Posted: September 13th, 2017

TUTORIAL PROGRAM:

Outlined below are the tutorial activities that we will be completing across the semester. Students are expected to come to tutorials with answers prepared to these questions, and to actively engage with their peers in discussion of these questions during the tutorial. If you have any questions about these tutorial questions then please feel free to contact a member of the teaching team and we will endeavour to answer your questions.
Tutorial 1: What is Strategy?
1. What do we mean by the concept of ‘’strategy’’, and is this concept only relevant in a business context? Can you think of examples in your own life when you have acted ‘’strategically’’?
2. What do concept like strategic competitiveness, competitive advantage, and above-average returns mean, and what are the issues or challenges for businesses associated with these concepts?
3. For the companies listed below identify the competitive/strategic challenges they (a) currently face, and (b) are likely to face in the next five to ten years.
• Samsung
• Facebook
• ANZ
4. What is strategic leadership and strategic entrepreneurship? What role do they play in the strategic management process?
Tutorial 2: The General Environment
1. Why is it important for businesses to study the external environment when developing their strategies?
2. What is the external environment analysis process? What does the firm want to learn when using this process?
3. What are the seven segments of the general environment? Explain the differences among them?
4. What will happen in the future? One of the big issues in strategic management is that we are making decisions based on assumptions on the future, yet the future is unknown. As a result, managers have to make predictions about the future of the business environment. In groups, identify what you think we be some of the big issues for business in the next 5, 10, and 20 years. How do you think business should respond to these challenges?
BMA202 Strategic Management Page 3
Tutorial 3: The Industry Environment
1. How do the five-forces of competition in an industry affect its profit potential? Explain?
2. Working in groups, use the five-forces to conduct an analysis of the following industries:
• The automotive industry
• The hotel industry
• The café industry
At the end of your analysis, identify the relative attractiveness of the industries for (a) businesses already competing in these industries, and (b) businesses looking to enter these industries.
3. What is a strategic group? Of what value is knowledge of the firm’s strategic group in formulating that firm’s strategy?
4. For the industries listed in question 2, identify the strategic groups and provide a broad overview of the strategic position of the groups in these respective industries.
Tutorial 4: Internal Analysis
1. What are the differences between a tangible and intangible resource? Why is it important for decision makers to understand these differences? Which is more valuable in creating capabilities? Why?
2. What are capabilities and how does a firm create them? What four criteria must capabilities satisfy to become core competencies? Why is it important for firms to use these criteria to evaluate their capabilities’ value-creating potential?
3. What is value chain analysis? What does the firm gain by successfully using this tool?
4. How do firms identify internal strengths and weaknesses? Why is it vital that managers have a clear understanding of their firm’s strengths and weaknesses?
Tutorial 5: Business-Level Strategy
1. What is a business-level strategy? What is the relationship between a firm’s customers and its business-level strategy in terms of who, what and how? Why is this relationship important?
2. What are the generic business-level strategies available to a firm, and what are the differences in focus and intent between them?
3. How can each of the generic business-level strategies be used to position the firm relative to the five-forces of competition in a way that helps a firm achieve above-average returns?
4. What are the potential risks for a firm associated with using each of the generic business-level strategies?
BMA202 Strategic Management Page 4
Tutorial 6: Competitive Rivalry and Market Dynamics
1. From a strategic viewpoint, who are competitors? What do we mean by competitive rivalry, competitive behaviour, and competitive dynamics? Provide examples of these terms in action.
2. What are market commonality and resource similarity? What does it mean to say that these concepts are the building blocks for a competitor analysis?
3. How do awareness, motivation, and ability affect the firm’s competitive behaviour?
4. What competitive dynamics can be expected amongst firms competing in slow-cycle, fast-cycle and standard-cycle markets?
Tutorial 7: Corporate-Level Strategy
1. What is corporate level strategy and why is it important? What are the three main reasons that a firm choose to diversify their operations?
2. What are the different levels of diversification firms can pursue by using different corporate-level strategies?
3. What incentives and resources encourage diversification? What motives might encourage managers to over-diversify their firm?
The remainder of the tutorial will be spent on case study preparation.
Tutorial 8: Mergers and Acquisitions.
1. What reasons account for a firms’’ decisions to use acquisition strategies as a means to achieve strategic competitiveness? Use examples to support your answers.
2. What are the seven primary problems that affect a firm’s efforts to successfully use an acquisition strategy?
3. What is the restructuring strategy and what are its common forms?
The remainder of the tutorial will be spent on case study preparation.
Tutorial 9: Alliances, Networks and Cooperative Strategies.
1. What is the definition of cooperative strategy, and why is this strategy important to firms competing in the twenty-first century competitive landscape?
2. What is a strategic alliance? What are the three major types of strategic alliances firms form for the purpose of developing a competitive advantage?
BMA202 Strategic Management Page 5
3. What risks are firms likely to experience as they use cooperative strategies? Use examples to support your answers.
The remainder of the tutorial will be spent on case study preparation.
Tutorial 10: International Strategy
1. What are the three basic benefits firms can achieve by successfully using an international strategy?
2. What four factors are determinants of national advantage and serve as a basis for international business-level strategies?
3. What are the three generic international corporate-level strategies? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with these individual strategies?
4. What five entry modes do firms consider as to use to enter international markets? What is the typical sequence in which a firm uses these entry modes?
Tutorial 11: Corporate Governance
1. What is corporate governance and why is it important? Why is governance necessary to control managers’ decisions?
2. What is meant by the statement that ownership is often separated from managerial control in corporations? Why does this separation exist and what issues does it create?
3. What is the agency relationship and what meant by managerial opportunism? What assumptions do owners of corporations make about managers as agents?
4. How is each of the three internal governance mechanisms – ownership concentration, boards of directors, and executive compensation – used to align the interests of managerial agents with those of the firm’s owners?
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