One of the challenges of teaching a course that focuses on firm level issues is identifying how this is immediately relevant to students. MBA 798 is no different-when we focus on top management teams, few students will begin there, or reach that level quickly. It can seem irrelevant. And yet, learning the tools of strategy can prove valuable at all levels of the organization.
In this set of assignments we apply several strategy tools to something most students find very relevant-the job search/promotion. Where you want to be in 5-8 years? That may be a more relevant time frame for you to consider. My goal in how I teach this class is to have you apply this knowledge to your own careers over the next 5-8 years; I hope you'll find that relevant!
One of the lessons of strategy is that you must differentiate yourself in the marketplace, in this situation, the marketplace of job hunters. You don't want to enter a "race to the bottom", where you get a job because you do it cheaper than anyone else. Besides, wouldn't you still be at risk for having your job outsourced?
How does this assignment help you? The more familiar you appear to be about an industry, the more attractive a candidate you'll appear to a prospective employer. They'll know you aren't just doing "practice interviews" (Yes, those are very easy to spot). The more you know about the firm, the better you'll be able to describe how you can add value to that organization, which again makes you a more attractive candidate.
Overall, that is the goal of the assignment-to make you a more attractive candidate today, and five years from now. Obviously, it also helps you weed out poor fits, saving you much grief and hassle.
This is a 4 page assignment, although with tools and such the actual writing is actually closer to two pages. One good page of analysis and writing should suffice for each assignment (place each on a separate page, and include a cover sheet page). I encourage you to perform all of them, to benefit yourself. You are only required to do three of the six individual exercises, plus a concluding reflection.
Your assignment is to do either the odd number assignments (1-3-5), or the even number assignments (2-4-6), as well as the concluding reflection. I encourage you to put some time and thought into this assignment. For your own personal benefit, you may want to consider doing all six assignments (plus the reflection).
I hope you'll find this rewarding and helpful-that is its purpose. It's my favorite assignment I have ever created.
Assignment 1. What is your mission?
Organizations have mission statements. Mission statements ideally serve to provide a sense of priority to the many tasks individuals in an organization must face.
Linking this back to Porter's work on coherence, a good mission statement tells you what not to do, as much as it tells you what to do, it identifies the trade-offs you are making. Most of you want to find a good job, but after that, what is your mission? What do you plan to do five years from now?
A good mission statement for you will be for the next resume you write, where you identify specific types of responsibilities you want to have in your career. If it helps, think where you want to be five years from now-what has to happen for you to get there? Think of the "objectives" line at the top of the resume page-that is your mission statement.
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. Identify their mission statement. Critique it-is it coherent in terms of Porter? Explain why you think so Here are some items to consider: does it give you an idea of what the firm does and does not do?
This last point is important-many mission statements talk about excellence and values, and employees, but you wouldn't know what industry they are in from reading the mission statement. Similarly, do they leave a lot of wiggle room to do other things, or do they close off other quasi-related fields?
3. Next, identify what an entry level position at that company would be like, then what you could expect to do in five years there. This is more than a single sentence! How does this position contribute to the overall firm mission? How crucial are you to the firm's success (put differently, could your work be easily outsourced)?
4. How must your mission statement cohere to theirs (it shouldn't be the same, but related).
5. Write the "objectives" portion of your resume for a job targeted at this company, for a position you would want five years from now (please include the job title). What skills and strengths will you need to make achieve that objective?
Assignment 2 SWOT/TOWS Exercise
If you are a product, then what is it that you are selling to the upcoming job market? How well are you positioned for finding a position? It's not a bad idea to put an identity to that (e.g. in my case, in 2001 I would be seeking a tenure track strategic management & entrepreneurship professor position).
As you seek that position, how strong do you appear to employers? A good starting position is to conduct a SWOT analysis on yourself, and see what picture emerges. Once you complete the other assignments, go back and see how this changes (it should). So for this assignment
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. Draw out a SWOT analysis, where you are the subject, and identify a minimum of four points to each element. Highlight those that are easily observable to a prospective employer (every resume lists "good communication skills", so employers disregard that-can you provide observable evidence of that skill?).
a. Many firms are emphasizing "strengths finder": what observable strengths can you demonstrate to an employer?
3. Draw a second slide that lists the 4 types of TOWS combo-strategies (S-O, S-T, W-O, W-T), and identify specific tasks you should complete, that apply to each of the four combo-types, over the next 3-5 years.
a.
b. As an example, an accountant might find getting auditing certification might help overcome a weakness in auditing experience.
4. Assess the difficulty in applying these strategies.
5. After you complete the other two assignments, submit a revised SWOT, and write a short paragraph explaining what changed, and why.
Assignment 3. Five forces model
Assume that chapter two of your strategy textbook is correct, and that the environment influences firm profitability. Assume further that under such conditions, then the role of management is to select favorable industries to enter. How does this effect you?
If you think about it, more jobs will be made available in growing industries than in declining ones. More promotions will be available in growing industries than in declining ones. Morale tends to be better under conditions of growth vs. decline. All in all, you are ore than likely to be better off looking for work in healthy industries than in sick ones. A good career search strategy then is to first identify the health of an industry.
1. In this assignment, select an industry where you might want to apply your degree.
2. Ignore industry profitability for a brief moment--why would you want to work in this industry? This is probably 3-4 sentences in length.
3. Now then, conduct a five forces model analysis on the industry (do the one page diagram). Make an assessment of the industry, and gauge its profitability. Remember, this is a paragraph that fleshes out the one page diagram.
4. Which of the five forces effects you most as someone seeking employment in this industry? Next, discuss how easy it will be to get into this industry, and to advance in this industry.
a. As an example, You may find that an industry that has no barriers to entry will be a poor industry for you to enter. Or it may have barriers that keep you out.
Assignment 4. RBV: What are your strengths and weaknesses?
Whereas chapter two of your textbook relies on the environment to assess firm performance, chapter 3 relies more heavily on the internal characteristics of the firm for firm performance.
The two views are not in conflict, and actually complement each other (mostly differing in their respective units of analysis). Chapter three suggests that factors that make for a favorable environment can be traced down to the firm level (e.g. resource mobility barriers).
In a rapidly growing environment, promotions and pay raises should be plentiful, yet some employees will advance more quickly than others. This may be due to resources they possess that others do not. It may be due to being able to protect those resources from imitation or competition, it may result from being able to apply them more effectively than do others.
This assignment seeks to address those insights and apply to yourself.
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. What do you think are the necessary skills to advance that everyone must have? These are the "necessary but insufficient conditions for success". I'd encourage you think beyond the typical cliché responses (hard work, good communication skills, etc.). A college degree may or may not be one of these, depending on your major.
3. What are the skills that create a separating equilibrium, e.g., that it separates workers into "haves" and "have nots"? I'd encourage you think beyond the typical cliché responses (hard work, good communication skills, etc.). As an example, what separates successful realtors from less successful ones? It can't all be hard work.
4. Next, what do you think are the verifiable, documentable, necessary skills to advance relative to your peers? That is, what additional skills must you be able to possess in order to set yourself apart from other employees? I'm not talking about hard work--I'm talking about skills, and skills that can be documented.
a. How intangible are they (e.g. can others claim to have those same skills, even if they don't)? Note: few of your peers will claim to have poor communications skills. Are there ways to document possession of these skills such that others do not?
5. Doing a self assessment based on your time at UD, how well do you personally rate on those skills? What (if any) unique, valuable, and hard to imitate/substitute skills do you possess? Can you document their existence? If so, have you done so, and if not, why not?
6. Do a VRIO table of the skills you think give you a competitive advantage (if any), and ask why/(why not), they are valuable, rare, hard to imitate, and hard to substitute and why they can provide an organizational fit.
7. Are there additional certifications and trainings that distinguish people in your discipline, in the industry you have chosen (i.e. an MIS major might want to acquire an additional certification from Microsoft or Cisco). What types of competitive advantages might these provide? Going back to VRIO, what makes them provide a competitive advantage?
8. When/if do you plan to acquire them, and why?
Assignment 5. Are you a cosmopolite or a local?
Different firms possess different organizational cultures (well, Duh!). In the HBR article by Goffee and Jones (I summarized it for you in the readings), they have arrayed organizational cultures into a 2 x 2 matrix. Without restating the article, firms may be arrayed along continuums (low to high) for Solidarity and Socialibility. They do a nice job of creating insights into how best to identify where firms fall within the matrix.
Although they do not identify it as such, they tap into the concept of "cosmopolites and locals". Cosmopolites focus ore on their job specialty, relative to the firm employing them, while locals focus on the firm, and are willing to job hop within the firm.
Quite simply, if a person is a cosmopolite, they are less likely to enjoy working in a "local" environment, and visa versa. Promotions and advancements are more likely to occur for those who better fit the culture than those who do not.
For you as a job-seeker, the implications are very clear-it is wise for you to select not only a healthy industry, but for you to select one where you " best fit" the organizational culture. Keep in mind that while a firm may be "local" various functions and departments might be "cosmopolites". Similarly, some professions are by nature much more "cosmopolite" than are others.
So how well do you fit? One step is to examine the coherence between your ethics and those of the firm. Another is to assess where you fit best on Goffee and Jones matrix, and see if the firm where you seek to work fits there as well. Finally, you can examine the levels of "cosmopolite and local" inherent in your field, and see how those effect you.
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. Looking at various dimensions that Goffee and Jones lay out, discern which quadrant best describes the firm you selected. Being specific, what evidence supports your conclusions?
3. Next, using your experiences at UD, position yourself onto the matrix: where do you fit (you can use one matrix to identify both yourself and the firm). How might you communicate this to a prospective employer (ideally in a way that they can observe)?
4. Next, discern whether or not you are a local or a cosmopolite. How well does this fit the company you have selected? How well does it fit the field you seek to work in? Who heads the department where you want to work? Are they from "the field" or are they from the "company"?
5. How is your field perceived in the industry where you want to work? Is it seen as a crucial piece, or a cost center? How many promotions come from your area?
Assignment 6. Which generic strategy guides your job search?
One way to develop strategic coherence is to overlay your intended career strategy against a generic strategy. Doing so provides you good insights on how best to avoid being "stuck in the middle". It also forces you to make the trade-offs essential in crafting a superior strategy.
In your initial job search, it can be very daunting, as you're competing against so many different individuals. How best to compete? I believe it is possible to construct a generic strategy to guide your job search. It will force you to avoid "time-wasters", and to focus your attention to the best potential opportunities. Going back to your mission statement in assignment one, and going back to your strengths and weaknesses in assignments 2 and 5, where do the best opportunities for you lie? What are they and why?
1. Identify an industry, firm, and a job title you seek to attain.
2. Please assess the generic strategy do they appear to employ. You'll need to provide some evidence as to why you think they employ that generic strategy.
3. Identify which generic strategy best describes your current job search position. Provide information that supports why you think this is so. Critique its effectiveness. Should you do something different?
4. What expectations for possession of skills will an employer have for each of the generic strategies? Stated differently, is an employer willing to pay more for specialized knowledge or experience, or are they looking for "lumps of clay" that they can mold?
5. How much training will you need in the beginning? Are you seeking to be trained by a firm, conduct your own development, or some combination Your first job or so should provide some development-is it formal or informal development? Is that development strictly on the job, company specific training, a combination?
6. Once you are hired, how long is the "honeymoon"? How long before you are expected to make a valuable contribution?
7. How are pay scales in the industry-some pay you very little at first, but provide rapid pay raises if you stay. Others start higher, but with more gradual advancement. How great is the pay scale spread across various firms in the industry?
8. How are most of your peers seeking to enter this industry? What generic strategy do they appear to use? How do you compare to them?
9. As you answer these questions, you should have a better sense of whether or not you should pursue a broad or narrow market strategy, and whether or not that should be pursued as either low cost-vs. differentiated.