Global Strategic Management

Course Number 1534

Adjunct Professor David J. Collis
Fall, 20 sessions
Paper

Career Focus

Global Strategic Management is designed for every student who will be involved in managing and advising companies that either compete internationally or which face international competitors. The course takes the firm which operates across borders as its unit of analysis, and the typical featured decision-maker is a senior manager within a multinational. As such the course should appeal to anyone considering a career in general management at, or as an advisor - consultant or banker - to firms involved in international activities.

Educational Objectives

The intent of the course is to provide students with a systematic approach to international competition that will enable them to be valuable contributors to all debates concerning strategic decisions that involve cross border activity, from product design and marketing, to organizational design and plant location.

Course Content and Organization

The underlying theme of the course is that the numerous individual decisions a firm must make about its entire range of activities around the world, should not be made independently, but must be aligned in pursuit of a generic international strategy. There is not necessarily one best international strategy in any business, but successful firms will have chosen and consistently implemented one or other of the international strategies described in the course.

The framework of the course demonstrates how pursuing a generic international strategy determines firms' choices concerning the five critical decisions that are unique to international competition. First, we must explain, through the "better-off" and "ownership" tests, how firms that compete internationally create shareholder value. Unlike purely domestic competitors, companies that compete across borders have to make choices about where to compete within the world; which product to offer around the globe; where to locate the various activities of the firm; and how to organize to effectively coordinate its worldwide activities. The structure of the course follows this framework by first describing the generic international strategies that can create value, and then examining in detail the factors that influence these other four decisions.

If the theme of the course is the need for strategic consistency, the various modules of the course provide a wealth of opportunity to study the factors that must be considered in each particular decision. Careful attention is paid to defining the alternatives companies face when choosing markets, products, locations, and organizational designs. In particular, the tradeoffs among alternatives are examined in detail. Flow charts are provided to facilitate decision making, and solutions are suggested in each case. Emphasis is placed on understanding what is the "state of the art" solution in each case, particularly whether or not, and how, companies can achieve the transcendent transnational strategy. Video lectures and notes will accompany each of the modules.

Cases and materials used in the course cover companies of all sizes, from entrepreneurial ventures to long-established large multinationals, and firms based in all regions of the globe. As a result, by the end of the course students should have been exposed to a wide range of business environments, from developing countries and politically unstable economies, to the G7 countries. A wide variety of industries are also included in the course, from services like consulting and restaurants, to traditional manufacturing, and potentially non-traditional subjects like the America's Cup yacht race.