COURSE NUMBER: MBA 210.1

This course is cross-listed with the EWMBA Program

COURSE TITLE: Strategy, Structure, and Incentives

UNITS OF CREDIT: 3 units

INSTRUCTOR: Jonathan Leonard

E-MAIL ADDRESS: leonard@haas.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY/TIME: Wednesday, 6:00pm-9:30pm

PREREQUISITE(S): Completion of MBA Core Curriculum

CLASS FORMAT: Case Discussion, Outside Speakers from Business, Law, and Consulting, Lectures

REQUIRED READINGS: Course Reader, Cases, Text

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE: Class Participation, Examination.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND OBJECTIVES:

Business success depends upon strategy, structure, and incentives. The focus here is on using insights from economics to develop structure, tactics, and incentives to achieve the firm's goals. Competitive advantage is achieved through the management of the firm's resources, as well as those of upstream suppliers, network and alliance partners, and downstream distributors. We develop a framework for analyzing organizational architecture, focusing on the allocation of decision rights, the measurement of performance, and the design of incentives. We focus on managing the vertical chain of upstream suppliers and downstream distributors, including the fundamental make or buy decisions that determine the limits of the firm. Our discussion links the competitive landscape to the firm's external and internal strategic decisions. We also examine techniques for dealing with informational asymmetries. A major focus of this course is the design and operation of incentive and performance management systems both within the firm and in external contracts.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:

Professor Jonathan Leonard is a labor economist and an expert on human resource management. He has served as an advisor on labor issues to the Executive Office of the President, the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, the OECD, Employment and Immigration Canada, the Kansai Economic Association, the Swiss National Fund, Brazil’s Department of Justice, the European Union's Employment Network, and to major U.S. unions and employers. He is a member of the OBIR faculty, and Chair of the Economic Analysis and Policy group at Haas, and has taught numerous times in the Haas Core. He served as Associate Dean at Haas during 2002. Professor Leonard was honored to be selected by Haas students as the winner of the Cheit Teaching Award in 1998 for his teaching in the MBA program. In 2001, he was again selected as the winner of the Cheit Teaching award, this time for his for his teaching in the Evening MBA program.