Digital Reading Room 2.0 -- STCH 600: Making Strategic Choices

STCH 600: Making Strategic Choices Report a Broken Link

This course is about integrated strategy from the executive view and provides a foundation for subsequent courses by introducing students to the process of strategic decision-making and effective execution of an organization’s strategic choices. It covers fundamental concepts and principles in strategy and decision-making, and then examines how strategic choices shape the mission, goals, processes, structures, and priorities of the major functions of the firm. The course transitions students from issues of managing the component functions of a business to leading the firm from a general management perspective.

Required Readings

Lesson 1

Reading 1: Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review, 74(6), 61-78.

Reading 2: Porter, M. E. (2008). The five competitive forces that shape strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78-93.

Reading 3: Dobbs, M. E. (2014). Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: A set of industry analysis templates. Competitiveness Review, 24(1), 32-45.

Reading 4: Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1996). Building your company's vision. Harvard Business Review, 74(5), 65-77.

Reading 5: Kim, W. C., & Mauborgne, R. (2004). Blue ocean strategy. Harvard Business Review, 82(10), 76-84.

Lesson 2

Reading 6: Garvin, D. A., & Roberto, M. A. (2001). What you don't know about making decisions. Harvard Business Review, 79(8), 108-116.

Reading 7: Davenport, T. (2009). Make better decisions. Harvard Business Review, 87(11), 117-123.

Reading 8: Thomas, C. R., & Maurice, S. C. (2013). Chapter 3: Marginal analysis for optimal decisions. In Managerial economics (11th ed., pp. 86-119). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Reading 9: Thomas, C. R., & Maurice, S. C. (2013). Chapter 15: Decisions under risk and uncertainty. In Managerial economics (11th ed., pp. 625-655). New York: McGraw-Hill.

Lesson 3

Reading 10: Levitt, T. (2004). Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 82(7/8), 138-149.

Reading 11: Dawar, N. (2013). When marketing is strategy. Harvard Business Review, 91(12), 100-108.

Case Study 1: Keinan, A., & Avery, J. (2008). Understanding brands, module note. HBS No. 9-509-041. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Case Study 2: Alvi, F. H. (2014). Vice media: Competitive advantage and global expansion. Ivey ID: 9B14M039. London, Canada: Ivey Publishing.

Lesson 4

Reading 12: Neilson, G. L., Martin, K. L., & Powers, E. (2008). The secrets to successful strategy execution. Harvard Business Review, 86(6), 60-70.

Reading 13: Gadiesh, O., & Gilbert, J. L. (2001). Transforming corner-office strategy into frontline action. Harvard Business Review, 79(5), 72-79.

Reading 14: Srinivasan, A., & Kurey, B. (2014). Creating a culture of quality. Harvard Business Review, 92(4), 23-25.

Reading 15: Gunasekarana, A., & Ngaib, E. W. T. (2011). The future of operations management: An outlook and analysis. International Journal of Production Economics, 135(2), 687–701.

Lesson 5

Reading 16: Prahalad, C., & Hamel, G. (1990). The core competence of the corporation. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 79-91.

Reading 17: Katzenbach, J. R., & Smith, D. K. (1993). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71(2), 111-120.

Reading 18: Charan, R. (2006). Conquering a culture of indecision. Harvard Business Review, 84(1), 108.

Reading 19: Schuler, R. S. (1992). Strategic human resources management: Linking the people with the strategic needs of the business. Organizational Dynamics, 21(1), 18-32.

Lesson 6

Reading 20: Mankins, M., & Steele, R. (2005). Turning great strategy into great performance. Harvard Business Review, 83(7-8), 64-72.

Reading 21: Kaplan, R. S., & Norton, D. P. (2007). Using the balanced scorecard as a strategic management system. Harvard Business Review, 85(7-8), 150-161.

Reading 22: Epstein, M. J., & Westbrook, R. A. (2001). Linking actions to profits in strategic decision making. MIT Sloan Management Review, 42(3), 39-49.

Lesson 7

Reading 23: Davenport, T. H. (2006). Competing on analytics. Harvard Business Review, 84(1), 98-107.

Reading 24: Caron, F., & Vanthienen, J. (2012) Applications of business process analytics and mining for internal control. ISACA Journal, 4, 44-49.

Reading 25: Lavalle, S., Lesser, E., Shockley, R., Hopkins, M., & Kruschwitz, N. (2011). Big data, analytics and the path from insights to value. MIT Sloan Management Review, 52(2), 21-32.

Case Study 3: Leung, F., & Kristal, M. (2014). Caterpillar tunneling: Revitalizing user adoption of business intelligence. Ivey ID: 9B13E030. London, Canada: Ivey Publishing.

Lesson 8

There are no readings this week.