This “capstone” course focuses on the roles and skills of the General Manager and on diagnosing and finding realistic solutions to complex strategic and organizational problems.  Business situations will be analysed from the point of view of the General Manager to identify the particular tasks related to his/her unique role, which calls for leadership, integration across the functional areas, organizational development, strategy formulation and implementation.

The course builds on previous course work by providing an opportunity to integrate various functional areas and by providing a total business perspective.  Since the focus is on pragmatic, action-oriented General Management issues, the course will be taught primarily through the case method.

Conceptual background will be provided through assigned readings, which students are expected to read and digest in preparation for class discussion.

Study questions will be provided for each case as guidelines for analysis; however class discussion will not necessarily be limited to these specific questions.  They are intended to help students gain sufficient understanding of the material to be able to think on their feet in the classroom and deal with the questions that develop from the discussion.

Students would benefit from preliminary discussion in small groups.

Individual written work, group written work and presentations will be assigned, primarily as indicated in the attached schedule.

Course Expectations

As the capstone course for Business majors, this course fulfills the same role as a Senior Thesis or a Seminar, and requires the same kind of intellectual and time commitment. It is demanding and fast-paced, packed with theoretical and practical knowledge; to benefit, students are expected to perform at top capacity, by attentive reading of assigned texts, careful and thorough analysis of cases, and active class participation.

Students who complete the course successfully should be able to:

 1. Analyse the key competitive forces of an industry

 2. Assess the overall attractiveness of an industry from the perspective of both the existing participants and potential new entrants

 3. Identify key areas that require a strategic response

 4. Assess the skills and capabilities of a firm, including the qualities of its leadership

 5. Evaluate a company’s strategic health

 6. Formulate a sustainable generic strategy

 In addition, the course introduces or reinforces many transferable skills, including:

 -          Oral presentation

 -          Team work

 -          Project management

 -          Business writing

Students are expected to come to class and to arrive on time.

Absences: students are allowed up to 3 absences during the semester.

Tardiness: students arriving more than 5 minutes late for class will be marked as absence (though they may stay and follow the lesson).

Persistent absence or tardiness usually precludes satisfactory performance in the course, and will result in a lower class participation grade. In any case, students are responsible for all material covered by the syllabus and/or discussed in class, whether or not they are actually present.

 NOTE: This table is merely indicative. The definitive schedule is the one on MOODLE.