Use the compass to select teaching tools (unfortunately, some of the links no longer work…).
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Article Describing Internet-based Experiential Learning Resources in International Marketing
Click Here to download the article
Contributed by Mason Carpenter
Carpenter Strategy Toolbox 