MGX5010 - Mapping the business landscape

Leader: Associate Professor Vivek Chaudhri

Offered

Caulfield Second semester 2007 (Evening)

Synopsis

Firms are no longer able to sustain competitive advantage on the basis of manufacturing and resource processing capabilities but are moving towards a global knowledge economy. While standard strategy constructs still form important foundations for effective managerial decision making, recourse to contemporary lines of reasoning and analytical methods are likely to deliver better outcomes. This unit ties together the general discussions around strategy in a turbulent environment by coupling some of the observations that come from adopting a game-theoretic perspective in reasoning with the analytical methods and modelling techniques from complexitity theory and agent-based simulations.

Objectives

The learning goals associated with this unit are to:

• provide an overview of the primary roles and responsibilities of a general manager in formulating and implementing business strategies in a dynamic environment
• to gain an appreciation of the fundamental issues involved with integrating and coordinating the activities of different functional areas, such as marketing, manufacturing, R&D, accounting, human resource management and finance;
• to introduce the frameworks and tools commonly used in developing and assessing business strategies, in particular through the lens of game theory; and
• to develop the decision making skills from the perspective of top management.

Assessment

Individual Assignment (3000 words) 30%, Group Assignment (1000 words and presentation) 30%, Individual Case Analysis (4000 words) 40%
In order to pass this unit, students must attain an aggregate of 50% in the individual component of their assessment, that is, they must achieve an overall pass for their two individual papers (Individual assignment and individual case analysis, 70%).

Contact hours

Three hours class contact

Prerequisites

MGX9600 - Managing people and organisations, MGX9761 - Strategic management, MGX9720 - Managing change, MGX9970 - Organisational and business dynamics