COURSE NUMBER: MBA299E.1
COURSE TITLE: Competitive and
Corporate Strategy: The “Dynamic Capabilities” Approach
UNITS OF CREDIT: 2 Units
INSTRUCTOR: Paul Tiffany
E-MAIL ADDRESS: tiffany@haas.berkeley.edu
CLASS WEB PAGE LOCATION: none
MEETING DAY(S)/TIME: Monday,
8:00-11:00 AM.
Ten
non-consecutive meetings across the 15-week semester:
· The course will begin on August
26 and meet nine more regularly scheduled Mondays thereafter; the last sceduled class will meet on November 18.
· However, there will be three
Monday dates in the semester on which class is not held:
September 2 (school holiday), September 23, and November 11 (school
holiday).
· All firm meeting dates will be
announced in the syllabus that is available two weeks prior to the start of the
semester.
PREREQUISITE(S): First year core
courses
CLASS FORMAT: Cases and
lecture/discussions by the Instructor
REQUIRED READINGS: Course reader
(on study.net) of cases, and a recommended text
BASIS FOR FINAL GRADE:
Participation (25%), case write-up (25%), and group paper (50%)
ABSTRACT OF COURSE'S CONTENT AND
OBJECTIVES:
This section of MBA299E-1 will
focus on COMPETITIVE STRATEGY: THE “DYNAMIC CAPABILTIES” APPROACH. This
is a course that deals with the management of strategic adaptation and change
within highly competitive markets. We are currently living in one of the most
intense eras of market transformation in recent history, and many firms and
organizations are having serious difficulty in adapting to new realities, as
traditional managerial theories and tools are not working as well as needed.
Why is this: does it have to do with the velocity of
change in the business environment— the speed with which change is occurring
being too rapid for easy adjustment? Or is it ill-equipped managers who are
unable or unwilling to understand market dynamics quickly enough to reallocate
resources to the new conditions that surround them? Or is it due to a
combination of these external environment - internal
behavioral and organizational forces?
To respond to these questions we
will utilize the emerging management construct of “Dynamic Capabilities” to
organize the course. Dynamic Capabilities can be described as “the firm’s
ability to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external competences
to address rapidly changing environments” (as stated by Prof. D. Teece of The Haas School, who is credited with the
development of this new approach to strategic management). Traditional
strategic management concepts, such as the famed “Porter Model” of competitor
analysis, are under stress for their difficulty in resolving problems presented
by the global, technologically driven, knowledge-based, and extremely dynamic
marketplace that characterizes many industries today. As an example, our
conventional models of management continue to presume that firms compete
primarily in a manufacturing environment in which scale, heavy fixed
investment, externalization of production byproducts (such as waste), unlimited
supplies of inputs, rigid organizational hierarchies, tightly controlled
management-subordinate relationships, and defined industry structures
(typically oligopolies) are the order of the day. Clearly, this
characterization is becoming less prevalent if not outright obsolete-- and
indeed, clinging to it may be the reason for the failure of so many firms in
the face of market change. As such, an evolution in thinking is perhaps
inevitable in how business firm managers approach their task in the new and
dynamic 21st Century economy. The emerging concept of “dynamic
capabilities” is designed to address these shortcomings.
We will utilize a number of
pedagogical approaches in this course, including case studies and
lecture/discussions sessions. Since there will be a case assigned for each
class, students should be prepared to engage these course materials with vigor,
actively participate in classroom discussions, and embrace your classmates as
professional colleagues in our quest for the new truth about business
organization management.
RECOMMENDED TEXT: We will utilize
several “recommended” texts. Robert M. Grant, Contemporary Strategy Analysis,
7th Ed. (John Wiley & Son, 2010) is a very comprehensive and
well written primer on strategy today. Any of the editions are acceptable, as
the content of each has not changed that much over the past five years. In
addition, there are two recommended texts that are more specific to this
version of MBA 299E-1. First is C. Helfat, et al,
Dynamic Capabilities: Understanding Strategic Change in Organizations
(Blackwell Publishing, 2007). This book is a collection of articles, somewhat
scholarly, on the topic. Second, you also may wish to review David Teece’s recent book, Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic
Management: Organizing for Innovation and Growth (Oxford University Press,
2009). While Professor Teece is the true originator
of the concept of “dynamic capabilities,” this book is directed more to
academics than to working managers; while there is nothing inherently wrong
with this, the book’s concepts do not always translate easily into management
action!
In addition, there will be a
Course Reader containing various articles, cases, and copies of lecture
PowerPoint slides used in the course.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH: See http://www.haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/tiffany.html