Course Outline Template

Indian Institute of Management Calcutta

Programme : PGP

Name of the Course: ………………Strategic Leadership………………………

Core / Elective ………………………Elective……………………….Cap (for Elective)……50……….

Credit: …3….

Academic Year & Term: ……………2019, Term IV…………………..

Course Coordinator: Anirvan Pant

Email: IIMC id: anirvan@iimcal.ac.in

Instructor: ……………………….( Sessions … – …)

Affiliation: ………………………..

Email: IIMC id:

Instructor: ……………………….( Sessions … – …)

Affiliation: ………………………..

Email: IIMC id:

Introduction to Course /Course Description

What shapes strategic choices? Are they moulded, primarily, by powerful constraining forces
external to the organization (‘structure’) or by the reflexive choices (‘agency’) of the strategist? The
evolution of the field of strategic management since the 1980s reveals a preoccupation with
explanations based in structure, regardless of whether the focus of attention is external (industry
analysis) or internal (resource based view) to the firm. This, some would say, is primarily a
consequence of the tremendous influence that industrial organization and, more generally,
economics has had on the development of strategic management.
The course on strategic leadership can be viewed as a response to the concerns expressed in recent
times by strategy scholars such as Joseph Bower and Cynthia Montgomery on the ‘disappearance’ of
‘leadership’ from strategy. This course is an attempt to redress the balance by infusing agency into
considerations of strategy, without jettisoning the conceptual edifice of mainstream strategic
management. This course builds upon the conceptual and analytical scope of the core course in
Strategic Management while engaging with the dynamic aspect of leading organizations. This course
also provides you an opportunity to debate contentious issues that impact the strategic choices of
firms such as the trade-off between growth and profitability or the presumed primacy of the
shareholder.
The Strategic Leadership course has been designed as an advanced strategy course for those who
aspire for leadership roles. The course seeks to confront participants with the nature of challenges
and complexities that they will confront in future leadership roles, and more importantly, offer them
an opportunity to acquire the skills to appraise the strategic choices that they will be confronted
with. This is not, in conventional terms, a leadership course. The perspective of strategic leadership
is very different from the dominant view of leadership rooted in organizational behavior. In this
course, as against the traditional focus on leadership in organizations (i.e. motivating people to work
well, etc.), we focus on the leadership of organizations (i.e. shaping the firm’s strategic choices).
Further, in contrast to the core course in Strategic Management, the analytical thrust of class
discussion in this course will not be on seeking explanations of firm performance but on
understanding why a firm makes a specific sequence of strategic choices. Correspondingly, the
readings in this course integrate a wide range of materials from old as well as new streams of
strategy research – e.g., on strategy process, strategic entrepreneurship and managerial cognition –
that have a bearing on strategic choice. More generally, this course seeks to include perspectives
derived from the sociology of strategy and the psychology of strategy rather than merely from the
economics of strategy.

The course seeks to bring the participants upfront and close to the challenges faced by the top
management teams of a wide range of firms (small & large, Indian and foreign, single- and multi-
business, etc.) across a wide range of industries (ranging from modern art to automotive and from
software services to FMCG) coping with a variety of strategic and organizational challenges (battling
late mover disadvantage, overcoming resource constraints, navigating through the conflicting
interests of the parent company and the subsidiary, etc.). The course concludes with an extension of
the frame of reasoning developed in this course to the contexts of military strategy and political
statesmanship.

Course Objective and Key-takeaways from the course

The principal learning objectives of the course are:
1. To develop a conceptual and contextual understanding of the patterns of strategic choices discernible in the
rise, decline, and renewal of enterprises.
2. To employ analogical reasoning in the course of a vicarious engagement with the practice of strategic
leadership in a global context
3. To cultivate a capacity for judgment, or strategic choice making under uncertainty, that builds upon the
capacity for analytical problem solving honed in the core course on Strategic Management.
Programme Level Learning Goals (7)

Learning Goals
Learning Goal 1. Possess state-of-the-art knowledge of theory and practice in all functional fields of management and
the ability to think critically, and apply them to diagnose and find solutions to organisational problems, even in
unfamiliar or uncertain situations. (1b, 1c, 1d, 1e)

Learning Goal 3. Develop a global perspective that is built upon knowledge of economic, technological, regulatory
and political forces that are shaping a new international order in the 21 st century (3a, 3b)

Learning Goal 4. Develop their capacity to articulate their thinking and ideas through verbal and written
communications, at a professional (manager/consultant) level and to deliver the same (4a, 4b, 4c)

Learning Goal 6. Acquire capacity to apply their professional knowledge and skills to diagnose and resolve business
problems in actual organizational settings (6a, 6b, 6c, 6d)
Learning Goal 7. Acquire the leadership qualities and the competence needed for leading organizational change (7b,
7c)

International Components in your course (if any)

The course seeks to have a balanced global-local perspective with eight case discussions centered on cases of Indian
entities and business leaders, and seven case discussions centered on cases of foreign companies and political /
military leaders

Pre-requisites
Strategic Management (SM – 110)

Required Text Book(s)

Recommended Text Book(s)

Course Pack Distribution to students

Course material will be issued from the Programme office

Technology enabled learning component for your course

(You may include if required)
Session Plan
Session 1: The Landscape of Strategic Leadership

Background Readings:
1. ‘The Strategic Yardstick You Can’t Afford to Ignore’, Bradley, Dawson & Smit, McKinsey Quarterly, 2013.
2. ‘Strategy Needs Creativity’, Brandenburger, Harvard Business Review, 2019.
3. ‘How Strategists Really Think: The Power of Analogy’, Gavetti & Rivkin, Harvard Business Review, 2005.

Session 2: Overcoming Disadvantage

Case for Discussion: Bharat Forge Limited

Background Readings:
1. ‘How David Beats Goliath’, Gladwell, The New Yorker, 2009.
2. ‘Transient Advantage’, McGrath, Harvard Business Review, 2013.

Discussion Questions: How has BFL managed to emerge as a leader in the global forgings industry? Does the
company’s decision to invest in building huge capacity ahead of demand make sense? Why did the company
restructure its finances and spin off its assets into a separate company? Why acquire the order book and not the assets
from Dana Corporation? Why did it acquire CDP? CDP AT?

Session 3: Problem Solving with McKinsey & Co

Case for Discussion: To Be Provided

Background Readings:
1. ‘The Most Underrated Skill in Management’, Repenning, Kieffer, & Astor, MIT Sloan Management Review,
2017.
2. ‘Using Hypothesis-Driven Thinking in Strategy Consulting’, Liedtka, Darden UVA Note, 2006.

Session 4: Renewing Advantage

Case for Discussion: McKinsey & Co

Case Update: ‘The Revolution Conquers the World’, Kiechel, The Lords of Strategy: The Secret Intellectual History
of the New Corporate World, Ch. 14, 2010 [Extracts].

Background Readings:
1. ‘Why Good Companies Go Bad, Sull, Harvard Business Review, 1999.
2. ‘Consulting on the Cusp of Disruption’, Christensen, Wang, & van Bever, Harvard Business Review, 2013.

Discussion Questions: How was this obscure little firm of ‘accounting and engineering advisors’ able to grow into the
one of the most prestigious management consulting firms in the world fifty years later? What was the unique source
of competitive advantage developed by James McKinsey and Marvin Bower? Evaluate the role and contribution of
Ron Daniel, Fred Gluck, and Rajat Gupta to ‘the Firm.’ What are the challenges faced by the management consulting
industry in recent years? Is McKinsey & Co prepared to confront these challenges?

Session 5: Sensing Opportunity

Case for Discussion: Saffronart.com

Background Readings:
1. ‘The New Psychology of Strategic Leadership’, Gavetti, Harvard Business Review, 2011.
2. ‘How to Use Analogies to Introduce New Ideas’, Bingham & Kahl, MIT Sloan Management Review, 2013.

Discussion Questions: How is the price of a piece of art determined? What created the opportunity for Saffronart? Did
Minal and Dinesh Vazirani adopt the right business model to capitalize on this opportunity? What should they do
next?
Session 6: Seizing Opportunity

Case for Discussion: Indian Software Industry – The Changing Landscape

Background Readings:
1. ‘What is Disruptive Innovation?’ Christensen, Raynor, & McDonald, Harvard Business Review, 2015.
2. ‘Discovery & Creation: Alternative Theories of Entrepreneurial Action’, Alvarez & Barney, Strategic
Entrepreneurship Journal, 2007.
Discussion Questions: How would you account for the rise of the Indian software services industry? What were the
various inflection points in the industry’s path to attain a global status? Do you think the industry is, again, at an
inflexion point in 2017? What should the industry do to maintain and further enhance its global status?

Session 7: Articulating Aspiration

Case for Discussion: Tesla Motors

Background Readings:
1. ‘Uncommon Sense: How to Turn Distinctive Beliefs into Action’, Goddard, Birkinshaw, & Eccles, MIT
Sloan Management Review, 2012.
2. ‘Strategy: The Uniqueness Challenge’, Zenger, Harvard Business Review, 2013.
Discussion Questions: Should BMW expect Tesla to grow into a strong direct competitor like Audi, or remain a niche
player in automotives? What do you think of Tesla’s entry strategy? How did Elon Musk shape the aspiration of Tesla
Motors? How do you expect the industry to evolve in the coming years?

Session 8: Renewing Aspiration

Case for Discussion: Bajaj Auto Ltd.

Background Readings:
1. ‘What is the Theory of Your Firm?’, Zenger, Harvard Business Review, 2013.
2. ‘Strategy as Active Waiting’, Sull, Harvard Business Review, 2005.

Discussion Questions: How would you rate Bajaj Auto as a competitor to Honda? Evaluate the Bajaj strategy in
1980s, 1990s, and the first decade of this millennium. Evaluate, as well, Rahul Bajaj and Rajiv Bajaj as General
Managers. Looking ahead, what recommendations would you make to Rajiv Bajaj?

Session 9: Claiming Category Identity

Case for Discussion: Park Hotels

Background Readings:
1. ‘In Praise of Dissimilarity’, Gibbert & Hoegl, MIT Sloan Management Review, 2011.
2. ‘Mastering the “Name Your Product Category” Game’, Suarez & Grodal, MIT Sloan Management Review,
2015.

Discussion Questions: How would you rate the performance of Park Hotels? Why? What business is Park Hotels in?
Who does Park Hotels compete with? What recommendations would you make to Priya Paul and her management
team?

Session 10: Renewing Organizational Identity

Case for Discussion: Fujifilm

Case Update:
1. ‘Snapshot of a Humbled Giant’ & ‘A Victim of Its Own Success’, Financial Times, 2012.

Background Readings:
1. ‘The I*Dimension’, Chapter 1, Bouchikhi & Kimberly, The Soul of the Corporation: How to Manage the
Identity of Your Company.
Discussion Questions: Evaluate Fuji's transition from from analog photography to digital imaging. How was the firm's
behavior shaped by its identity? Fuji has entered a broad range of businesses ranging from flat panel display materials
to pharmaceuticals to cosmetics in its search for a second foundation. What criteria should Komori use to screen
opportunities? In moving to a 'second foundation', should Fuji exit any of its legacy businesses? If Fuji's identity is no
longer 'imaging and information' what should it be?

Module II
The Tasks of Strategic Leadership

Session 11: Engaging with Paradox

Case for Discussion: Fabindia

Background Readings:
1. ‘Integrative Thinking 2.0: A User’s Guide to Your Opposable Mind’, Riel & Martin, Rotman Management,
2014.

Discussion Questions: What role has Fabindia’s ideology played in its evolution? Should the company have entered
the furniture business? Organic foods? Body care products? Do you agree with Bissell’s plans to set up community
owned supplier region companies? Do you agree with Wolfensohn’s decision to invest in Fabindia?

Session 12: Delivering Growth

Case for Discussion: Hindustan Lever Limited

Background Readings:
1. ‘Mapping Your Growth Direction’, Chapter 8, Viguerie, Smit, & Baghai, Granularity of Growth, 2008
2. ‘Which Strategy When’, Bingham, Eisenhardt, & Furr, MIT Sloan Management Review, 2011.

Discussion Questions: Critically appraise the strategic choices made by the Chairmen of Hindustan Lever over the
years? Specifically, do you agree with the growth strategies adopted by the immediate past two Chairmen – Dadiseth
and Vindi Banga? What advice would you give Chairman Harish Manwani?

Sessions 13 & 14: Debating Purpose

Exhibition of and Discussion on: Other People’s Money (1991) directed by Norman Jewison, starring Gregory Peck,
Danny De Vito, and Penelope Ann Miller.

Background Readings:
1. ‘The Misapplication of Mr. Michael Jensen: How Agency Theory Brought Down the Economy & Why It
Might Again’, Dobbin & Jung, Markets on Trial: The Economic Sociology of the U.S. Financial Crisis (Part B),
Emerald, 2010.
2. ‘The Error at the Heart of Corporate Leadership’, Bower & Paine, Harvard Business Review, 2017.

Session 15: Pursuing Longevity

Case for Discussion: ITC Limited

Background Readings:
1. ‘Contextual Intelligence’, Khanna, Harvard Business Review, 2014.
2. ‘The High Price of Efficiency’, Martin, Harvard Business Review, 2019.

Discussion Questions: How would you evaluate ITC’s performance over the years? Why did Deveshwar redefine
ITC’s mission as ‘India First’ on the 100th anniversary of the company? Why did relations between the management
teams at ITC and BAT turn contentious? Whose position would you support? Are ITC’s endeavours at integrating
societal concerns into its strategic initiatives substantive or merely symbolic? How would you evaluate Deveshwar’s
decision to take ITC into the highly competitive FMCG sector? Would you have any advice for Sanjiv Puri?

Module III
Course Integration and Extension

Session 16: Becoming a Strategic Leader

Case for Discussion: Steve Jobs - Leader Strategist

Background Readings:
1. ‘Management is Much More than a Science: The Limits of Data-Driven Decision Making’, Martin &
Golsby-Smith, Harvard Business Review, 2018.
2. ‘The Cognitive Foundations of Visionary Strategy’, Schilling, Strategy Science, 2018.

Discussion Questions: Why was Apple so successful in the initial years of the PC industry? Why was Jobs stripped of
his operating responsibilities in 1985? How did his time at NeXT and his time at Pixar shape Jobs? When Jobs
returned to Apple in 1996, the company was nearly bankrupt? Why? How did Jobs turn around the fortunes of Apple?

Session 17: Strategic Leadership & Military Strategy

Case for Discussion: Napoleon Bonaparte – Victim of an Inferior Strategy?

Background Readings:
1. ‘The Corsican Conquers Europe: Coup d'Oeil in Classical Military Strategy’, Duggan, Strategic Intuition,
Ch. 5, 2007.
2. ‘Ruler of the World: Napoleon’s Missed Opportunities’, Horne, What If? The World’s Foremost Military
Historians Imagine What Might Have Been, Berkley Books, 1999.

Discussion Questions: What were the fundamental building blocks of Napoleon’s war strategy? How did Napoleon’s
war strategy differ from traditional war strategies? How, if at all, did the quality of Napoleon’s strategizing change
over the period of his rise and fall?

Sessions 18 & 19: Strategic Leadership & Political Statesmanship

Exhibition of and Discussion on: The Missiles of October (1974) directed by Anthony Page and starring William
Devane and Martin Sheen

Background Readings:
1. ‘The New Psychology of Leadership’, Reicher, Haslam & Platow, Scientific American, 2007.
2. ‘Time to Think More About Sarajevo, Less About Munich’, Financial Times, 2014.
3. ‘Before You Make That Big Decision….’, Kahnemann, Lovallo, & Sibony, Harvard Business Review, 2011.

Discussion Questions: Why did the Soviet Union place offensive missiles in Cuba? Why did it take the Americans
nearly a month to discover these missiles? How did each EXCOM member react to the presence of missiles in Cuba?
What did President Kennedy do differently for the efficient working of the EXCOM?

Session 20: Summing Up

Course Review

Background Readings:
1. ‘Putting Leadership Back Into Strategy’, Montgomery, Harvard Business Review, 2008.
2. ‘Strategic Leadership: The Essential Skills’, Schoemaker, Krupp, & Howland, Harvard Business Review,
2013.
3. ‘How Will You Measure Your Life’, Christensen, Harvard Business Review, 2010.
Evaluation Components

✓ Components ✓ Weightage

Class Participation 25%

Surprise Quizzes 10%
Discussion Notes 25%
End Term Examination 40%

With regard to these four components, please note the following:

- Class participation is central to the case method of teaching. Your class participation grade will
be based on the quality and relevance, not quantity, of your contributions in class. I expect you to
read, reflect upon, and debate with your peers the assigned case and readings scheduled for any
given session before you walk into the class. Please attempt to express your reasoned thought
(not opinion!) succinctly and to participate in the collective problem solving process in class.
Also, please remember that, in class, silence is not golden. If you are in doubt, speak up. If you
think what you have to say may be controversial, speak up nevertheless. I reserve my
prerogative to cold call on you. After each class, I will rate each one of you on a four point scale:
(4) Outstanding contribution to class discussion, (3) Significant contribution to class discussion,
(2) ordinary contribution to class discussion, and (1) merely present in class. Needless to say,
absence from class will – ceteris paribus – result in a lower class participation grade.
- I may conduct surprise quizzes in class. These quizzes will interrogate your understanding on
some aspect of the case assigned for discussion on that particular day. Since none of the quizzes
will be announced in advance, absentees will not be eligible for a make-up quiz. I may also
announce take home assignments from time to time.
- Groups of two students each will be required to submit two discussion notes. For the purposes of
this course, the term ‘discussion note’ refers to a brief note written in response to the discussion
questions listed out for any session. Feel free to go beyond the discussion questions if you wish to
highlight or analyse other interesting issues. No more than one discussion note may be submitted
from a single cluster (see below). Discussion notes may be submitted for the following case
discussions: Cluster 1: Indian software industry, Tesla, and Park Hotels; Cluster 2: Fabindia,
Hindustan Lever, and ITC. The deadline for electronic submission of the discussion paper will be
7 A.M. on the day the session is scheduled. For any given theme/case scheduled over two
sessions, discussion notes may not be submitted after the first session. No exceptions will be
made. The discussion note should be a (maximum) five page typed submission in A4 12 point
Times New Roman font.
- The end-term examination will be an open-book and case-based exam of 3-3.5 hours duration.
Thoroughness coupled with brevity in the response will be greatly appreciated. Please do note
that brevity refers to the most succinct mode of communication of an argument, and not to the
incomplete communication of that argument.

Online Course Management (moodle)/course web