Case 18  IKEA in 2013: Furniture Retailer to the World  Charles W.L. Hill  IntroductIon  IKEA is one of the world’s most successful global retailers. By 2012 IKEA had 320 home furnishing superstores s

Woodbury University Strategic Principles

Transdisciplinarity, Design Thinking, Entrepreneurship, and Civic Engagement

School of Business

Cultivating Innovative Business Leaders for Sustainable Society

Woodbury University’s School of Business cultivates the distinctive talents of each student to prepare future leaders of business who communicate effectively, act ethically, and think globally.

This course is designed to support the following program learning goals:

1. Communication skills (develop)

2. Quantitative skills (develop)

3. Accounting & Financial skills (develop)

1. Ethical perspectives in professional decision-making

2. Global awareness.

3. Leadership skills.

4. Information Literacy.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to

1. Demonstrate mastery of all BBA Program Learning Outcomes through case analysis

2. Describe business strategy

3. Apply strategic concepts to a case

You can either walk in, or give me a call to setup a time to meet. My office is in the School of Business, Faculty Offices.

1. Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach, (2018), Hill, C.W., Jones, G. R. and Shilling, M.A. Cengage Learning:Stamford, CT, 12th Edition. ISBN: 101305502272

Optional Materials

1. HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Strategy (2011). Available for $14 on Amazon. ISBN: 1422157989

2. Jim Collin’s How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In (2009). Available for $12 on Amazon. ISBN: 0977326411

3. Jeremy Kourdi’s (listed as The Economist) Business Strategy: A guide to effective decision-making (2015). Available for $15 on Amazon. ISBN: 1610394763

Textbooks may be purchased in hardback, paperback, or eBook version.

The credit hour system at Woodbury estimates that each hour of normal in-class work will require around 2 hours of out-of-class preparation. For an accelerated course, this is doubled again. As a result, a normal full-term course should take around 4 hours outside time, and an accelerated undergraduate course should require 16 hours per week outside time.

Performance assessment and course grade break-down:

There are a number of major grading components for this course. Each assignment is worth a number of points (see Moodle for the final breakdown). Every point for the class is equal; assignments are not weighed. These assignments are preliminary, and may change during the course.

Strategic Management Final Team Project

With your team (3-4 persons per team), you will identify a Fortune 50 company and do a Strategic Audit of the Corporation using the information and directions in the Guidelines posted in Moodle. This team project will require an in-depth analysis of the company, using all material available to you from leading business periodicals, company literature, internet sites, and general library material, including a financial analysis. Each of these issues must also be addressed :

1. Competitive Strength Analysis 2. SWOT Analysis 3. Financial Ratios

It is expected that you will become very familiar with this company so you may want to choose a company where you might want to work someday. The “basic” approach to most every strategic problem starts with answering the Three Strategic Questions:

1. Where are we now? (What is the current situation?)

2. Where do we need to go? (What are the objectives or Goals?)

3. How do we get there? (What are the plans to achieve the Goals?)

The Guideline material is only that, “a guideline”, and should be used accordingly. In your research, you may find a more “user friendly” model. However, you should stick closely to the one offered. You will be required to provide periodic reports of your team’s activities.

Late work is discounted 50% immediately following the due-date, and then 10% per day thereafter. I will drop the lowest quiz grade to deal with any technical problems in the course. Students are required to make all major exam dates and presentation days.

Your overall grade is calculated at [ total points earned ] / [ maximum points available]. The resulting % is assigned to a grade letter using the following scale. Grades are rounded to the nearest tenth of a percent, e.g. 91.2%.

Students’ grades will be calculated based on the following grade schedule:

Case Studies 25% Mid-Term Exam 15% Team Case Analysis 25% Oral Presentation Written

In Class Activities 15% Final Exam (Case Study) 20% 100%

I believe in making the most efficient use of our time. Please come to class prepared to discuss the textbook contents assigned for the respective class period.

As a result, I encourage you to first encounter information outside the classroom. This may be through readings, a textbook, or videos. I expect that you come to class prepared to discuss and apply these concepts. If you do not come prepared, you will have a hard time understanding the material.

The School of Business has standardized a school-wide attendance policy. Below is the official policy.

Absence and tardiness policy:

In the School of Business we believe in preparing our students for workplaces in which discipline and participation are considered part of their performance. We therefore expect our students to attend all class meetings, because the dialogues, presentations, and lectures are critical and cannot be substituted by mere textbook readings and test submissions. As is often the case in the corporate setting, learning happens by being there: through listening, sharing, asking, and other means of constructive communication.

Please find below our policy on absences and tardiness:

• For 7-week courses there is a zero tolerance policy due to the condensed format. This means that no absences are tolerated in this format. Therefore,

  • If a student misses the first class, regardless of his/her reasons, (s)he will be dropped.

  • If a student misses any of the subsequent classes, his/her final course grade drops with a full letter (A becomes B, A- becomes B-, etc.).

• For traditional courses:

  • In twice-a-week traditional courses, students will experience a course grade reduction after missing 4 class sessions. After the fourth absence, the final course grade will drop a full letter grade (equivalent to 1 missed session in a 7-week course). If more than 5 sessions are missed, the student will be either required to withdraw or will be dropped one letter grade for each additional absence from then on.

• • In once-a-week traditional courses, students will experience a course grade reduction after missing 2 class sessions. After the second absence, their grade will drop a full letter grade (equivalent to 1 missed session in a 7-week course). If more than 3 sessions are missed, the student will be either required to withdraw or will be dropped one letter grade for each additional absence from then on.

• • All traditional-format courses, sessions missed during the add/drop period count as absences.

  • Tardiness policy: every 2 late attendances as the equivalence of 1 absence.

  • Special circumstances will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

1. Academic Honesty

Assignments you turn in in are to be done by you alone, and your hands must be on the keyboard. Submitting work completed by another student will result in a reduced or failing final grade. Making your work available to other students for them to cheat with it will also result in a penalty for you. It is ok to ask for feedback from another student or for help with generating ideas, etc., but it is not ok to have someone else tell you step-by-step to complete an assignment.

1. 1. Plagiarism

      1. Turning in plagiarized work will result in a reduced or failing final grade for the course.

      2. All plagiarism incidents will be reported to Student Affairs.

   2. Cheating.

      1. Use of any device during quizzes or tests is prohibited.

         1. You can use translation devices if I approve them beforehand.

      2. Evidence of cheating will result in an “F” grade being assigned for the course.

      3. You are not allowed to use assignments, quizzes or tests from any other sections that I do not provide. Being provided with a copy of a quiz or exam, and not notifying me, will be treated as an academic honesty issue.

      4. You may not use your cellphone at any time during class.

2. Disabilities

This class will adhere to the following standard Woodbury policy on disabilities.

Woodbury University is committed to making reasonable accommodations to assist individuals with disabilities in reaching their academic potential. Students desiring accommodations due to a physical, learning or psychological disability must first complete an Accommodations Request Form, which can be downloaded from http://go.woodbury.edu, and found under “Academic Resources.” Accommodations cannot be granted prior to the instructor’s receipt of a Notification of Special Needs Release Form from the Disabilities Coordinator. Accommodations are never provided retroactively. (For more information, contact the Disabilities Coordinator in the Whitten Center (818) 394-3345.)

1. Subject to change

This syllabus is provisional and subject to change

1. Preparation for class

   1. Students are expected to arrive prepared. This includes having paper, pens/pencils, and having completed all assigned readings or assignments. Unprepared or disruptive students may be asked to leave.

2. Licensing of Student Work

   1. All student work must be licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license (CC 3.0). You do not need to specifically provide this attribution to your work, as your enrollment in the course signifies your acceptance of this requirement. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ for information on this license.

      1. I require this license for all submitted for several reasons:

         1. It protects your rights. All use of your submitted work will have attribution attached, and you will retain full copyright ownership of the material.

         2. It clarifies the ways in which the university can use your work. The university already has certain rights in what it can do with your work. This license clarifies those rights by to explain how we will provide attribution.

         3. A significant component of this course is the analysis and understanding of the new ‘open’ culture on the Internet. Using licensing as a pedagogical tool, I require you to use an open license in order for you to experience both the pros and cons of such a format.

         4. Lastly, the sharing of your work with current students, future students, and other interested parties is a way to enrich the overall educational experience. As an institutional partially funded by the government, I believe that we have an obligation to provide a social good to the larger community. Open licenses and re-usable educational resources is one method by which this public good can be accomplished.

Please refer to Moodle for the final list of assignments.