Sir Geoffrey Owen NAB5.32 and Prof David De-Meza NAB5.23

This course is available on the MSc in Management and Strategy. This course is not available as an outside option.

The case study component involves an examination of the recent history of a number of major companies, focusing in particular on strategic choices, organisational issues and overall performance. The aim is to use these case studies as a way of illustrating some of the topics dealt with in the MSc Management and Strategy programme. Each of the study groups into which the class is divided will be assigned a company, which will form the subject of its case study. Each group will make a presentation on their company in the Lent Term. Linked to these case studies is a set of talks on strategy and organisation given by outside speakers - executives from the companies and experts in the industries concerned.

8 hours of lectures in the MT. 4 hours of lectures and 9 hours of seminars in the LT.

Each case group will have a one-hour introductory session and a 1.5 hour guidance session (MT). There will be 6 x 1.5 hour presentation sessions and each group will have a 1.5 hour feedback session (LT).

Each study group will meet the teachers responsible for an introductory session, and then a guidance session. Each study group will then provide a draft of their presentation and receive feedback on this draft in a feedback session. Each student will submit an essay (1000 words) as a formative assessment. Before submitting the final essay students will also receive feedback on their group presentation.

Geoffrey Owen, The rise and fall of great companies: Courtaulds and the reshaping of the man-made fibres industry, Oxford University Press, 2011
John Roberts, The modern firm, Oxford University Press, 2004
Richard Rumelt, Good strategy, bad strategy: the difference and why it matters, Crown, New York, 2011

Case-specific reading, e.g.

Rigas Doganis, The airline business, Routledge 2006
Michel Freyssenet (ed), The second automobile revolution, trajectories of the world carmakers in the 21st century, Palgrave Macmillan 2009
Clive Humby and Terry Hunt, Scoring points: how Tesco is winning customer loyalty, Kogan Page 2003
Gary Pisano, Science business: the promise, the reality and the future of biotech, Harvard Business School Press 2006

Essay (50%, 2500 words) and presentation (50%).