BUS 362-01, Strategic Management of the Firm, Fall 2011

Abstract

Businesses depend on strategic plans to guide them through favorable as well as difficult circumstances in order to achieve a desired goal. The journey toward that goal may take considerable time and many of the assumptions initially supporting the plan may become subject to change. As such, an understanding of strategic management is an essential skill for the manager hoping to be promoted to higher levels in dynamic firms or industries. This course will explore strategic management between the opposite extremes of never changing anything to constantly changing everything; where some balance between these extremes usually results in the best performance. Students will explore the development of the field of strategic management in terms of its historical development, its major theoretical underpinnings, and the methods used to gather and analyze strategic information. Students will experiment with the development of strategic and implementation plans, the measurement of strategy performance, and the necessity of contingency plans.