Contributed by Joan Allatta
Contributed by Joan Allatta
Paul Friga is kind enough to maintain a library of videos for teaching various strategy topics. You can find it on his web page here (or click on he picture). Resources are arranged by topic so they are easy to find.
A number of excellent suggestions came out of the SMS Teaching Community session on using videos in class. Eventually, all of these will be integrated into this site. Here are a few additional video libraries you may wish to check out.
Here are some popular case repositories:
, it has also sought to close the service gap with local rival All Nippon Airways – putting in new seats, revamping in-flight menus and installing electronic toilet seats in some business and first class cabins. That investment underscores JAL’s belief that customers will pay a premium for full-service flights.” You can also find a companion video from CNN here. This is great for an introductory class. Allows discussing all parts of a strategic audit including strategy, performance, resources, and competitive position. Also the right size to introduce case discussion for a group that has never done case analysis and discussion before. So how did Kazuo Inamori help change the culture at JAL: ‘nommunication’. “That is when he unleashed another secret weapon. I brought six cans of beer after these sessions or to people who were working late,” he says. After a beer or two, people opened up and told me their honest opinions.” (see the follow up story and video here)
Contributed by Aya Chacar
The article describes how William Johnson was designated as CEO of Duke Energy after its acquisition of Progress Energy and how he was fired after only two hours. The original M&A agreement included a condition that stated that the CEO of the target (Progress Energy) would be named CEO of the merged company. However, he was fired two hours after the designation and the CEO of the acquirer (Duke Energy) was named CEO of the merged company. I think this article could motivate to further study this acquisition. It seems to be a novel illustration of a hostile acquisition.
Contributed by Francisco Morales
We often talk about culture as a source of sustained competitive advantage (see Jay Barney’s article on the topic).
I have run a great exercise where I send students on an artifact hunt through the business school to identify strengths and weaknesses in the school culture. Students present and analyze their artifacts and we discuss the implications for the competitiveness of the school. The next class explores the levers or impact points one would use to influence the culture. A final class might explore the implications of this for managing strategic change. The time this takes may make it better for a strategy elective but I am using it in my core class this semester.
Here is a bit more detail on how the exercise is run:
over most brick and mortar rivals that its customers need not pay sales tax. That is now ending in some states as they agree to collect the taxes (notably California). So how are they responding? They are building more warehouses so that, in some metropolitan areas, they will eventually have same-day delivery. Ironically, with each day, they have become more of a brick and mortar operation. Still, that will give them an advantage over ecommerce rivals. It also requires substantial investments in distribution that rivals will have a hard time duplicating.
We often spend time focused on what makes a strategy inimitable. Of course, the spate of recent law suits tells the other side of the story in terms of the risks of copying. That said, there is little new under the stars and imitation can yield tremendous returns. We don’t see much focus in cases (or the literature) on imitation as a capability. What makes firms good at it?
seems to be closed down now. They also offered a prize for submissions of the best exercises and tools for teaching entrepreneurship. This looked like a really nice resource. It would be great if people can re-post some of the best exercises here as well. Please feel free to submit if you have run any of them in your class (but be careful to attribute credit to the original authors and provide links to the original post).
Their content is very basic but some of it might be useful for an introduction to management course at the undergraduate level. Videos cover topics like the functions of management, Taylorism, Herzberg, Weber, etc.). This could be useful if you cover these topics outside of class or just want to give students some background resources.
Thinking that travel agents would go the way of the dinosaur, the stopped paying commissions and built their reservation web pages. However, this ultimately created powerful online reservation systems that the airlines now must pay commissions to. The article provides a road map on how NOT to use the 5 forces in developing a strategy…
Contributed by Russ Coff
Contributed by Russ Coff
Carpenter Strategy Toolbox 