Posted: September 13th, 2017

strategic thinking

strategic thinking

You are required to explore deeply a topic that develops your personal interest and engagement within the domain of strategic thinking and general management.

•    Great thinkers in strategy, policy, general management, leadership, national or international leadership
•    Teaching and learning strategy
•    Advanced principles of strategy (or systems, or critical thinking)
Getting started
Here are some suggestions on topics, and questions to guide your initial investigation.
Great generals
•    Includes political, military, general managers, big business founders.  Plus those that contribute to social or cultural capital
•    Napoleon (France), Mahatma Ghandi (India), Nelson Mandella (South Africa), Steve Jobs (US), Bill Gates (US), Martin Luther King (USA)
•    Could include an event e.g. the handling of the subprime crisis in the USA or the BP spill and how they were handled from a strategic point of view and a critical analysis of their actions.

Suggested components of a report in the genre of an essay for this topic:

•    Introduction and overview: “Napoleon was a great, bad man”
•    Body of the Report
•    Where person born, grew up, key influences on their early life, the society in which they grew up
•    What did the person achieve? Challenges overcome? Greatest moments?
•    Who thinks the person was ‘great’? Why?
•    Who thinks the person was not ‘great’ (or even, evil)? Why?
•    The lessons one can learn from the person’s life (e.g. what to do? What not to do?)
•    The lessons I have learned from this person?
•    Optional extra: How would this person cope in today’s world? (How would they adapt? Would anyone give them a job or a customer order? …)
•    Summary and conclusions. e.g. “Napoleon was a great, bad man”… based on your evaluation of the evidence you presented