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THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT DALLAS January 9th –April 19th, 2007 MAS 6303- MBC Seminar on Contemporary Business Issues and Policy
Principals: Mr. Charles Hazzard & Prof. Lawrence J. Redlinger Rm. SOM 2.117 Telephone 972-883-6188
Time: 10:30-11:45 Tuesday -Thursday Student Learning Objectives/Outcomes (The Student ROI):
 
An applicable practical perspective on global economic competition and business strategy
 
Exposure to the skill sets necessary to complete of an in-depth business evaluation project
 
A mentorship opportunity for those students’ desiring academic or career advice
 
Case studies on effective management principles with real-world examples of institutional and individual successes and failures
 
Exposure to successful executives across industries. Course Description
 This seminar concentrates on the factors that affect economic growth and the relationships of those factors in specific industries as they impact profitability, security of investment, job growth and career opportunities. We focus on fundamental areas of the global economy and nations and companies strategies. These strategies should determine long-term objectives, the adoption of courses of action and the allocation of resources necessary for successfully attaining objectives in an evolving competitive environment. We concentrate on how strategies at the company level are translated into goals and with real company examples illustrate ineffective and effective management practices. Questions we explore and with class  participation seek to answer are: What are the critical factors in ensuring the long-term profitability and viability of the enterprise? How do you discover who your competitors are and will be and how do you assess their capacities? How can a firm establish a sustainable competitive advantage within its chosen areas of business? How are companies consistently profitable in spite of their negative industry economic profile? What are the principles of effective management?
What we expect of you:
You are expected to have read the assigned reading prior to class and to be prepared to participate in the topics under discussion. We expect you to apply your cross-discipline management knowledge to a sector/industry, business or area in which you have career interests and share this knowledge. Each of these expectations is discussed below. Your learning outcomes, your ROI, will include in-depth knowledge of a sector/industry and an applicable practical perspective on global economic competition and business strategy.
 
 
Textbooks and Materials
 
Required Course Materials
Dicken, Peter.
Global Shift: Transforming the World Economy
. 4
th
 ed. London: Guilford, 2003. ISBN 1-57230-899-0. The instructors will hand out materials relevant to the topics under discussion
Suggested Materials
Engardio, Pete (ed.)
Chindia: How China and India Are Revolutionizing Global Business.
 McGraw-Hill,  New York. 2007. ISBN 0-07-147657-1. Collins, Jim.
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t.
 HarperCollins:  New York. 2001. ISBN 0-06-662099-6. Maxwell, John C.
The 360° Leader 
. Nelson Business. 2005. Collins, Jim and Jerry Porras.
 Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
 HarperBusiness:  New York. 2002. ISBN 0-88730-671-3. Bossidy, Larry and Ram Charan.
Confronting Reality (Doing What Matters to Get Things Right 
). New York: Crown Business division of Random House, Inc., 2004. Buckingham, Marcus and Curt Coffman.
First Break all the Rules
. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1999. Fortune Magazine, September 19, 2005 75
th
 Anniversary Special Edition. “How the World Really Works.” Friedman, Tom.
The world is flat: a brief history of the twenty-first century
. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2005. Fuld, Leonard M.
The New Competitor Intelligence: The Complete Resource for Finding, Analyzing, and Using Information About Your Competitors
. New York: John Wiley, 1995. Grant, Robert M.
Contemporary Strategy Analysis
. 5
th
 ed. Oxford: Blackwell Business, 2005. McNeill, J. R. and William H. McNeill.
The Human Web: A bird’s-eye View of World History
. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2003. Treacy, Michael.
 Double Digit Growth (How Great Companies Achieve it – No Matter What 
). New York: PORTFOLIO (Penguin Group), 2003. Pascale, Millemann, and Gioja.
Surfing the Edge of Chaos
. New York: Crown Business, 2000. Sampson, Anthony.
The Seven Sisters: The Great Oil Companies and the World They Shaped.
 New York: Bantam Books, 1976. Tichy, Noel and Stratford Sherman,
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will, paperback ed.
Collins Business Essentials, New York. 2005. ISBN 0-06-075383-8. Kolind, Lars.
The Second Cycle: Winning the War against Bureaucracy.
 Wharton School Publishing, Upper Saddle River, NJ., 2006. ISBN 0-13-173629-9.
Evaluation
Your final grade will be determined as follows: Class Participation 30% Team Industry Analysis and Presentation 40% Eisenhower Examination 30%
Class Participation
 Class attendance, preparation, and contributions account for part of your grade (see above). With regard to class contributions, key questions we will assess are: Are the points made relevant to the discussion? Do the points go beyond a recitation of the facts? Are the implications clearly drawn? Are the comments linked to those of others? Evidence of analysis vs. expression of opinion. Is the participant a good listener?
 
Does the contribution further understanding of the issues?
Team Industry Analysis Assignment & Class Presentation
Industry structure, in most instances, confines strategy and drives competition and, hence, determines industry profitability. There are a number places (e.g., The Wall Street Journal, the Standard Industrial Classification <SIC> USDC) where one can find encapsulations of industry sectors. The instructors will create a problem by industry or industries for you. As a team, your task is to provide senior management (the instructors) a short, succinct intelligence memo with appropriate appended analyses and intelligence. Below is an example problem. “Every sector has companies that are transforming themselves through shedding and acquiring new lines of activity. Assume the instructors are the CEOs and you are the analyst for the Meredith Corporation (NYSE: MDP). Provide your recommendation on our next acquisition target and/or new line of business. What existing business should we think about exiting? Be specific, be brief, but append references and analyses.”
Eisenhower Examination
On April 19
th
, we will provide you with an assignment that will require a concise but detailed answer (not more than 2 pages <attachments are okay>) to a strategic question that was raised during the course. The name of this assignment is based on a question General Dwight David Eisenhower would ask applicants to his general field staff: Succinctly summarize the war in the European theatre to date and what should we do?
Tentative Course Schedule
Note: Because of the often times pressing schedules of our visiting executives, the class schedule remains flexible.
Jan. 9
th
 Hazzard & Redlinger: Course Introduction, Getting Acquainted and Setting the Context. Jan. 11
th
- 23
rd 
 Hazzard & Redlinger: The Evolving Economy of Planet Earth: The first 4 sessions are devoted to attempts to capture globalization and conflicting views of what globalization means. We examine the fundamental elements essential to society, nation states, geopolitics and culture as contributing or conflicting forces.
Readings
: Chapters 1-9 in Dicken. Students need to be conversant with world history as a context for contemporary socio-economic issues. We strongly suggest reading McNeill & McNeill (see readings). A conversancy with Tom Friedman’s “flat world” argument is also recommended. Jan. 25
th
 Hazzard, Hewlett-Packard –“How not to run a Company” Jan. 30
th
Guest Lecture: J. David Darnell (Senior VP and CFO, INTAC International Inc.). Reverse Mergers and Accountability and Global Business. Mr. Darnell will join us and discuss Sarbanes/Oxley, international companies, doing business in China, and reverse mergers. Feb. 1
st
 Hazzard, Hewlett-Packard –“How not to run a Company” (continuation) Feb. 6
th
 Hazzard: Occidental Chemical Corporation:
 
Basic Chemicals and Corporate Conglomerates. Oxy: Mediocre to “Nifty-Fifty” What it took. The history of Oxy is

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