the said cases are in the attached pdf filesthe word document contains the instructions
nb: EACH ASSIGNMENT SHOULD BE SUBMITTED AS SEPARATE DOCUMENT THUS I SHOULD RECEIVE 3 DOCS
Follow these guidelines for case assignments for module 1, 2, and 3.
This case assignment provides an opportunity to improve your analytical skills. Before you begin, make sure you’ve studied the materials in the assigned chapters thoroughly because you need to apply those concepts to your case analysis. Your assignment should include the following:
a. Title page
b. A table of content
c. Footnotes-you must link your analysis to the materials/concepts in the book. Footnotes must include page numbers.
d. The main body of the assignment should be 3 to 5 pages in length double-spaced. Use headings, sub-headings, bullets, etc. liberally for cleaner organization and a friendlier reading.
This is an open book assignment. Be sure that your analysis reflects the application of your knowledge of the assigned readings and any additional sources that you find necessary.
Assignment 1
Read case # 4 (in your textbook) “Sirius XM Satelite Radio Inc. in 2014: On track to Succeed after a Near-Death Experience?.” and perform the following analysis:
How strong/medium/weak are the five competitive forces confronting Sirius XM? Perform the five forces analysis to support your answers.(50 pts)
Construct the strategic group map of the industry. Is Sirius well positioned on the map? Why or Why not? (25 pts)
What are the Key Success Factors in this industry? (25 pts)
Chapter 3 of your text provides a detailed discussion of topics/tools that you would need to know in order to complete this assignment.
Save your work in Word (.doc).
Assignment 2
Read Case # 5 (in your textbook), “Panera Bread Company in 2015: What to Do to Rejuvenate the Company’s Growth?” and perform the following analysis:
What are the chief elements of Panera Bread’s strategy? (25 pts)
Perform a SWOT analysis for Panera Bread. Does the company has any core competencies or distinctive competencies? (25 pts)
Perform financial/performance analysis of the company based on the data in the case for 2009-2014 period. (30 pts)
What strategic issues or problems does Panera Bread management need to address? ? What are your recommendations to address those issues/problems to top management? (20 pts)
Chapters 4 and 5 of your text provide detailed discussion of topics/tools that you would need to know in order to complete this assignment. Also, Appendix on pages 228-229 is useful to address question #3.
Save your work in Word (.doc).
Assignment 3
Read the Case “The Walt Disney Company: Its Diversification Strategy in 2012?” and perform the following analysis:
(This case is not in your textbook. You can access the case attached (it is also in the course materials tab for Module 3)).
What is the Walt Disney Company’s corporate strategy? (20 pts)
What is your assessment of the long-term attractiveness of the industries represented in Walt Disney Company’s business portfolio?(20 pts)
What is your assessment of the competitive strengths of Walt Disney Company’s different business units? (20 pts)
What does a Nine-cell Industry Attractiveness/Business Strength Matrix for Walt Disney Company look like? (20 pts)
Evaluate the financial and operating performance of the Walt Disney Company. (20 pts)
Chapters 8 in your textbook provide detailed discussion of the topic/tool (Portfolio analysis) that you would need to know in order to complete this assignment.
Save your work in Word (.doc). Upload and submit it via the link before the deadline
Essentials of
Strategic Management
The Quest for Competitive Advantage
John E. Gamble
Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi
Margaret A. Peteraf
Dartmouth College
Arthur A. Thompson, Jr.
The University of Alabama
5e
�
ESSENTIALS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT: THE QUEST FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE,
FIFTH EDITION
Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright © 2017 by
McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America.
Previous editions © 2015, 2013, and 2011. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed
in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written
consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic
storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance learning.
Some ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers
outside the United States.
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOW/DOW 1 0 9 8 7 6
ISBN 978-1-259-54698-3
MHID 1-259-54698-5
Senior Vice President, Products & Markets: Kurt L. Strand
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Director: Michael Ablassmeir
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Content Project Manager: Mary Powers (Core), Keri Johnson (Assessment)
Buyer: Laura Fuller
Design: Matt Diamond
Cover Image: John Lund/Getty Images
Content Licensing Specialists: Michelle Whitaker (Image), DeAnna Dausener (Text)
Compositor: SPi Global
Printer: R. R. Donnelley
All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension
of the copyright page.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Gamble, John (John E.) author. | Thompson, Arthur A., 1940- author. |
Peteraf, Margaret Ann, author.
Title: Essentials of strategic management : the quest for competitive
advantage / John Gamble, Texas A&M University Corpus Christi, Arthur
Thompson, Jr., The University of Alabama TUSCALOOSA, Margaret Peteraf,
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE.
Description: Fifth Edition. | Dubuque : McGraw-Hill Education, 2016. |
Revised edition of the authors’ Essentials of strategic management, 2015.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015045630 | ISBN 9781259546983 (alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Strategic planning. | Business planning. | Competition. |
Strategic planning—Case studies.
Classification: LCC HD30.28 .G353 2016 | DDC 658.4/012—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.
gov/2015045630
The Internet addresses listed in the text were accurate at the time of publication. The inclusion
of a website does not indicate an endorsement by the authors or McGraw-Hill Education, and
McGraw-Hill Education does not guarantee the accuracy of the information presented at these sites.
www.mhhe.com
�
About the Author
John E. Gamble is a Professor of Management and Dean of the College of
Business at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi. His teaching and research
for nearly 20 years has focused on strategic management at the undergraduate
and graduate levels. He has conducted courses in strategic management in
Germany since 2001, which have been sponsored by the University of Applied
Sciences in Worms.
Dr. Gamble’s research has been published in various scholarly journals
and he is the author or co-author of more than 75 case studies published in
an assortment of strategic management and strategic marketing texts. He has
done consulting on industry and market analysis for clients in a diverse mix of
industries.
Professor Gamble received his Ph.D., Master of Arts, and Bachelor of Science
degrees from The University of Alabama and was a faculty member in the
Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama before his
appointment to the faculty at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.
Margaret A. Peteraf is the Leon E. Williams Professor of Management at
the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. She is an internationally
recognized scholar of strategic management, with a long list of publications
in top management journals. She has earned myriad honors and prizes for her
contributions, including the 1999 Strategic Management Society Best Paper
Award recognizing the deep influence of her work on the field of strategic
management. Professor Peteraf is on the Board of Directors of the Strategic
Management Society and has been elected as a Fellow of the Society. She
served previously as a member of the Academy of Management’s Board of
Governors and as Chair of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the
Academy. She has also served in various editorial roles and is presently on nine
editorial boards, including the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy
of Management Review, and Organization Science. She has taught in Executive
Education programs around the world and has won teaching awards at the
MBA and Executive level.
Professor Peteraf earned her Ph.D., M.A., and M.Phil. at Yale University
and held previous faculty appointments at Northwestern University’s Kellogg
Graduate School of Management and at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson
School of Management.
iii
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Arthur A. Thompson, Jr., earned his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in economics
from The University of Tennessee, spent three years on the economics faculty
at Virginia Tech, and served on the faculty of The University of Alabama’s College
of Commerce and Business Administration for 25 years. In 1974 and again
in 1982, Dr. Thompson spent semester-long sabbaticals as a visiting scholar at
the Harvard Business School.
His areas of specialization are business strategy, competition and market
analysis, and the economics of business enterprises. In addition to publishing
over 30 articles in some 25 different professional and trade publications, he
has authored or co-authored five textbooks and six computer-based simulation
exercises that are used in colleges and universities worldwide.
Dr. Thompson spends much of his off-campus time giving presentations,
putting on management development programs, working with companies, and
helping operate a business simulation enterprise in which he is a major partner.
Dr. Thompson and his wife of 54 years have two daughters, two grandchildren,
and a Yorkshire terrier.
iv
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Brief Contents
PART ONE CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES
FOR CRAFTING AND EXECUTING
STRATEGY
Section A: Introduction and Overview
1. Strategy, Business Models, and Competitive
Advantage 1
2. Strategy Formulation, Execution, and
Governance 13
Section B: Core Concepts and Analytical Tools
3. Evaluating a Company’s External
Environment 36
4. Evaluating a Company’s Resources, Capabilities,
and Competitiveness 65
Section C: Crafting a Strategy
5. The Five Generic Competitive Strategies 89
6. Strengthening a Company’s Competitive
Position:
Strategic Moves, Timing, and Scope of
Operations 111
7. Strategies for Competing in International
Markets 132
8. Corporate Strategy: Diversification and the Multibusiness
Company 153
9. Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility,
Environmental
Sustainability, and Strategy 181
Section D: Executing the Strategy
10. Superior Strategy Execution—Another Path to
Competitive Advantage 198
Appendix Key Financial Ratios: How to Calculate
Them and What They Mean 228
PART TWO CASES IN CRAFTING
AND EXECUTING
STRATEGY
Case 1 BillCutterz.com: Business Model, Strategy,
and the Challenges of Exponential
Growth 231
Case 2 Whole Foods Market in 2014: Vision, Core
Values, and Strategy 237
Case 3 Apple Inc. in 2015 268
Case 4 Sirius XM Satellite Radio, Inc. in 2014:
On Track to Succeed After a Near-Death
Experience? 279
Case 5 Panera Bread Company in 2015—What to Do
to Rejuvenate the Company’s Growth? 300
Case 6 Vera Bradley in 2015: Can Its Turnaround
Strategy Reverse Its Continuing
Decline? 320
Case 7 Tesla Motors’ Strategy to Revolutionize the
Global Automotive Industry 333
Case 8 Deere & Company in 2015: Striving for
Growth in a Weakening Global Agricultural
Sector 366
Case 9 PepsiCo’s Diversification Strategy in
2015 377
Case 10 Robin Hood 390
Case 11 Southwest Airlines in 2014: Culture,
Values, and Operating Practices 392
Case 12 TOMS Shoes: A Dedication to Social
Responsibility 430
Glossary 439
Indexes 443
v
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Preface
The standout features of this fifth edition of Essentials of Strategic Management
are its concisely written and robust coverage of strategic management concepts
and its compelling collection of cases. The text presents a conceptually strong
treatment of strategic management principles and analytic approaches that features
straight-to-the-point discussions, timely examples, and a writing style that captures
the interest of students. While this edition retains the 10-chapter structure of the prior
edition, every chapter has been reexamined, refined, and refreshed. New content has
been added to keep the material in line with the latest developments in the theory and
practice of strategic management. Also, scores of new examples have been added,
along with fresh Concepts & Connections illustrations, to make the content come alive
and to provide students with a ringside view of strategy in action. The fundamental
character of the fifth edition of Essentials of Strategic Management is very much in
step with the best academic thinking and contemporary management practice. The
chapter content continues to be solidly mainstream and balanced, mirroring both the
penetrating insight of academic thought and the pragmatism of real-world strategic
management.
Complementing the text presentation is a truly appealing lineup of 12 diverse,
timely, and thoughtfully crafted cases. All of the cases are tightly linked to the content
of the 10 chapters, thus pushing students to apply the concepts and analytical tools
they have read about. Eleven of the 12 cases were written by the coauthors to illustrate
specific tools of analysis or distinct strategic management theories. The Robin Hood
case was not written by the coauthors but was included because of its exceptional
pedagogical value and linkage to strategic management concepts presented in the text.
We are confident you will be impressed with how well each of the 12 cases in the collection
will work in the classroom and the amount of student interest they will spark.
For some years now, growing numbers of strategy instructors at business schools
worldwide have been transitioning from a purely text-cases course structure to a
more robust and energizing text-cases-simulation course structure. Incorporating a
competition-
based strategy simulation has the strong appeal of providing class members
with an immediate and engaging opportunity to apply the concepts and analytical
tools covered in the chapters in a head-to-head competition with companies run
by other class members. Two widely used and pedagogically effective online strategy
simulations, The Business Strategy Game and GLO-BUS, are optional companions
for this text. Both simulations, like the cases, are closely linked to the content of each
chapter in the text. The Exercises for Simulation Participants, found at the end of each
chapter, provide clear guidance to class members in applying the concepts and analytical
tools covered in the chapters to the issues and decisions that they have to wrestle
with in managing their simulation company.
Through our experiences as business school faculty members, we also fully understand
the assessment demands on faculty teaching strategic management and business
vi
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policy courses. In many institutions, capstone courses have emerged as the logical
home for assessing student achievement of program learning objectives. The fifth edition
includes Assurance of Learning Exercises at the end of each chapter that link
to the specific Learning Objectives appearing at the beginning of each chapter and
highlighted throughout the text. An important instructional feature of this edition is
the linkage of selected chapter-end Assurance of Learning Exercises and cases to the
publisher’s Connect web-based assignment and assessment platform. Your students
will be able to use the online Connect supplement to (1) complete two of the Assurance
of Learning Exercises appearing at the end of each of the 10 chapters, (2) complete
chapter-end quizzes, and (3) complete case tutorials based upon the suggested
assignment questions for all 12 cases in this edition. With the exception of some of the
chapter-end Assurance of Learning exercises, all of the Connect exercises are automatically
graded, thereby enabling you to easily assess the learning that has occurred.
In addition, both of the companion strategy simulations have a built-in Learning
Assurance Report that quantifies how well each member of your class performed on
nine skills/learning measures versus tens of thousands of other students worldwide
who completed the simulation in the past 12 months. We believe the chapter-end
Assurance of Learning Exercises, the all-new online and automatically graded Connect
exercises, and the Learning Assurance Report generated at the conclusion of The
Business Strategy Game and GLO-BUS simulations provide you with easy-to-use,
empirical measures of student learning in your course. All can be used in conjunction
with other instructor-developed or school-developed scoring rubrics and assessment
tools to comprehensively evaluate course or program learning outcomes and measure
compliance with AACSB accreditation standards.
Taken together, the various components of the fifth edition package and the supporting
set of Instructor Resources provide you with enormous course design flexibility
and a powerful kit of teaching/learning tools. We’ve done our very best to ensure
that the elements comprising this edition will work well for you in the classroom, help
you economize on the time needed to be well prepared for each class, and cause students
to conclude that your course is one of the very best they have ever taken—from
the standpoint of both enjoyment and learning.
Differentiation from Other Texts
Five noteworthy traits strongly differentiate this text and the accompanying instructional
package from others in the field:
1. Our integrated coverage of the two most popular perspectives on strategic management
positioning theory and resource-based theory is unsurpassed by any
other leading strategy text. Principles and concepts from both the positioning perspective
and the resource-based perspective are prominently and comprehensively
integrated into our coverage of crafting both single-business and multibusiness
strategies. By highlighting the relationship between a firm’s resources and capabilities
to the activities it conducts along its value chain, we show explicitly how
these two perspectives relate to one another. Moreover, in Chapters 3 through 8, it
is emphasized repeatedly that a company’s strategy must be matched not only to
its external market circumstances but also to its internal resources and competitive
capabilities.
Preface vii
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2. Our coverage of business ethics, core values, social responsibility, and environmental
sustainability is unsurpassed by any other leading strategy text. Chapter 9,
“Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy,”
is embellished with fresh content so that it can better fulfill the important
functions of (1) alerting students to the role and importance of ethical and socially
responsible decision making and (2) addressing the accreditation requirements
that business ethics be visibly and thoroughly embedded in the core curriculum.
Moreover, discussions of the roles of values and ethics are integrated into portions
of other chapters to further reinforce why and how considerations relating to
ethics, values, social responsibility, and sustainability should figure prominently
into the managerial task of crafting and executing company strategies.
3. The caliber of the case collection in the fifth edition is truly unrivaled from the
standpoints of student appeal, teachability, and suitability for drilling students in
the use of the concepts and analytical treatments in Chapters 1 through 10. The
12 cases included in this edition are the very latest, the best, and the most on-target
that we could find. The ample information about the cases in the Instructor’s
Manual makes it effortless to select a set of cases each term that will capture
the interest of students from start to finish.
4. The publisher’s Connect assignment and assessment platform is tightly linked
to the text chapters and case lineup. The Connect package for the fifth edition
allows professors to assign autograded quizzes and select chapter-end Assurance
of Learning Exercises to assess class members’ understanding of chapter concepts.
In addition, our texts have pioneered the extension of the Connect platform
to case analysis. The autograded case exercises for each of the 12 cases in this
edition are robust and extensive and will better enable students to make meaningful
contributions to class discussions. The autograded Connect case exercises
may also be used as graded assignments in the course.
5. The two cutting-edge and widely used strategy simulations—The Business Strategy
Game and GLO-BUS—that are optional companions to the fifth edition
give you unmatched capability to employ a text-case-simulation model of course
delivery.
Organization, Content, and Features of the Fifth
Edition Text Chapters
The following rundown summarizes the noteworthy features and topical emphasis in
this new edition:
· Chapter 1 serves as a introduction to the topic of strategy, focusing on the managerial
actions that will determine why a company matters in the marketplace.
We introduce students to the primary approaches to building competitive advantage
and the key elements of business-level strategy. Following Henry Mintzberg’s
pioneering research, we also stress why a company’s strategy is partly
planned and partly reactive and why this strategy tends to evolve. The chapter
also discusses why it is important for a company to have a viable business model
that outlines the company’s customer value proposition and its profit formula.
viii Preface
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This brief chapter is the perfect accompaniment to your opening-day lecture on
what the course is all about and why it matters.
· Chapter 2 delves more deeply into the managerial process of actually crafting and
executing a strategy. It makes a great assignment for the second day of class and
provides a smooth transition into the heart of the course. The focal point of the
chapter is the five-stage managerial process of crafting and executing strategy:
(1) forming a strategic vision of where the company is headed and why,
(2) developing strategic as well as financial objectives with which to measure the
company’s progress, (3) crafting a strategy to achieve these targets and move the
company toward its market destination, (4) implementing and executing the strategy,
and (5) evaluating a company’s situation and performance to identify corrective
adjustments that are needed. Students are introduced to such core concepts as
strategic visions, mission statements and core values, the balanced scorecard, and
business-level versus corporate-level strategies. There’s a robust discussion of
why all managers are on a company’s strategy-making, strategy-executing team
and why a company’s strategic plan is a collection of strategies devised by different
managers at different levels in the organizational hierarchy. The chapter winds
up with a section on how to exercise good corporate governance and examines
the conditions that led to recent high-profile corporate governance failures.
· Chapter 3 sets forth the now-familiar analytical tools and concepts of industry
and competitive analysis and demonstrates the importance of tailoring strategy to
fit the circumstances of a company’s industry and competitive environment. The
standout feature of this chapter is a presentation of Michael Porter’s “five forces
model of competition” that has long been the clearest, most straightforward discussion
of any text in the field. Chapter revisions include an improved discussion
of the macro-environment, focusing on the use of the PESTEL analysis framework
for assessing the political, economic, social, technological, environmental,
and legal factors in a company’s macro-environment. New to this edition is a discussion
of Michael Porter’s Framework for Competitor Analysis used for assessing
a rival’s likely strategic moves.
· Chapter 4 presents the resource-based view of the firm, showing why resource
and capability analysis is such a powerful tool for sizing up a company’s competitive
assets. It offers a simple framework for identifying a company’s resources
and capabilities and explains how the VRIN framework can be used to determine
whether they can provide the company with a sustainable competitive advantage
over its competitors. Other topics covered in this chapter include dynamic capabilities,
SWOT analysis, value chain analysis, benchmarking, and competitive
strength assessments, thus enabling a solid appraisal of a company’s relative cost
position and customer value proposition vis-à-vis its rivals.
· Chapter 5 deals with the basic approaches used to compete successfully and gain
a competitive advantage over market rivals. This discussion is framed around the
five generic competitive strategies—low-cost leadership, differentiation, best-cost
provider, focused differentiation, and focused low-cost. It describes when each of
these approaches works best and what pitfalls to avoid. It explains the role of cost
drivers and uniqueness drivers in reducing a company’s costs and enhancing its
differentiation, respectively.
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· Chapter 6 deals with the strategy options available to complement a company’s
competitive approach and maximize the power of its overall strategy. These
include a variety of offensive or defensive competitive moves, and their timing,
such as blue ocean strategy and first-mover advantages and disadvantages. It also
includes choices concerning the breadth of a company’s activities (or its scope of
operations along an industry’s entire value chain), ranging from horizontal mergers
and acquisitions, to vertical integration, outsourcing, and strategic alliances.
This material serves to segue into that covered in the next two chapters on international
and diversification strategies.
· Chapter 7 explores the full range of strategy options for competing in international
markets: export strategies; licensing; franchising; establishing a subsidiary
in a foreign market; and using strategic alliances and joint ventures to build competitive
strength in foreign markets. There’s also a discussion of how to best tailor
a company’s international strategy to cross-country differences in market conditions
and buyer preferences, how to use international operations to improve overall
competitiveness, the choice between multidomestic, global, and transnational
strategies, and the unique characteristics of competing in emerging markets.
· Chapter 8 introduces the topic of corporate-level strategy—a topic of concern
for multibusiness companies pursuing diversification. This chapter begins by
explaining why successful diversification strategies must create shareholder value
and lays out the three essential tests that a strategy must pass to achieve this goal
(the industry attractiveness, cost of entry, and better-off tests). Corporate strategy
topics covered in the chapter include methods of entering new businesses, related
diversification, unrelated diversification, combined related and unrelated diversification
approaches, and strategic options for improving the overall performance
of an already diversified company. The chapter’s analytical spotlight is trained
on the techniques and procedures for assessing a diversified company’s business
portfolio—the relative attractiveness of the various businesses the company has
diversified into, the company’s competitive strength in each of its business lines,
and the strategic fit and resource fit among a diversified company’s different
businesses. The chapter concludes with a brief survey of a company’s four main
post-diversification strategy alternatives: (1) sticking closely with the existing
business lineup, (2) broadening the diversification base, (3) divesting some businesses
and retrenching to a narrower diversification base, and (4) restructuring
the makeup of the company’s business lineup.
· Although the topic of ethics and values comes up at various points in this textbook,
Chapter 9 brings more direct attention to such issues and may be used as
a stand-alone assignment in either the early, middle, or late part of a course. It
concerns the themes of ethical standards in business, approaches to ensuring consistent
ethical standards for companies with international operations, corporate
social responsibility, and environmental sustainability. The contents of this chapter
are sure to give students some things to ponder, rouse lively discussion, and
help to make students more ethically aware and conscious of why all companies
should conduct their business in a socially responsible and sustainable manner.
· Chapter 10 is anchored around a pragmatic, compelling conceptual framework:
(1) building dynamic capabilities, core competencies, resources, and structure
�
necessary for proficient strategy execution; (2) allocating ample resources to
strategy-critical activities; (3) ensuring that policies and procedures facilitate
rather than impede strategy execution; (4) pushing for continuous improvement in
how value chain activities are performed; (5) installing information and operating
systems that enable company personnel to better carry out essential activities;
(6) tying rewards and incentives directly to the achievement of performance
targets and good strategy execution; (7) shaping the work environment and corporate
culture to fit the strategy; and (8) exerting the internal leadership needed
to drive execution forward. The recurring theme throughout the chapter is that
implementing and executing strategy entails figuring out the specific actions,
behaviors, and conditions that are needed for a smooth strategy-supportive
operation—
the goal here is to ensure that students understand that the strategy-implementing/
strategy executing phase is a make-it-happen-right kind of
managerial
exercise that leads to operating excellence and good performance.
In this latest edition, we have put our utmost effort into ensuring that the
10 chapters are consistent with the latest and best thinking of academics and practitioners
in the field of strategic management and hit the bull’s-eye in topical coverage
for senior- and MBA-level strategy courses. The ultimate test of the text, of course,
is the positive pedagogical impact it has in the classroom. If this edition sets a more
effective stage for your lectures and does a better job of helping you persuade students
that the discipline of strategy merits their rapt attention, then it will have fulfilled
its purpose.
The Case Collection
The 12-case lineup in this edition is flush with interesting companies and valuable
lessons for students in the art and science of crafting and executing strategy. There’s
a good blend of cases from a length perspective—about one-third are under 10 pages,
yet offer plenty for students to chew on; about a third are medium-length cases; and
the remaining one-third are detail-rich cases that call for sweeping analysis.
At least 11 of the 12 cases involve companies, products, people, or activities that
students will have heard of, know about from personal experience, or can easily identify
with. The lineup includes at least four cases that will provide students with insight
into the special demands of competing in industry environments where technological
developments are an everyday event, product life cycles are short, and competitive
maneuvering …
