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: Mondays, 8:00-11:00 AM.
Ten
non-consecutive meetings across the 15-week 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