COURSE NUMBER: EWMBA 296.11
COURSE TITLE: Strategy Development Practicum
UNITS OF CREDIT: 1 (four Sunday mornings)
INSTRUCTOR: Dan Simpson (former chief strategy officer for Clorox)
E-MAIL ADDRESS: dan_simpson@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: http://bspace.berkeley.edu
MEETING DAY(S) / TIME:
Sunday, October 19, 2014 from 9:00AM to 1:00PM
Sunday, November 2, 2014 from 9:00AM to 1:00PM
Sunday, November 16, 2014 from 9:00AM to 1:00PM
Sunday, December 7, 2014 from 9:00AM to 1:00PM
Please note the unorthodox format of this course, which meets from 9AM to 1PM on four Sundays. You must attend all four sessions in their entirety in order to earn a passing grade.
PREREQUISITE(S): None (open to all EWMBA students eligible to take elective courses)
CLASS FORMAT: Short lectures, student group presentations on their research, guest presentation, class workshops.
REQUIRED READINGS: A. G. Lafley and Roger Martin, Playing to Win: How Strategy Really Works (Harvard Business School Press, 2013). Course reader.
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
The final grade for the course has five main components, with details provided in the syllabus.
1) Class 1 Group Assignment, which must be completed the Tuesday before the first class (10% of final grade)
- Industry Landscape Analysis [course reader material, plus original research, with conclusions summarized in 1 PowerPoint slide per group]
2) Class 2 Group Assignment, which must be completed the Tuesday before the second class (20% of final grade)
- Competitive Review [original research (different assignment for each group) with summary in 3 slides]. Each group will also present their conclusions in the class.
3) Class 3 Group Assignments, which must be completed the Tuesday before the third class (25% of final grade)
3a) Haas Strategic Resources Assessment [original research, with conclusions summarized in a 3-slide deck]
3b) Assessment of the Current Haas Strategy [1 PowerPoint slide assessment of the current strategy]
4) Quality of Class Participation (30% of final grade)
5) Final Memo [one page, due 1 week after the last class] (15% of final grade)
ABSTRACT OF THE COURSE’S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:
The objective of this class is to prepare you to perform well when you are asked to participate in, or to lead, strategy development work in the institution in which you work or a company to whom you are consulting.
This is not a typical course with a textbook and lots of cases and quantitative analyses, nor is it a course where answers are known and the role of the instructor is to help you discover those answers and the reasons behind them. It is instead, an experiential learning course designed to duplicate, as closely as possible, a real strategy project in one of the more challenging environments – an enterprise that is already very successful. There will be some reading material, but most of the outside-the-classroom work will be group work to research and develop the inputs we will use to develop the strategy.
We will use the Haas School of Business as the “live case” for our course, and you will be engaged in the process of refreshing the strategy for Haas. Haas is chosen because you have a personal interest in the long-term success of the institution, and that makes it a more realistic experience versus a typical case study. There are four small-group assignments to be completed outside of classroom time, but the class will also work together as a single strategy development team, just as we would when crafting a strategy in a real organization.
At the end of the course, you will be several steps closer to thinking like a strategist. Specifically, you will have learned how to:
1) Define the key steps to develop/refine a strategy, starting with only a current strategy versus a business school case study full of neatly packaged background information.
2) Research and synthesize significant factors in the external business environment, including competition.
3) Research and synthesize internal assets and capabilities.
4) Assess the fit between the current strategy and both the internal and external environment.
5) Use two complementary strategy development frameworks (strategy cascade and OGST [Objectives, Goals Strategies and Tactics]) and a strategy framing process (choice structuring) to frame strategic choices. These frameworks and processes are actively used by Clorox, Procter & Gamble and a number of other companies.
This Course Is Probably Not for You If:
- You are looking for a fairly easy 1-unit course.
- You strongly prefer working on problems that have clear right or wrong answers.
- You need very detailed, granular instructions that define specific tasks to be completed in specific ways.
- You prefer working alone.
You Will Probably Like This Course If:
- You like doing original research on a current topic versus reading a case that neatly summarizes a situation from years ago.
- You enjoy robust debates on messy problems for which there is often no single best answer.
- You want to experience a strategy development process in real time rather than retrospectively analyzing past strategy choices made by others.
MODIFICATIONS TO COURSE FROM ITS MOST RECENT OFFERING: None – this is the first time this course is being offered.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:
Dan Simpson spent 34 years as an executive at The Clorox Company, a $6 billion manufacturer of consumer goods. He most recently served as Vice President - Office of the Chairman, where he supported the CEO in the execution of his duties and also led work on innovation and partnership practices. His previous role, held for 15 years, was head of corporate strategy, with responsibility for corporate strategy, strategic planning for business and functional units, and internal strategy consulting. Prior assignments included positions in brand management, corporate finance, new business ventures and business development (M&A).
Dan was a founding member of the Corporate Strategy Board and the Bay Area Chief Strategy Officer Roundtable, was President of the Conference Board Council of Strategic Planning Executives, and was one of six chief strategy officers featured in a 2008 McKinsey Quarterly article on the role of the CSO. He holds a B. S. from Northwestern University’s School of Education and an MBA from Kellogg.