3.30801 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

The course aims to equip students with understanding of how the business organisation plans, implements and monitors its strategies. Consideration is also given to specialist strategies concerned with opportunities and problems a firm may encounter as it develops in a competitive environment. The whole subject is set in the context of the global business environment: (a) to consider the environment in which business is conducted and, in particular, to understand the nature of competition and cooperation in business, (b) to understand how an organization plans, implements and monitors strategy, and (c) to understand why some businesses fail. The course inculcates the point that strategic management is a process and not an event, and considers its main tasks which include (a) environmental appraisal, (b) firm analysis, (c) formulation of goals, (d) strategy formulation and choice, (e) strategy implementation, and (f) strategy evaluation.

Contact hours: Four hours per week.

Text:

Buttery, A. & Richter, E. M., 2003, Strategic management in times of change, 2nd Ed., InFocus Publishing, Richmond