COURSE NUMBER: MBA 294.18

COURSE TITLE: Strategy Speaker Series

UNITS OF CREDIT: 1

INSTRUCTOR: Dan Simpson

STUDENT ORGANIZER: Diego Dias, Andy Kang

E-MAIL ADDRESS: diego_dias@mba.berkeley.edu,andy_kang@mba.berkeley.edu

MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Fall B Thursdays  4-6pm

This course will meet on 10/26, 11/2, 11/9, 11/16, 11/30.

CLASS FORMAT:  Interactive 2-hour sessions with senior strategy officers from a variety of industries.

REQUIRED READINGS: Some selected readings related to strategy development / execution tools covered by speakers.

COURSE OVERVIEW: This 5-session speaker series course goes beyond a loosely connected set of speakers who talk about their careers and experiences.  Speakers in this course will cover that content, but their primary focus is to build on the theory from the core strategy course and expose you to a variety of pragmatic strategy tools and techniques used in real organizations.  The course is designed for students whose career progression will require practical knowledge about how to develop and execute a strategy in an organization, either as a leader or as a consultant.

BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:  Weekly attendance and class participation. Grade will be pass/fail. Since there are only five sessions, no more than one absence is allowed in order to receive a passing grade.  Please email Andy and Diego in advance if you will be absent.

ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S OBJECTIVES AND CONTENT: 

Co-sponsored by leaders of the Haas Consulting Club and the Finance Club, this course will focus on enhancing the knowledge of strategy processes and frameworks used by businesses today.  The course is divided into a strategy development toolkit and a strategy execution toolkit.  Specific topics and speakers are subject to change based on speaker availability.

Strategy Development Topics

Scenario Planning

Scenario planning is potentially one of the most important and also one of the most misunderstood strategy tools.  Peter Schwartz, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Salesforce and author of “The Art of the Long View”, a classic book on scenario planning, will provide insights into the effective use of scenario planning in strategy development.

Overview of Strategy Development Tools

You will get exposure to some of the tools and processes used to develop strategy at Clorox, GE, HP and other large multi-business companies, as well as some of the strategy development tools used by the major strategy consulting firms.  This module will include a bit of a deeper dive into BCG’s five strategy archetypes (see below).  Dan Simpson, former chief strategy officer of The Clorox Company who now teaches Corporate Level Strategy in the EWMBA program, will provide the overview.

iPad-based Simulation Game to Practice with BCG’s Five Strategy Archetypes

Many of the classic strategy development techniques created 30-40 years ago don’t work as well in today’s much more turbulent environment.   BCG’s five archetypes define five different approaches to strategy development based on (1) the degree to which the external environment is unpredictable and (2) the ability of a firm to change and shape the environment.  A simulation game designed to let you develop your skills in each archetype will be introduced in one class, you will play it between classes, and lessons will be debriefed in the next class.

The Application of Design Thinking in Creating a Strategy

Vivian Tan, Vice President of Strategy and Transformation at Kaiser Permanente, will cover how KP used design thinking to develop the strategy for a $64 billion integrated health care provider, and reasons why such an approach is beneficial when developing strategy in a very volatile environment.

Strategy Development in a Start-Up

A leader of a start-up will provide counsel on how start-ups develop and execute strategy.  Speaker TBD.

Strategy Execution Topics

Overview of Strategy Execution Tools

Dan Simpson will provide an overview of a variety of the strategy execution frameworks and processes in use by businesses today.

Cisco’s Strategy Toolkit: Extending the Scope of the Enterprise

Rama Naageswaran, VP of Corporate Strategy at Cisco Systems, will cover Cisco’s approach to strategy, including how it not only uses build and buy options to execute strategy, but how it also executes strategy through invest, co-op and partnership options.

Transforming the Business Model

Dan Cohen, head of strategy at Adobe from 2007-2017, will review the lessons learned from Adobe’s business model transformation to the cloud.

Vision Driven Strategy: Marc Benioff’s V2MOM Process

Peter Schwartz, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning at Salesforce, will describe the unique V2MOM (Vision, Values, Methods, Obstacles, and Measures) strategy development / execution process created and employed by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff.