Course Syllabus for Winter Term 2001 Class

Contact me first. Many of your concerns can be handled without a face to face, which saves you time and effort. I will be in my office before our class from noon until 2 p.m. on Thursdays.

Effective application of managerial tools and techniques to continually improve an organization’s competitive position in the marketplace. The courses (Mgt 300 & 301) focus on the application of concepts and practices at the environmental, system, organizational, interpersonal, and individual levels. The emphasis in both courses will be on the use of both quantitative and behavioral tools and techniques to aid in organizational and individual decision-making. Management 300 & 301 are an integrated sequence and must be taken in that sequence. It is also recommended you take Mgt 301 the following quarter after completing 300 (Prerequisite: Phase I and Junior standing).

Ivancevich, J. M.; Lorenzo. P.; Skinner, S. J.: & Crosby, P. B., 1998. Management: Quality and Competitiveness, 2^nd ed. Irvin, Burr Ridge, Ill. Abridged soft-cover edition.

This text is one that we helped design reducing chapters in the original book and adding a few other sources. The end result is a savings of about 50% of what the full text book costs. It may not be pretty and does not have an index, but we wanted to save you about $44. Be sure your text has all the chapters and goes to about page 480 or so as there was an error in some of the early editions and some used books are missing the last 100 pages.

Whatever career activity you pursue, your personal leadership style and the quality of how you manage will be a central role in determining your success. We (Nick Mathys and myself as the primary instructors of this course) believe that we in management have a broader responsibility to you than courses in Finance or Accounting. We have a responsibility to help you understand good management and we also have a responsibility to help develop your oral and written capabilities and to give you experience in working with unstructured problems.

Please see the web site for a listing of the goals and competencies for the course and for each session.

We give you written and oral assignments that are focused toward challenging you to think and present creative solutions based on the theory that is presented in the text and in class. This is less of a lecture and memory course, and more of a course that challenges you to develop usable competencies that will be important in whatever career that you choose. These competencies are outlined on the web page. Our goal is to get you to think and become good leaders and managers, not just to read about them and read about principles of management. The competitive environment requires that you have the best preparation possible and we take that challenge seriously. So, this is a challenging course. You will have to assume the responsibility for your education in this course to succeed. This is an intense course with a major assignment every other class. This will involve a high degree and focus and dedication on your part. We, as instructors, will try to do our part in helping you meet the challenge and have the skills to do well. However, the effort is up to you. If you are not up to the challenge or not serious about your education, perhaps other sections of this course might better fit your learning style.

There will be a great deal of material presented in this class. Management is an all encompassing subject. A couple of suggestions are in order. First, do not get behind. The pace and demands of the course are intense; if you fall behind it will be difficult to catch up. While each section does not always build directly on previous material, the subject as a whole is cumulative. Second, be well prepared for class. It will be difficult to follow the discussion or participate if you have not read the material. I will come into class assuming you have read the material and have a basic understanding of the concepts, tools, and techniques. The class will be designed to reinforce key points, clear up questions concerning the basics, and introduce important advanced issues. However, hypernews, the web site, and use of email are important tools in this class to improve your clarification of concepts, assignments, and communicating with your groups. These forms of electronic communication should reduce your need to meet as a group when you have group assignments (the oral case). Manage your time!

The evaluation of your performance in this class will be based on the following five items as modified by your class participation and attendance record:

Written assignments are designed to have you demonstrate competency in the areas that we cover in class. By demonstrate competency, we mean that by your work on the case you demonstrate that you understand the theory and are able to apply it to the case. Your work on these cases will give both of us feedback as to how you are mastering the material and how well I am communicating to you. They will also meet the needs of DePaul students to generally improve their written communications skills. Hence, good organization, spelling, and grammatical syntax are required. If you cannot do demonstrate competence in an area, then you have not learned the concept. The written assignment should be done individually, but can be done with another person or in a group of people of your choosing (not to exceed 4 people). Because of the university's problems with viruses, only hard copies can be submitted. Written assignments can be handed-in late at a loss of 5 points per day or fraction of a day. This is to account that the person handing in the paper late had more time to prepare than one who has not. Have the secretary date material and sign it as it comes in to verify receipt.

The oral presentations will be 10 minutes in length. The specific instructions for the oral presentation will be distributed in class.

Attendance is expected for each class. Missing class means missing 10% of the course and will be treated as such. Expect a reduction in grade after missing more than 2 classes. Arriving late or leaving early or leaving during class for extended periods of time counts as ½ of a missed class. However, just being in class is not enough. Class participation and deportment are important. The quality of what you do in class is more important than just the quantity. Class participation and deportment can affect your grade up to one full letter grade (e.g. A to B). So, it should be clear that I am serious about your education and I want you to be as well. We have much to cover and I do not to waste your time or have you distracted by others who may not be serious about their education.

Final grades are determined by final point totals. Cutoff points for grades will be determined by relative class performance (meaning they might be curved) but will not exceed the following percentage: 93 for an A; 90 A-; 87 B+, 83 B; 80 B-; 77 C+; 73 C; 70 C-; 67 D+; 60 D. These percentages and those indicated on the web site do not include class participation, which will be factored in the grade at the end of the course and posted with the final grades. No extra credit is granted in this course as it would be unfair to those members of the course who did not have the chance to do extra credit to improve their grade. Written assignments will be accepted after the due date at a loss of 5 points per 24 hours late or fraction of a 24-hour period. Obviously oral presentations must be done on the date specified as that is when class time is allocated.

For this assignment, I would like you to do an analysis for a product or product line for the organization of your choice. So for the entire the assignment use the same product or product line.

1. Do a house of quality for a specific product or service of this company. Have 3 customer segments identified with 5 needs each (only two of these could be in common). Identify 15 attributes (top of the house). Then complete the house with a competitive evaluation (right hand side of the house) of your product or service and two of its nearest rivals. One page should be the house followed by a second page that would provide footnotes for each of the identified customer need and product attribute to clarify and quantify those needs. Also define each segment indicating the relative market share of its segment as a % of the total organization market share for this produce or service. The third page should have a written analysis of what you learned in the house particularly focusing on the market opportunities and threats and the strength and weaknesses of your choice company. Make very specific references to the house calling out specific locations (and even labeling these on the house itself) to direct the reader to the source of the information that led you to your conclusions in the analysis. (20 points)
2. Next do a competitive analysis that will consider 11 items. Place in a table form with 5 columns (column 1 the factor, column 2-4 a column with a review of how your choice company and the 2 competitors you used in the house do relating to that factor. Column 5 would be an analysis of the findings. Indicate those which are Strengths or Weaknesses on the primary table and conclude with a S/W summary table. Five of the 11 items should focus on measures using financial operating data. One measure should be market share changes over the past 5 years or 5-year company growth comparisons. The remaining 5 should relate to significant factors that shape the competitive capabilities of organizations selling the product or service you identified in question 1 above. This whole answer should be about a page. (20 points)
3. Find 10 demographic and psychographic (of customers and customer segments) trends that will significantly influence demand for the product you chose in question 1. These should be reported in a three-column format (probably done in Word using a Word table). Column 1 would indicate the trend quantified as much as possible. Col. 2 would indicate the implication this trend has for the industry. Col. 3 would provide for the primary data source you used in finding this trend. For example.... (20 pts)

Trend	Implications for the travel industry	Source of information
Those aged 65 or higher as a group is increasing in numbers faster than other age categories. The current rate is 3% per year to a level of 4 million added to the category per year.	This group has greater leisure time and a higher rate of discretionary income and will be inclined to spend this money on leisure travel.	Simpson, Sara, 1999, "WOLFS are ready to roll," American Demographics, Vol 112, No. 1, pg 344-398.

 

4. Find 10 trends in the environment that is external to the industry that will significantly influence demand for your product or service for the industry of your choice. These can include political, legal, social, economic, cultural, and technological trends (obvious not customer psychographic or demographic). These should be reported in a three-column format (probably done in Word using a Word table). Column 1 would indicate the trend as quantified as much as possible. Col. 2 would indicate the implication this trend has for the industry. Col. 3 would provide for the primary source of this trend. For example.... (20pts)

Trend	Implications for the travel industry	Source of information
Unemployment rate is at 4.2% and is at a 10 year low and expected to remain stable for the next year.	Higher employment supports more income available to families, hence more travel is expected.	http://marketguide.yahoo/socialtrends.htm - recorded July 19, 2000.

5. Construct a 1-page strategic match table that takes a total of the 10 most important opportunities or threats that you decided upon in question 1, 3 & 4. The table will consist of 4-columns. Column one would list a total of 10 opportunities or threats (have a section that has all the opportunities together and a section with all the threats together). Column 2 will indicate the implications for the industry. Column 3 would indicate how well the targeted organization would meet the specific opportunity or threat. Column 4 would indicate how well the organization meets the opportunity or threat. Indicate one of the following situations in column 4.... (20 points)

Distinctive advantage for the company - the company has developed a distinctive competency (e.g. image or operational) in this area.

Advantage for the company - they meeting this opportunity or threat better than the competition (refer to the competitive evaluation chart for help on this).

Middle of the pack- the company is similar to its competition in meeting this opportunity or threat.

Problem - the organization is not well prepared to take advantage of this opportunity or weather the threat.

Big hurt - the company is highly constrained and cannot take advantage of the opportunity or (in cases of threat) this environmental condition may lead to devastating results for the organization (a sinker).

For example.......

STRATEGIC MATCH

THREATS

Trends	Implications for the travel industry	Vanguard Air Condition	How well Vanguard meets
Fuel prices are increasing to their highest point in a decade	Higher fuel prices will lead to higher costs for travel which would make travel less appealing	Vanguard has older aircraft and operates on a low margin, low cost basis. Increased fuel prices will erode their margins more severely than other airlines with new aircraft. Increased ticket prices will make the airline less appealing compared to non-cut rate airlines. In addition, more of Vanguard passengers are the discretionary domestic vacation travel segment which are more sensitive to price changes than business travelers. We also are vulnerable to shifts in load capacity which this will entail (i.e., with our low ticket prices we need to have higher loads to become profitable).	Big hurt

6. Finish with a paragraph narrative that analyzes the target competitor. Consider what you learned in question 1, 2, and the strategic match table above. Also consider those elements in Porter's 5 competitive forces model in figure 7-4. In addition, you should be addressing how well the organization is aligned to meet the needs of a dynamic customer base and a changing external environment? (20 pts).

1. Key assumptions about the future environment. List those elements in the external and competitive environment that will have the most affect on the target company. Make a three-column chart. One column would indicate the element. Column two would indicate what the expectations are for this item over the next couple of years. Column 3 would review how well the company is position to meet those expectations. Include only those elements that are important to the organization's future. I would suspect that you would focus on the top 5-10.