SEMINAR PROGRAMME CB679 2016/2017

Any additional seminar materials not listed here and/or not available via the
library or on Moodle will be distributed in advance of the seminars for which
they will be required.
Preparation for the seminar topics is given below; you will undertake further
activities related to these topics during the seminar itself. In a number of
seminars one of the seminar activities relates to your project organisation. In
these activities it is intended that you will continue discussion after the
seminar and that these discussions will assist you in developing your eposter.
Schedule for lectures & seminars (Canterbury)
WEEK
(week commencing)
1
(26/9)

LECTURE
Monday
ICS

SEMINAR
(See SDS)
No Seminar

(03/10)

GVP

Team Building Exercise & Pop Quiz

(10/10)

CCE

(17/10)

CAST

(24/10)

DCCA

Evaluating Performance: Tots-Toys;

Assessment Discussion
The Environmental Ecosystem;
Assessment Discussion (Feedback First)
Competitive Positioning Spidergram

(31/10)

KIE

(07/11)

(14/11)

(21/11)

10

(28/11)

READING
Study skills
workshop
TBC
ISO
Innovation & Entrepreneurship:
Apple and Ford case study
SFF
Strategic Goals, Strategic Options and
Evaluation; Social Enterprises
CBS
Draft Poster Display / Discussion

11

(05/12)

SC

Coherence & Implementation

12

(12/12)

CSM

Assessment Feedback & Feedforward

Transient Advantage & Dynamic Capabilities:

Tayto and Walkers case study
WEEK

WEEK 1 No seminar
Familiarise yourself with the recommended texts for the module and the assessment
requirements. Review what you learned in CB676.
WEEK 2 Team Building Exercise & Pop Quiz
Team Building Exercise (This is an in-seminar activity only)
The Construction Game
The objective of this exercise is to be the first team to build an exact copy of the
model previously built by the seminar leader. It provides an opportunity to explore
the different skills needed to work as an effective team. You should be able to refer
back to CB676 to explain why your team was effective (or not) and how this affected
performance.
Pop quiz (This is an in-seminar activity only)
You will be asked a series of questions on concepts, framework & tools used in
strategy highest score wins a prize.
We will also use this first seminar to introduce Cummings & Angwins Strategy
Builder as a tool for seminar work and to form the group project teams.
At the end of this weeks seminar you are expected to be able to:
explain the link between team attributes and performance
identify ways in which individual performance can be improved by effective
team work.
identify topics from Strategy Analysis & Tools (CB676) that you know well and
those you need to revisit
WEEK 3 Evaluating Performance: Tots-Toys; Assessment Discussion
Before the seminar:
Activity 1: Evaluating Performance
Read the CIMA case Tots-Toys (see Moodle).
Activity 2: Assessment
Create a short-list of organisations that could be the subject of your group project.
You should be prepared to justify each of your choices to the team is the
organisation in the news? Why? Can you identify any strategic issues it faces? How
easy is it to access data on the organisation? Are there particular characteristics of
the organisation or its environment that you need to take into account?
Familiarise yourself with the assessment requirements of the module by looking at
the assessments section of the module guide; pay particular attention to the marking
criteria.
In the seminar:
Activity 1: Evaluating Performance
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In your team discuss Tots-Toys:

What is the key financial performance issue facing Tots-Toys?
What are the strategic implications of this for Tots-Toys?
What other performance measures might you use to evaluate Tots-Toys?
What other strategic analysis tools could you apply to the case?
How does this broader analysis of performance and strategic factors affect your view
of the strategic implications for Tots-Toys?
What steps would you suggest Tots-Toys take to improve the situation?
Be prepared to present your teams views to the seminar group as a whole.
Activity 2: Assessment Discussion
Discuss with your team your short list of organisations and choose the organisation
that will be the basis of your project. Be prepared to present your choice to the
seminar group as a whole.
We will also use this seminar to have an initial discussion on the assessment
requirements for this module, in particular the take-home exercise and its marking
criteria.
At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to be able to:
explain how performance can be measured and assessed
decide which measures of performance are appropriate in which
circumstances and for which types of organisation
explain the relationship between strategic and financial performance
identify the organisation your team will study
know the assessment requirements of the module and explain how they relate
to the practice of strategic management
WEEK 4 The Environmental Ecosystem; Assessment Discussion (Feedback
First)
Activity 1: The Environmental Ecosystem
Before the seminar:
Review the external environment of your project organisation; what tools and
frameworks can you use to do this? How do they link together?
Read: MacIntosh & MacLean, Strategic Management, Chapter 6;
Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Environmental Ecology, pp. 37 - 66
In the seminar:
In your team, using your pre-seminar work and Strategy Builder pp. 68 - 70 as a
guide, develop a draft Environmental Ecosystem diagram for your project
organisation.
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Be prepared to discuss your diagram with the seminar group as a whole, focusing on
the key components and the links between them.
You should revisit and refine this diagram as you develop your e-poster.
Activity 2: Assessment discussion (feedback first)
This seminar is an opportunity to discuss assessment further, focusing on the
group e-poster. In particular we will discuss what makes a good strategy poster.
Guidelines for producing the e-poster will be posted on Moodle.
Before the seminar:
Read: E. Bethell & C. Milsom, 2014, Posters and Presentations, Basingstoke:
Palgrave Macmillan, Chapters 1-7;
MacIntosh & MacLean, Strategic Management, Chapter 10;
Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Six Stratographic Principles pp. 212 231
Consider what you would include in a poster to convince the organisation to adopt
and implement your strategic plan.
In the seminar:
In your team: Discuss what types of information and analysis you might include in
your poster. Make some initial decisions on roles within the team.
Develop criteria for evaluating a strategy poster: how would you distinguish between
an excellent poster, a good one, and a poor one?
We will discuss the criteria you have developed and how they relate to the formal
marking criteria for the poster. There will be opportunities in the course of the
module to look at examples of posters from previous years.
We will also discuss the links between the group poster, the individual contribution
assessment and the take-home exercise. There will be further opportunities to
discuss the take-home exercise and individual contribution assessment later in the
term.
At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to:
be able to summarise and bring together the findings of a range of analyses
that consider the external environment
be able to present the combined environmental eco-structure of an
organisation to highlight strategically significant opportunities and threats it
faces
have clarity on the e-poster assessment, its requirements and expectations
have an awareness of the relationship between the e-poster and the
individual assessments
have a better understanding of the e-poster marking criteria and how they will
be applied
be able to evaluate critically your own and your teams project work.

WEEK 5 Competitive Positioning Spidergram

An example of an arena that has been subject to considerable change in recent
years is that of books and book-retailing: printed books vs. e-books, e-readers and
apps; bricks and mortar stores vs. online sellers and downloading.
(For examples of how the arena has changed see the discussions at
http://www.theguardian.com/books/ebooks and
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/ereaders )
Using this context to provide examples, you will explore the competitive positioning
of either Amazon or Waterstones and consider how you might apply the same
techniques to your project organisation.
Before the seminar:
Read: Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Competitive Positioning, pp.71
100
Activity 1: At the end of the previous seminar you will decide which organisation
your team will analyse, Amazon or Waterstones (called below the allotted
organisation). Research that organisation with a focus on its competitive positioning
in the arena described above.
Here are some web pages to get you started:
Waterstones to stop selling e-books as it ties up with Kobo (BBC News 23/5/16)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/36360531
Amazon Wins $30 Million Contract to Sell E-Books to New York City Schools (Wall
Street Journal, 20/4/16) http://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-wins-30-millioncontract-to-sell-e-books-to-new-york-city-schools-1461202999
Using the tools and frameworks with which you are already familiar analyse and
summarise the competitive positioning of your teams allotted organisation.
Activity 2: Consider how you might use these tools to analyse your project
organisation
In the seminar:
Activity 1: Prepare a Competitive Positioning Spidergram (see Strategy Builder,
pp. 102 104) for your teams allotted organisation.
Compare your Spidergram with that of the other team looking at the same
organisation. In the seminar group as a whole compare the Spidergrams for the two
organisations.
In your discussions consider the following questions:
Is the environment in which Amazon and Waterstones operate one where
competitive advantage is more likely to be temporary or sustainable? Why?
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How does the positioning of the two organisations compare?

What potential strategic positioning opportunities do the spidergrams point to for
each organisation?
Activity 2: Develop a competitive positioning spidergram for your project
organisation.
On which aspects of the value chain / value system might your organisation focus to
build competitive advantage?
Can you identify any potential collaborators?
At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to be able to:

identify turbulent environments and how they affect the nature of competitive
advantage
identify the key competitive strengths and weaknesses of an organisation
relative to its competitors and consider how that affects how it might
differentiate itself from those competitors
identify potential new competitive spaces through rethinking industry
boundaries and KSFs
identify underdeveloped strengths that could be exploited better through
strategic alliances

WEEK 6 Transient Advantage & Dynamic Capabilities

You will need to refer to the readings for lectures 4& 5 to address the questions
raised in this seminar, in particular the articles by Teece and McGrath.
Before the seminar:
Activity 1: Tayto and Walkers Case Study
Read Master Builder Case 5: Tayto and Walkers Out of the frying pan posted
on Moodle. Consider the questions posed at the end of the case.
Draft an evolutionary hub diagram, Strategy Builder pp. 120 - 121, for each
organisation.
Activity 2: Consider whether your project organisation is operating in a turbulent or
stable environment. Apply McGraths diagnostic framework (R.G. McGrath, 2013.
Transient Advantage, Harvard Business Review, 91 (6): 62-70) to you project
organisation to determine the readiness of the organisation for transient advantage.
What evidence do you need to determine whether the organisation is in a position to
constantly start new strategic initiatives, building and exploiting many transient
competitive advantages at once (McGrath, 2013)?
In the seminar:
Activity 1: The Tayto and Walkers Case Study
Your team will be allotted either Tayto or Walkers to consider in more detail.
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Compare your team members case question answers.

For your allotted organisation, using your pre-seminar work:
Rank the strengths & capabilities of the organisation in terms of the extent to which
they might contribute to a) sustainable competitive advantage b) transient
competitive advantage
Discuss the interconnectedness of the organisations capability system; how does
it contribute to stakeholder value?
What could your organisation do to enable it to create the capabilities necessary for
its survival in the future? What role does leadership play?
Draw a group evolutionary hub diagram for your allotted organisation.
In the seminar as whole compare your answers to these questions and those posed
in the case study.
Activity 2:
Compare the results within your team of applying McGraths diagnostic to your
project organisation and produce a team diagnosis.
Sketch an evolutionary hub for your project organisation.
How are the two analyses related? What are the consequences of
temporary/transient advantage for the importance of dynamic capabilities in strategy
design and strategic management?
At the end of this weeks seminar you are expected to be able to:
Identify the attributes of firms able to achieve transient competitive advantage
and compare these with those of firms able to achieve sustainable
competitive advantage
Discuss the implications of turbulent environments and transient competitive
advantage for strategic management.
explain the relationship between intangible resources / assets and dynamic
capabilities
explain the benefits of interconnected capability systems
explain how dynamic capabilities contribute to sustainable and transient
advantage
discuss the role of leadership in fostering dynamic capabilities
WEEK 7 Reading week No seminar
WEEK 8 Innovation & Entrepreneurship
Before the seminar:
Read Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Design Thinking, pp.124 - 127, and
Next Practice Matrix, pp. 164 - 167; The Capability Radar, pp. 136 - 138.
M. Jenkins et al, 2016, Performing at the Limit, Cambridge, CUP, Chapters 4, 5 &
10.

Activity 1: Apple and Ford Case Study

Read Master Builder Case 6: Apple and Ford Designing Next Practice posted on
Moodle. Consider the questions posed at the end of the case.
Activity 2: Using what you developed last week on the capabilities of your project
organisation, draft a capability radar diagram Strategy Builder, pp. 136 -138, for
your project organisation.
In the seminar:
Activity 1:
Discuss your answers to the case questions.
How would you explain each organisations approach to innovation?
What is the relationship between knowledge, innovation and learning at each
organisation?
How would you answer the question, If all innovations are destined to become
commodities, what is the incentive to innovate?
Activity 2:
Identify the worst user experience of your project organisation?
How would adopting a design approach change your organisations customers
experiences of its products/ services?
What is the worst practice of any organisation in your organisations industry? And
the best?
Using the capability radar diagrams you drafted pre-seminar and the next practice
concept, identify how your project organisation can use its capabilities to leapfrog
best practice in the industry.
There will also be an opportunity to discuss the individual take home assessment.
At the end of this weeks seminar you are expected to be able to:
explain the relationship between knowledge, innovation and
entrepreneurialism
discuss the relationship between innovation and achieving competitive
advantage
explain how adopting a design approach and/or a next practice approach
links to the development of dynamic capabilities
explain how adopting a design approach and/or a next practice approach can
enable the achievement of competitive advantage in both turbulent and
stable environments
WEEK 9 Strategic Goals, Strategic Options and Evaluation; Social Enterprises
HCT Group is a social enterprise in the transport industry, providing over 12 million
passenger trips on its buses every year. It delivers a range of transport services and
reinvests the profits from its commercial work into further transport services or
projects in the communities it serves. (Source: HCT website, given below).
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LibertyBus is the bus service on Jersey delivered by CT Plus Jersey that provides
public transport for the island of Jersey, primarily aimed at being accessible to as
many Islanders as possible but also to tourists as well.
For further information see the material on the websites of LibertyBus
http://www.libertybus.je/ and HCT group http://www.hctgroup.org/
We will use the context of the social enterprise to identify and evaluate the strategic
options of an organisation in the light of their strategic goals.
Before the seminar:
Read Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Confrontation Matrix, pp. 140 145; The
Growth Options Heatmap, pp.170 172 and The Balanced Goals Envelope, pp. 204
206;

MacIntosh & MacLean, Strategic Management, Chapters 8 & 9;

Thinking about LibertyBus:
draw a balanced goals envelope to summarise the strategic goals for the
organisation;
sketch a growth heatmap to identify strategic options available to the organisation
(remember that although this is called a growth heatmap, your options may include
retrenchment);
make sure that your options can be reconciled with your balanced goals envelope
and take into account any strategic priorities you have identified and the position of
LibertyBus in the HCT portfolio;
consider what tools you would use to evaluate your options.
In the seminar:
Activity 1:
Within your teams compare your analyses; identify how considering a social
enterprise affected the analysis.
Develop a consolidated team set of options and use at least one evaluation tool
(RACES, MacIntosh & MacLeans A3S matrix, SFA) to rank them.
In your discussion you should also consider:
whether a social enterprise is an appropriate approach to providing transport
solutions in a non-metropolitan area;
the particular challenges that social enterprises face, how these affect the goals and
options available to them, and the choice of method to evaluate those options;
the relationship between social enterprises, innovation and turbulent environments.
Activity 2:
Discuss how you would conduct a similar analysis for your project organisation; from
the analyses you have conducted so far can you sketch out a balanced goals
envelope and a growth heatmap?
What additional information / analyses do you need? Are there other frameworks that
you could use that would be particularly appropriate to your project organisation?
What else do you need to consider in developing a strategic plan for your project
organisation?
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At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to be able to:
explain the relationship between strategic goals, strategic options and the
chosen strategy
discuss the effect of a different overarching purpose (profit-maximising
organisation, social enterprise, not-for-profit public organisation, charity) on
strategic goals, options and strategy choice
apply a range of tools / frameworks to develop and evaluate a set of strategic
options
WEEK 10 Draft Poster Display / Discussion
This is an opportunity for you to present your poster to your peers and seminar
leader and discuss it in the light of the marking criteria and suggestions for
improvement prior to submitting the final version.
Before the seminar:
Activity 1: Revisit Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, Six Stratographic
Principles pp. 212 231. Develop a draft of your e-poster. Read the poster
guidelines and marking criteria and make sure that your poster meets the both. Use
the Strategy on a Page section of Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder to check
that your story in your e-poster is coherent and flows.
While we know that there will be elements of analysis that are incomplete, your draft
should include placeholders for those elements so that the overall structure can be
discussed. At this stage we would expect your poster to be around complete but
for some sections (for example, those that discuss the link between corporate and
business strategy and implementation) to be more sketchy than the rest.
Upload your poster to the draft poster area on Moodle 48 hours before your seminar.
This will enable your seminar peers to read your poster before the seminar. Read
the posters of your colleagues.
Activity2: Read the marking criteria for the individual contribution assessment and
develop a one-page outline for your report.
In the seminar:
Be prepared for up to 10 minutes of Q&A on your poster. You may use up to 4
minutes of this to highlight key points. You may also pose your own questions for the
seminar leader / your peers during the Q&A session. Be prepared to comment on
the posters of others. You may also receive feedback electronically from your
seminar leader and / or convenor you can explicitly request this from your seminar
leader. Feedback you receive must be noted and used in revising your poster prior to
final submission.
There will also be opportunity to discuss the individual contribution and how it differs
from a resubmission of poster text.
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At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to be able to:
Complete your poster
Prepare your individual contribution report
Critically evaluate your draft report before final submission
Week 11: Coherence & Implementation
Before the seminar:
Read Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder, 7-S Framework, pp. 130 134;
General Electric / McKinsey Screen, pp. 146 150; Animation- Orientation matrix,
pp. 198 - 202
MacIntosh & MacLean, Strategic Management, Chapters 11, 12 and Appendix 2;
Apply a 7s analysis to your project organisation
Apply a General Electric McKinsey Screen to your project organisation at corporate
level
Think about the strategy that your team are proposing for your project organisation
and answer the following:
Does your 7s analysis indicate areas where coherence is an issue? How does your
proposed strategy affect this?
Is your proposed strategy for the business aligned with the corporate strategy for the
organisation as a whole?
Does implementing your proposed strategy involve a change in the portfolio of the
corporate organisation?
In the seminar:
In your teams compare your pre-seminar diagrams and question answers.
Analyse your proposed strategy in the light of DAvenis new 7s; does it enable your
project organisation to disrupt the status quo or take advantage of opportunities for
temporary advantage?
Using Cummings & Wilsons A-O matrix (Cummings & Angwin, Strategy Builder,
Animation- Orientation matrix, pp. 198 202) and the guidance in MacIntosh &
MacLean on implementation, discuss what your project organisation would need to
do to implement your proposed strategy.
List the aspects of the organisation that need to change. What might you suggest to
achieve that change?
You should revisit how you would suggest implementing change after lecture 10.
At the end of this weeks seminar activities you are expected to be able to:

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determine the coherence of the strategy of an organisation within the larger

system that is that organisation
identify points of tension / intervention to bring about change
consider business strategy in the context of the corporate portfolio and
strategy
link strategy and implementation and explain the elements of an
implementation plan

WEEK 12 Assessment Feedback & Feedforward

Before the seminar:
Complete a detailed draft outline of your individual contribution report. For example,
a structured, bullet point form of your report including a bullet point for each major
point you wish to make.
In the seminar:
We will discuss feedback on the Individual take-home exercise. There will be
opportunity to discuss how the individual take-home exercise has informed your work
on the e-post and how it links to your individual contribution report.
There will also be a larger discussion of the individual contribution report and an
opportunity to review your draft outlines in comparison with the marking criteria for
the report.
This is also an opportunity to raise any outstanding questions you have.

END OF SEMINAR PROGRAMME

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