1. Learning objectives:
- to understand how mission, vision, goals, strategies and tactics inter-connect, and how to define them and use them together.
- to address the concept of “sustainable competitive advantage” and explore the implications of “transient advantage” and pro-active redesign of business models and strategy.
2. Preparation: Consider the following articles and questions and be prepared for in-class discussion.
- Transient Advantage: HBR, June 2013 (The End of Competitive Advantage), by Rita McGrath. (You should be familiar with searching and finding articles in journals in the library database. Please find in the library database under “B” for Business Source Complete -BSC. If you are off-campus you will need to make sure your VPN is enabled. From BSC search for the journal “Harvard Business Review” and you will see all issues by year – navigate to the year, month and title, as provided. If you are having trouble with this then check with a peer or librarian – you need to read this BEFORE class.)
- Questions: what do you think of McGrath’s contention that Competitive Advantage is no longer achievable? What are the implications for managers working on strategy?
- TWEET using the course hashtag an example of a company where you see competitive advantage being configured. See example in course twitter feed.
- Building Your Company’s Vision, HBR, Sept-Oct 1996, Collins and Porras. There was some confusion on c2 about how mission, vision, goals and strategies inter-connect. We’ll revisit this in class 3 and you need this article content for preparation.
- Questions: how are “mission” and “vision” explained in this article? TIP: look to chart on p67 and be prepared to do a bit of translation.
3. Other Actions:
- Tweet to course back channel.
- Be familiar with projecting wireless to monitors in learning lab.
4. Additional References (optional):
These should be refreshers, but if you are not familiar with them, please review.
What is Strategy? by Michael E. Porter. Harvard Business Review Nov/Dec96, Vol. 74, Issue 6.
- Questions: what do think of the concept of striving for “sustainable competitive advantage?” Is it equally desirable and applicable across industries?
Porter’s Generic Strategies: http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml
- Question: can you think of examples of companies (or one of their brands) that fit for each of the four quadrants?