Strategic Management

COURSE TITLE: STRATEGIC MANAGEMT ( CORPORATE STRATEGIES & DECISION MAKING)

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Strategic Management course is designed to explore an organisation’s vision, mission, examine principles, techniques and models of organisational and environmental analysis, discuss the theory and practice of strategy formulation and implementation for the development of effective strategic leadership. The course emphasizes the value and process of strategic management. The course looks at, and examines how strategic management is applied across organizations in Africa with relevant examples.

INSTRUCTOR

Dr Lwanga Martin Mwanje is an author, management consultant and professor of business management.  He has served as Dean of Uganda Christian University Business School, Head of Management Department at Uganda Management Institute and a lecturer at Makerere University. He is co-founder of one of Uganda’s first private radio FM station and several enterprises.

He devotes his time to teaching business students across universities in Africa, Europe, North America and Asia. He has written over a dozen books that include Everyone can Become an Effective Manager, Entrepreneurship through Generations, and Who is My Friend. As a management consultant he has consulted for the World Bank, United Nations, European Union, government, private and non-government organizations.

He speaks across the East African region and internationally on topics related to management, leadership development and personal effectiveness. He has published articles in refereed journals such as Uganda Journal of Management and Public Policy Studies and Journal of Public Administration. He is a columnist with Uganda’s leading Daily, New Vision, where he publishes the long-running The Effective Manager column. Dr Lwanga is a twice recipient of Uganda Human Resource Managers Association award for Teaching the Practice of Management.

CONTACT:

Twitter: @Mlwanga1

Teaching Method:

Class activities will include lectures and in-class exercises such as case studies, team discussions, and student presentations of projects. The first half of each session will typically follow a conventional lecture-based approach ( 1 ½ hours) covering the chapter materials related to each week’s lesson, the second half ( 1 ½ hours) will involve case study analysis or other form of experiential learning such a video.

With this particular subject it is necessary to spend considerable time examining lessons learned from existing companies and the approaches they have taken to the setting and implementation of strategy. Additionally, each week an article from a newspaper or magazine will normally be distributed to serve as the basis for further class discussion on class Group whatsup

Group Project and Presentation:

40% of final grade

The major in-course assessment for this course requires two assignment.

First, is a complete strategic management analysis of a key strategic decision taken by any firm of your choosing. You will be given a list of companies/ organizations to study how they have used strategic formulation to emerge as winners in their respective industry.  You will need to show an understanding of the firms vision, mission, values objectives and stakeholders; the internal and external environments that influenced the decision being made, how the firm used this to develop a winning strategy; and finally how you think the firm will survive and prosper in the changing environment.

Second, is development of a Strategic plan of a company of your choice. You will identify that company and develop the strategic plan along conventional parameters of:

Final Exam:

60% of final grade

The final examination will comprise number of conventional examination type questions to choose from.  The exam assesses comprehension of, and ability to describe strategic management concepts, theories and principles. Particular emphasis is given to global and cross-cultural issues, social responsibility and ethics. The final examination specifically requires students to apply past learning in addressing the case and examination questions.

REQUIRED READING