BUS4078F - Entrepreneurial Strategies

Welcome

Introduction & Overview

The purpose of this first section of the course is two-fold:

1. Firstly, to learn about the key concepts and models concerning effective management and organisation and

2. Secondly, to serve as input into your Genesis Projects.

This means (1) that students will be exposed to concepts and models which they can apply and experiment with on the Genesis Project and (2) that the learning that takes place in the Genesis project can be reflected upon and shared in this course. It is thus an attempt to structure the relationship between experience, reflection and the mastery concept. This is the basis of “Action Learning”, as it is currently termed in the academic literature.

This part of the course focuses on the organisation as a whole (not in terms of functional areas) and on the tasks of the general manager. We will therefore emphasise the integrative functions of management, strategic and leadership skills, and the performance of the organisation as a whole. This involves a great variety of topics. We have included what we think are the most important topics (ideas, concepts, models and skills). You may, of course, find that you learn other things during the course of the year - some tacit and intuitive, others quite mundane - and sometimes, hopefully, you will create new concepts or approaches in the process of doing and reflecting.

Entrepreneurial Strategies Part 2

The purpose of this second section of the course is to learn about the function of strategic management in organisations, the logic of strategic management and the key techniques we can use in the strategic management process.

Strategic management is, in the traditional sense of the word, the main function of top management in organisations. As such, it is the primary task of the board of trustees of an organisation, the Chief Executive Officer of a large business corporation, the Director of a research institute, the Vice Chancellor of a university, the minister of a state department or the leader of a social movement. In this context, what we learn in this course may therefore not be directly applicable to you, as a student, at the moment.

However, in a world which is rapidly becoming more democratic and where the authoritarian and paternalistic forms of governance are being replaced by flatter organisational structures, participative management and the delegation of power - the art and science of strategic management is becoming a core competency for all managers to master.

We find in the business world as well as in the public sector an increasing trend towards the "unbundling" or "desegregation" of large unfriendly and costly structures. These structures are being replaced by smaller and more efficient "strategic business units" (SBU's), project teams or directorates (in the public sector, for example) which operates on a more autonomous basis and which has to perform to clear and unambiguous criteria. This also means that the managers of these smaller units have to act more autonomously and to be more accountable for their performance.

Strategic management, as a process, is also becoming more democratic. The intellectual capacity of an organisation is in our modern competitive environment perhaps the organisation's most important resource. The concentration of power in authoritarian structures is not an intelligent way in which to use the intellectual capital of an organisation. The idea that the top "thinks" and that the rest "do" is a sure way to fail in our competitive world. Participative management is one way by which organisations can benefit from the intellectual capital of an organisation.

Course Objectives

The overall objective of the course is to develop your effectiveness as a general manager. Since your effectiveness (and in fact your primary purpose as a manager) can only be measured by the organisational outcomes of your activities (and thus the effectiveness of the organisation), it is important to understand the nature of the organisation. The effective manager is someone who is skilled in the understanding and management of organisations.

As already stated, this part of the course will be designed to correlate roughly with the development of the Genesis Project. We will, as far as is possible, attempt to learn about topics where appropriate to the Genesis Project. Some topics may not be directly applicable, but we have included them in order to prepare you for your career in management.