52
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
A related grading issue is how much each of the various assignments within The Business Strategy Game or
GLO-BUS shouldbeweighted.Youhavefullcontrolovertheseweightsandcanchangethematyourpleasureby
enteringdierentweightsatthetopofthecolumnsofyouronline“IndividualGradeBook.”Atableofsuggested
1
00
.
0
% 1
00
.
0
% 1
00
.
0
% 1
00
.
0
% 1
00
.
0
%
N.R. = not a required assignment
We suggest caution in placing less than a 70% weight on overall company performance, since lower weights
2 is harder and tests individual understanding of important topics.
Wealsothinkitisbesttoweightasecondstrategicplanhigherthanthefirstplanbecause(1)studentsaremore
knowledgeable about how to do a good plan the second time around, (2) they have more experience in appraising
21st Edition.
1. Prod class members in their role as company co-managers to do some quality strategic thinking about their
company’s situation and the industry circumstances in which their company is operating.
2. Pointeachcompany’smanagementteamdirectlytowaysofusingspecificconceptsandtoolsofstrategic
analysis to improve their decision-making and to improve their company’s performance.
3. Speed the process whereby your students bridge the gap between theory and practice—the faster and more
53
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
It is, of course, entirely optional whether to make extensive or selective use of these exercises (or ignore them
altogether). In our strategic management classes, we have found the exercises to be particularly productive in
steering class members to do a more insightful job of assessing industry and competitive conditions, evaluating
their company’s competitiveness, and otherwise being wiser and more analytical in managing their simulation
company. We recommend that you give serious consideration to using at least some of these exercises because
they will stimulate the thinking and analysis of company-co-managers in a very positive way and because they
will “force” company co-managers to wrestle with things that should contribute to better decision-making and
company performance.
Some of the questions/exercises can be posed to the class as a whole for open discussion and debate (perhaps
as vehicles for concluding your lectures on the chapter material). But a substantial number of the exercises
are best used for written assignments because the answers involve competitively sensitive analysis and
thinking that company co-managers will not want to share with other class members who are managing rival
companies. As a general rule, class members should be asked to prepare their answers to the italicized questions
on a team basis rather than individually; having company co-managers collaborate in preparing their answers is
aneectivemeansofbuildingconsensusamongcompanyco-managers
Other “Getting Started” Considerations If You Use One of the Strategy Simulations. Enumerated
below are our recommendations concerning the team size, number of companies, number of decision rounds,
use of quizzes, use of the 3-year strategic plan feature, scoring, and peer evaluation requirements—all of which
are part of the “Course Set-up” procedure that you will be asked to complete in order to get the simulation ready
to go in your course:
1. Try to assign teams of 2, 3, or 4 co-managers per company. Two- or 3-person teams are optimum in an MBA
The software for both simulations is programmed to allow a maximum of 12 companies to compete head-
to-head in a single “industry.” If your class size is above 36 and thus too big to have 12 companies with 3
co-managers each, we suggest that you consider dividing the class into 2 industries (or groups of competing
companies)soastokeepfromhavingalargenumberof4-5personteams.Withautomatedprocessing,itis
really no bigger administrative burden to set up your class with 2 or more competing groups of companies
than it is to have the whole class in a single group or industry.
If you have other group activities in your class, then you should consider having students play the simulation
in the same group, as long as the size of the group is 5 or fewer persons. If your other group activity
involves group sizes of 6 or larger then you can divide each into two teams for the purpose of playing the
simulation.If some teams end up with only two co-managers because one of more of their co-managers drop
the course, then we suggest giving the two-person team to option to continue on their own—particularly if
the simulation is well underway and the co-managers are working well together. However, there are options
in both simulations to switch company managers to dierent teams and eliminate a company from the
industry, whenever you determine that is a good option.
2. Avoid having fewer than four companies per industry if at all possible. If you have a small class, we
3. Select a decision schedule that is a good fit with other class assignments. As indicated earlier, any of three
4. Schedule at least one, preferably two, practice decision rounds. We urge scheduling 2 practice rounds (if at
54
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
roundsareplentytoprepareyourclassfor“therealthing,”andstudentscandefinitelydowellwithjust1
5. Try to build a minimum of 6 regular or scored decision rounds into your decision schedule. This will give
players some time to put a strategy in place, tweak it (or make wholesale changes), and operate the company
6. Consider using the default 20% weighting on each of the performance measures. There are 5 scoring
variables: earnings per share (EPS), return on stockholders’ equity (ROE), stock price appreciation, credit
rating,andcorporate/brand image.While we believea20% weight foreach of thefivevariables works
exceptionally well, you have complete freedom to set whatever weights you prefer, including assigning a 0%
weight to one or more measures and eliminating them from the scoring algorithm. If you strongly believe
thatsomeofthe5variablesshouldcarryahigherweight,thenouradviceistoupthemto25%-30%andcut
othersbackto10%-15%.
7. Utilize both scoring standards in determining the company performance scores. GLO-BUS and The Business
Strategy Game employ two standards in scoring company performance: the “Investor Expectations” Standard
33%or33%-67%or75%-25%or25%-75%.)Ofcourse,ifyouwanttousejustoneofthestandards,you
8. Make full use of the two built-in quizzes. We strongly urge requiring students to complete the quizzes and
thencountingtheirscoresonthesequizzesaspartofthefinalsimulationgrade.Wedevelopedthesequizzes
to provide you with feedback on each individual participant’s grasp of the simulation. Both quizzes are
open-book, and really are aimed at pushing students to learn what is going on rather than “testing” them.
Wesuggestputtinga5%weightonQuiz1anda7.5%weightonQuiz2inhavingthesoftwarecalculate
overallperformancescoresforeachparticipant.Keepinmindthatbothquizzesare,ineect,“openbook.”
Quiz 1, which covers the Player’s Guide, is relatively easy since students the open-book nature of the quiz
allowsstudentstolookuptheanswerstheydon’tknowrighto.Studentscaneasilyscore80orhigheron
Quiz 1 if they have read the Guide and refer to it during the course of taking the quiz. Grades of 90 and
higheronQuiz1shouldbecommon.StudentswhoscorepoorlyonQuiz1(below75)simplyhavenotput
enougheortintoreadingtheGuideandunderstandingwhatthesimulationisallabout.Weurgesettingthe
deadlineforthisquiztocorrespondtothedeadlineforthefirstpracticedecisionsoastospurstudentstoread
and understand the Participant’s Guide at an early stage in the simulation exercise.
Quiz2ismoredicultthanQuiz1andmeritsahigherpercentageinthegradecalculation.Quiz2consists
mostly of questions that require students to make calculations or otherwise indicate their command of where
thenumbersinthecompanyreportscomefrom—ithasatimelimitof90minutes(versus45minutesfor
Quiz1).AllofthequizquestionstellthestudentsonwhichHelp/MoreInfoscreenstheanswerscanbe
found;alloftheformulasforcalculatingthevariousfinancialratiosarecontainedontheFinancialRatios
summarylinkoneachstudent’sCorporateLobbyscreen(6-8ofthequestionsonQuiz2involvefinancial
calculations). So students can make a pretty decent score (80 or higher) on Quiz 2 by using printouts of
theHelp/MoreInfoscreenstohelpthemdeterminethecorrectanswersforthe20multiplechoicequestion
comprising Quiz 2.
55
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
We strongly suggest setting the deadline for completing Quiz 2 to correspond to the deadline for the decision
9. Give strong consideration to having students do at least one 3-year strategic plan during the course of the
exercise. Both simulations have an optional 3-year strategic plan module. The 3-year strategic plan feature
calls for students to (1) articulate a strategic vision for their company (in a couple of sentences), (2) set
10. At the end of the simulation, we strongly urge that your decision schedule include a requirement that
students do peer evaluations of their co-managers and also do a self-evaluation (using the same form).
Peer evaluations provide very valuable information about how well a company’s management team
functioned from the perspective of the co-managers—attendance at meeting, teamwork, contribution of
ideas and suggestion, leadership, and so on. The responses to the peer evaluation are automatically scored
set a later deadline if you wish—while students can review the content of the peer evaluation at any time,
students are not allowed to complete the peer evaluation until the deadline approaches.
Generally,abigpercentageofcompanyco-managerswillearnscoresof85orbetteronthepeerevaluations,
signifyingthattheir“eortindex”andparticipationhasbeenquitesatisfactorytoevensuperb(inthecaseof
scoresinthehigh-90s.Scoresbelow80shouldusuallyraisearedagandmeritinspectiontoseediscover
responsibility for company operations and thus make the bulk of their grade for them. In our classes, we tend
to reduce the grades of participants who receive very low peer evaluations (sometimes by a full letter grade
or more), since we believe it is inherently unfair and unethical for low contributors or absentee co-managers
to receive a grade that their co-managers agree they really did not earn or deserve.
But, obviously, you have to use discretion and judgment in how to treat peer evaluations—one can’t
certainly, if you tell students that the peer evaluations have some percentage weight, then the chances
56
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
that co-managers will strike an agreement to give each other highly positive evaluations are substantially
enhanced. That is why in our classes, we are deliberately vague about what we do with the evaluations,
excepttosaywewilldefinitelylookthemoverandthateveryoneisexpectedtocompletethemina
professional and honest manner.
the two-option procedure. And those students who, for whatever reason, prefer “the luck of the draw” are nearly
alwayspleasedwiththeimpartialityofteaminguppeoplewithdierentmajors.
The second approach is to assign all students to teams, trying to diversify teams on the basis of both major and
cultural diversity. Assigning people to teams has the highly desirable advantage of establishing a business
relationship between the team members rather than allowing teams to be formed on the basis of prior friendship
Tips on Conducting the Simulation. Once the team sizes and decision/assignment schedule have been
decided and the simulation has been launched, you may want to consider the following:
Schedule 2 practice rounds (barring time constraints) to deepen class member familiarity with the how the
software works, the decision entry screens, and the information and outcomes provided after each decision
round.Twopracticeroundsalsogivecompanyco-managersachancetotryoutdierentstrategy/decision
to do next.
• Whenever class members want more in-depth explanations and details than contained in a Video
Tutorial, all they have to do is click on the Help button at the top of a decision screen or report page.
• The Help sections for decision screens provide information about each decision entry, full explana tions
ofcause-eectrelationships,andtips/suggestionsaboutwhattodoandnotdo.
Help sections will educate them about how to run their company in a “wise” and successful manner.
Encourage team members to explore and take advantage of using the built-in Collaboration Mode and Audio
Modecapabilitieswhenworkingonlineatthesametimefromdierentlocations.
57
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
During the Course Setup Procedure, create an extra company for you to operate throughout the practice
rounds (and maybe for several additional decision rounds)—do this especially if you are a first-time user
or if you want to learn more about what operating a company is all about. The company you manage
can easily be deleted at the conclusion of the practice rounds (but no sooner than that) or in later scored
furnished after each decision round, (2) provide the class with your perspectives about the competitive
battle that is taking place and call attention to particularly interesting outcomes, and (3) be wise in
assigning grades and otherwise conducting the simulation.
• The knowledge and understanding gained will also enable you to answer student questions about this or
that aspect of the simulation (which sometimes occurs) and, if you wish, to provide advice and counsel
are running or otherwise demonstrate your prowess. What class members need to understand is that
your purpose in running a company during the practice rounds is to become as familiar as possible
with what is involved in making decisions, managing company operations, and comprehending the
information in the various reports available to all companies.
Once the practice rounds are completed, there is an item on the Administration Menu for the industry
this role, answer student questions about this or that aspect of the simulation (which sometimes occurs)
and, if you wish, to provide advice and counsel to companies that may be in need some guidance.
Use the PowerPoint slides that we have created (see the link on the left side of your Instructor Center screen)
to introduce the simulation to your class and explain some of the mechanics.
Urge students to read the list of recommended decision procedures that is provided on the link on their
get more out of participating in a simulation when they take on the role of a business professional who
is trying to achieve the best possible company performance using managerially prudent and responsible
business approaches. Little of value will come from students approaching the simulation exercise like a
daring adventurer out to win some variant of a videogame by testing the limits of the simulation and using
whatever un-businesslike and unprofessional means they can get by with. When class members know you
58
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
As previously discussed, use the “Exercises for Simulation Participants” that appear at the end of each
chapterinthe21stEditiontohelpconnectissues/challengesthatcompanyco-managersfaceinrunningtheir
company to the content of the 12 chapters. Some of these exercises are suitable for open class discussion
(immediately during or following your lectures on the chapters) but many are best used for team assignments,
• Increasing the likelihood that the members of your class will come to appreciate the managerial
relevance and value of the topics covered in the chapters and how they can be used to make wiser
strategic decisions.
• Prodding each team of company co-managers to think about many of the right things in arriving
at their choice of a company strategy (and fine-tuning or overhauling it as circumstances may
managers will be asked to complete comprehensive peer evaluations of their co-managers, as well as an
evaluation of their own performance. (Students can see the content of the 12-question peer evaluation
form by clicking on the Peer Evaluations link in their “Corporate Lobby” but they are not given access to
completing the form until the deadline for the next-to-last decision has passed. Hence, it is no secret what
theywillberatedon.)Peerevaluationswillhavetheeectofgreatlyreducing“free-riding”or“coasting
fillitin,andsubmitittoyou.Alternatively,youcanprintoutablankpeerevaluationform,makecopies,and
passthemoutinclass.You’llfinditprettysimpletoskimthroughtheevaluationstospotanyproblemswith
low performers. It is generally wise to call them in for a consultation and counsel them on the importance
ofbeingafully-participatingcontributor.Usually,thiswillsucetoaltertheirbehaviorandjackuptheir
participation and contribution.
canholdthesedebriefingsonaregularbasis(followingeachroundofdecisionsandresults)orjusthold
themoccasionallywhenthere’ssomethingofsignificanceyouwanttotalkabout.You’llfindinformationfor
thesedebriefingsintheIndustryreportsandinthespecialAdministrativeReportsthatyoucanvieworprint
out after each decision. Most of the information in the Administrative Report is not provided to players and
you’llfindittobeaquickandconveniencesourceofwhichcompaniesaredoingwhatandwhichcompanies
59
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
Don’t be overly concerned if one or more company teams do poorly on the first one or even two decisions—
andyoushoulddefinitelycoveytoteamsthatmightbedistressedwiththeirinitialresultsthatitisabsolutely
possible to turn things around and come out as a market leader by the end of the simulation. Sometimes
it just takes a while for a company’s strategy to begin to bear fruit or the chemistry on the team to jell;
counseled to review their strategy and decisions for ways to improve. You should tell concerned co-
managers of low-performing companies that much of the information provided in the various reports is
“diagnostic” (particularly the Competitive Intelligence Reports) and points directly to things that are in
need of attention. In our experience, there are two primary reasons why companies perform poorly:
• Companyco-managershaveapoorgraspofthecontentsofthePlayer’sGuideand/orhavenotspent
plenty of information provided in the reports for students to identify “what went wrong”, where their
costs are out-of-line with rivals, and what they should do to boost sales and market share. Company
managers who conscientiously look at the numbers will have little trouble spotting avenues for
improving their company’s performance—each page of the Competitive Intelligence Reports provides
a list of competitive strengths and competitive weaknesses in each of the four geographic regions.
down,digintothenumbers,andgetseriousabouttheeorttheyareputtingintothesimulation.Students
canlearneverybitasmuchfromtheirmistakesandfromeortstoturntheircompanyaroundasfrom
enjoying success decision round after decision round.
As a general rule, we think that companies with an overall performance score of 90 or above should get an
A. Companies with an overall performance score of 80-89 should get a B (or better if there are no companies
thus clearly earn an A without the need for putting much of a scale on the grades on the upper end.
Bear in mind that the scoring method we use does not in any way require that some companies receive
low scores. Scores are based entirely on (1) whether companies achieve the benchmark performances that
investors expect for EPS, ROE, credit rating, stock price appreciation, and image and (2) whether the race to
bethemarketleaderisveryclosefromthefirstplacecompanytothelastplacecompanyorwhetherthereis
60
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
weleaveituptoyoutodecidewhatsortofscaletoapplyandthushowmuchtoraisetheirgrade.You’llfind
that there’s plenty of information provided to you in your online electronic grade book to decide what grades
toassign.Youcaneitherusetheonescalculatedforyou(basedontheweightsyouhavespecified,whichcan
bechangedwheneveryouwishbymerelyinputtingdierentweights)orelsescaletheoverallperformance
withthepersonwhoisslackingo;wealsooertotalkwiththelow-contributingstudentiftheotherteam
members think that would be helpful. A second approach to dealing with complaints about weak contributors is
to remind the low-contributing student (or the class as a whole) that there will be peer evaluations at the end of
thecourseandthatpoorpeerevaluationsarelikelytohaveanadverseandperhapssevereeectonthegrade
assigned. If an alleged low-performer’s contribution still does not improve, you may have to read them the riot
unusually severe problems among company co-managers.
Moving students to a dierent team is quickly accomplished if you are using either GLO-BUS or The
Business Strategy Game;allyouhavetodoisselectthe“Move/DeleteCompanyCo-Managers”optiononthe
AdministrativeMenu.Butyoushouldprobablyfirstconsulttheco-managersofthecompanytowhichyouwant
to move the person and secure their approval to take on a new member.
The Business Strategy Game also has an “Add a Company” menu feature. This option (which is available if you
have less than the maximum 12 teams in an industry) allows you to assign disgruntled or low performers as co-
managerstorunanewlycreatedcompanyastheyseefit.Thismay,indeed,bethebestsolutionforallconcerned.
Suggestions for Using Outside Readings
It is very much in order, especially in an MBA course, to ask students to do a modest amount of reading in the
current literature to supplement and elaborate upon the points made in the text and, in addition, to provide them
with some exposure to the literature of strategic management. Instructors who like to expand the scope and depth
of their course with a sampling of journal articles and readings from the strategic management literature should
take a look at the list of 24 readings that we have included in the 21st edition of Crafting and Executing Strategy:
Concepts and Readings.
is part and parcel of keeping abreast of business trends and new developments in professional management.
61
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
SUGGESTIONS FOR SEQUENCING CHAPTER COVERAGE
AND CASE ASSIGNMENTS
In using Crafting and Executing Strategy: The Quest for Competitive Advantage, two basic sequencing
approaches are possible:
We have organized the text chapters and the cases to make it easy to integrate the sequencing. For example, the
primary issues in the 19 cases in Section A—Crafting Strategy in Single Business Companies call upon students
to make heavy use of the tools and concepts in Chapters 1 through 7. The 2 cases in Section B—Crafting Strategy
inDiversifiedCompaniesrequireapplicationofthematerialinChapter8.The6casesinSectionC—Executing
Strategy deal mainly with the topics covered in Chapters 10 through 12. The 3 ethics and social responsibility
values and ethics in Chapter 12, as well as in Chapter 9 (and to a lesser extent in Chapter 1), there’s some merit in
assigning the cases in Section D at the end of the course (or at least after all of the chapters have been covered).
Thelengthofthecasesinthis21steditionshouldbequiteappealingtostudents—closetoone-fifthareunder15
pagesyetoerplentyforstudentstochewon;aboutone-fourtharemedium-lengthcases;andtheremainderare
detail-rich cases that call for more sweeping analysis.
to Case Analysis” which appears at the end of Case 31. Having students read the Guide is especially important
when many of the class members are not familiar with the case method and with how to prepare a case for class
discussion or for written analysis. Most students need explicit direction in the mechanics of coming to class
adequately prepared for class discussion of an assigned case—otherwise, they are likely to do no more than read
thecaseandrespondtoyourquestionswitho-the-cuopinions.ThehintsandpointersintheGuidetoCase
62
Section 3 Organizing Your Course, Deciding What the Workload Should Be, and Settling on Specific Assignments
The Table of Financial Ratios. There is a summary table in both Chapter 4 (Table 4.1) and in the Guide to
Case Analysis that presents and explains the array of standard financial ratios that come into play in sizing
up a company’s financial situation. We suggest calling this table to the attention of students so they can utilize
itinanalyzingthefinancialstatementsinthecases.
since the case was written. This is an especially valuable section if you like for students, as part of an oral case
presentation or written case assignment, to gather further information about what has transpired at the company
since the case was researched.
Most company websites, especially those of companies whose shares are publicly-held, contain extensive
financialinformationandoftenhavepagesrelatingtomissionstatements,corevalues,codesofethics,strategy,
and culture. It is very easy for students to research the latest developments at a company by perusing its press
releases and by using Google or other search engines to locate the latest articles written about the company.
How Many Cases to Assign
How many cases to use varies with whether you use a simulation game, how much class time you wish to
spend on the text chapters, whether you like to assign additional readings from either a readings supplement or
from library resources, how many times your class meets per week, and whether the course runs for a quarter, a
semester, or two quarters.
Generallyspeaking,werecommendcovering8to12casesinasemester-longcoursemeetingtwiceweekly(25
orsoclassmeetings).Inaone-quartercourseyoumayfinditmorecomfortabletocoveronly6-10casesina
classmeetingtwiceweeklyfor75minutes.Ifyouareusingastrategysimulation,thenassigningalessernumber
decidetospendmorethanoneclassperiodcoveringoneortwoofthelonger/issue-richcases.
Deciding How to Sequence the Case Assignments
In selecting what sequence in which to assign the cases, we suggest at least a rough adherence to the order in
whichthecasesappearinthebook—particularlythefirsttimeyouusethebook.Insequencingthecasesunder
each topic heading, we have tried to follow some logical order based on central teaching points, key issues,