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Improving Student Preparation for Class through Blogs

Improving Student Preparation for Class through Blogs. Varghese P. George College of Management Educational Technology Conference University of Massachusetts Boston 15 May 2009. The Instructional Challenge. Teaching Business Strategy – theory and cases

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Improving Student Preparation for Class through Blogs

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  1. Improving Student Preparation for Class through Blogs Varghese P. George College of Management Educational Technology Conference University of Massachusetts Boston 15 May 2009

  2. The Instructional Challenge • Teaching Business Strategy – theory and cases • High degree of abstraction and practical import • Strategy formulationandimplementation • Beyond rote knowledge, comprehension and application – need to analyze, synthesize, evaluate • More than just ‘learning’ theory and evidence – students need to develop a distinct way of thinking • Instructor’s posture changes: • NOT: ‘This is what you should learn or do.’ • ‘As the CEO of Company X, what are you going to do?’ ‘And, why?’

  3. Where the instructional focus needs to be … 1. Analysis 2. Diagnosis 3. ProblemDescription 6. ManagerialAction 5. Prescriptions 4. (Strategic)Options … strengthen the inter-dependent logic

  4. Student Preparation before Class Is Key • Never used to happen • A blog – a ‘learning’ diary for all to see • Apportioned a fraction from class contribution grade • Should have the title ‘Learning Summary’ and hit Blackboard before class • For some very effective … • Classes work much better with them • For some mixed …

  5. Couple of Effective Blogs Subject: Learning Summary Prior To Class Of 2/11/08 Topic: Author:Date: February 10, 2008 11:51 AM Chapter 3: Evaluating a Firm's Internal CapabilitiesAn analysis of a firm's internal strengths begins by identifying its resources and capabilities. Such resources can be tangible or intangible, such as a strong brand image, or a unique working culture with an egalitarian working atmosphere between management and employees that creates synergies which add value to its performance. However, even if a firm has great resources and capabilities, they may not be strong enough to sustain competitive advantage. An evaluation must be performed to analyze the impact of their resources in terms of competitiveness. The VRIO is an internal analysis method that can be used to evaluate the competitive strength of a firm's resources and capabilities. Each resource and capability must be assessed according to how valuable, how rare, how easily they can be imitated, and whether the firm's organizational structure functions in such a way as to capitalize on their resources. If a firm has valuable and rare resources but has dysfunctional operations, they will not be able to maintain sustained competitive advantage. Furthermore, if a firm's strengths are valuable and rare, but not costly for competitors to imitate, then the firm will merely gain a temporary competitive advantage over a short term. Therefore, a firm's resources and capabilities may only be categorized as strengths if they can contribute to sustainable competitive advantage. When a firm enjoys competitive advantage, other firms are forced to re-assess their own strategies in order to survive and may respond with a limited response, or by altering the implementation of their original strategies (or, tactics), or they can change their strategy altogether. However, if a competing firm has their own unique source of competitive advantage, such as differentiation of products and occupies an special niche, they may not have to respond at all. I work for an architectural/exhibit design firm that has maintained competitive advantage for over 30 years. We maintain a unique organizational culture where every employee, at every level, is valued and treated as equals. We work hard and we play hard. The firm rewards hard work with frequent parties, free meals, and a casual office environment. Dogs and children are welcome in the office any time. Any employee is allowed to throw an office party on our roof deck in the summer. The firm provides us with funds to buy food and alcohol. The company keeps a grill for cooking food at these parties. Furthermore, my firm sponsors an annual "Gin & Tonic" party each June to kick off the summer season, it's become sort of a legend and industry players beg us for invites. The firm enjoys low employee turnover and former employees frequently come back to attend our summer and holiday parties. (The majority of employees have been with the firm for over 10 years, including myself.) We throw Video Game nights and Movie nights in the winter, family and friends are always welcome. This type of work environment creates employee loyalty, creativity, and design excellence such that no other firm of our size has been awarded as many high profile architectural and exhibits jobs as us. We've won countless design awards. We currently have over 200 projects where our immediate competitors rarely have more than 30 projects at a time. (One of our current projects is the Patriots Hall of Fame, we're all excited about that one!) My firm has been able to exploit their valuable resources ( brand identity, unique employee loyalty, employee talent, innovative design- which are unique historical conditions and hard to imitate social relationships developed over a long time) through the efficient organization & management of such resources. My supervisor, the CFO, manages both the finances and operations. He is skillful at managing hundreds of projects utilizing our 70 employees while efficiently managing costs. Employee flexibility within project scheduling is key. Employees frequently will be moved from one project to another in order to help a team meet a deadline. In more typical corporate environments, talented architects and designers might not appreciate being moved between projects. Our employees are treated so well and rewarded for their talent and flexibility such that employees are committed to doing whatever they can to add value and ensure ongoing success. I believe my firm's strong brand image, talented human resources and unique office culture combined with skillful management strategies enable us to maintain our competitive position among our peers. Subject: Learning Summary Prior to Class of 04/07/08 Topic: Author:Date: April 6, 2008 9:41 PM Chapter 10, the last chapter of our text focuses on Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), which is a type of corporate strategy other than vertical integration, diversification, and strategic alliance. A merger occurs when two firms are combined on a relatively co-equal basis; an acquisition occurs when one firm buys another firm. A vertical merger occurs when a firm acquires former suppliers or customers; a horizontal merger occurs when a firm acquires a former competitor; a product extension merger occurs when a firm gains access to complementary products through an acquisition; a market extension merger occurs when a firm gains access to complementary markets through an acquisition; and a conglomerate merger occurs when there is no strategic relatedness between a bidding and a target firm. On average, related M&A creates more value than unrelated M&A.To find sustainable competitive advantage through M&A, the text focused on the Value, Rarity, Imitation, and Organization of economies of scope. The economies of scope that motivate mergers and acquisitions between strategically related bidding and target firms can be valuable (p. 322). When a target firm is worth more to one bidder than it is to all the other bidders, and no firm is aware of this value, when the target is acquired by this very bidder, the bidder will have better performance than other bidders. This relationship between the bidder and the target firm then will become rare compare to other bidders. This relationship will also make it costly for other firms to imitate when other bidders cannot imitate this bidder’s valuable and rare economies with targets. Lastly, the text focuses on the organization/implementation of a merger or acquisition. There are a few challenges for a bidder to implement an M&A. For example, the target firm’s former structure and policies might be changed according to the bidder’s structure and policies. Also, the target firm is in challenge of getting used to the cultural differences between itself and the bidder firm. Culture clash may leads to losses of management employees of the target firm. The integration may also be costly to the bidder firm. By properly implement the structure, policy and culture between the bidder firm and the target firm, the M&A will very likely to lead the bidder firm to sustainable competitive advantages.

  6. On the other hand … Subject: Chapter summaries Topic: General Course Q&A Author: X Student Date:May 12, 2008 9:34 AM Will we have until friday to post all the chapter summaries, professor? Subject: Re:Chapter summaries Topic: General Course Q&A Author: Y Student Date:May 12, 2008 12:03 PM I don't think so. The chapter summaries are due prior to each class. Subject: Re:Chapter summaries Topic: General Course Q&A Author: Z Student Date:May 12, 2008 3:01 PM I believe the professor already took out the BLOGS from the discussion panel to grade the summaries. Learning blogs to community learning standards?

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