Admission requirements
Master students
Description
This course addresses the dynamics and strategic choices underlying competitive advantages for an organization and how to defend this strategic position in the long term. In this regard, the course addresses the nature of strategy, strategic analysis prior to the formulation of strategy, as well as the implications of strategy implementation. This course therefore focuses on a critical managerial challenge; How to deal with competition and create a sustainable competitive advantage for your organization in the marketplace. Through lectures, case study seminars, readings, and group assignments, students learn about foundational theories and frameworks in strategy. Students learn to use these theories and frameworks to answer questions such as: Why are some firms more successful than other firms in a specific industry? How do I assess the competitive advantage a firm has over other firms in a market? How can managers harness industry dynamics to strengthen a firm’s competitive advantage? What is the role of organisational design in a firm’s competitive advantage? And what are the challenges associated with capitalising on intellectual assets (as opposed to physical assets)?
This course is intended for anyone interested in working in industry as an entrepreneur, manager, consultant, analyst, or investor. Moreover, the course will provide an analytical background for scientists, engineers, and medical doctors with an interest in understanding industrial aspects of their academic work. The course emphasises interactive teaching that focuses on real-life case studies.
Course objectives
This course provides students training in the use of key concepts and frameworks for formulating and implementing corporate strategies with an emphasis on firms in technology-intensive industries. At the end of the course students will be able to:
apply the basic terms, concepts, theories, models and tools underlying three core focus areas in strategic management, namely Strategy Analysis, Strategy Formulation and Strategy Implementation;
analyze the general environment and the competitive environment and evaluate resulting strategies;
evaluate the business model fit and organizational design vis-à-vis the commercial exploitation of a firm’s intellectual capital (e.g. patents, trade secrets, copyright, tacitly held know-how);
apply strategic management models and frameworks to formulate 'functional-level', 'business-level' and 'corporate-level' options as well as the resulting choices for strategy or strategies; and
explain the role of innovation, business models, technology and strategic leadership in the implementation of strategy and turnaround management;
apply the terms, concepts, models and frameworks of the field to a case study from practice (Harvard Case Method) and present the results of the strategic analysis.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course emphasises interactive teaching that focuses on real-life case studies. Students will be debriefed, in hindsight, on what really happened.
Assessment method
Students’ final mark will be based on the following mix of assessment methods:
Group assignment
Exam
Group assignment (30%)
Students are assigned to groups at the end of the first week of class. A group assignment in the form of a comprehensive case study will be posted on the Blackboard site for the course, and questions relating to the weekly case discussions from the prescribed materials, as well as the more comprehensive group assignment will be published on Brightspace in due course. Students are required to submit a total of 3 group assignments in respect of the case study at different intervals during the course. These group assignments should be submitted in the form of a Powerpoint presentation that address questions about the case study. The group assignments cumulate in a final strategy presentation that will contain the formal strategic advice. This means that the group’s contribution can be presented using bullet points, graphical representations, etc. to convey the argument the group wishes to make.
We ask students to notify SBB staff as soon as possible in case of problems with group members so that we can mediate and resolve these problems.
Exam (70%)
The final exam covers the readings for the course and the material discussed during the lectures.
A week after the final grades are published, an announcement will be put on Brightspace with the date, time and location where students can review the exam and model answers.
The lecturer will inform the students how the inspection of and follow-up discussion of the exams will take place.
Reading list
The prescribed textbook for the course is:
Mackay, D., Arevuo, M., & Meadows, M. (2023). Strategy (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press Academic UK. (ISBN: 9780192845399)
A list of additional required readings, consisting of journal articles and cases will be provided in the course syllabus and on the Blackboard site for the course.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
For all questions you can contact info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl
Note: If you are an ICTiBPS student, you can contact the [programme coordinator] (ictinbusiness@liacs.leidenuniv.nl) of ICTiBPS for any questions about your program.
1: These criteria are adapted from: https://teaching.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/appendix_b-_peer_evaluation_criteria.pdf (last downloaded 18 August 2018).
Remarks
There is limited capacity for external students. Please contact the [programme coordinator] (mailto:info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl).
Students are responsible for enrolling/unenrolling themselves for (partial) exams/retakes.
Students who do not enroll themselves for an exam/retake by the deadline are not allowed to take the exam/retake.
Students fail the course if any of the partial components (except the exam) that make up the final mark of the course is assessed below 4.0.
Students fail the course if the grade for the (final) exam is assessed below 5.0.
The final grade is expressed as a whole or half number between 1.0 and 10.0, including both limits. The result is not to be expressed as a number between 5.0 and 6.0.
If one of the components of the final mark constitutes a component that assesses attendance or class participation, students cannot take a retake for this component. Therefore, students fail the course if their mark for this component is less than 4.0.
Partial grades, inclusive the exam grade will not be rounded. If partial grades will be communicated, it is possible partial grades are rounded, but unrounded partial grades will be used in the calculation of the final grade. The final grade will be rounded at 0.5 (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
Students pass the course if the final grade is 6.0 or higher (5.49 will rounded down to a 5 and a 5.5 will be rounded up to a 6.0).
It is not possible to do retakes for group assignments. Therefore, if students fail the group assignment component, they fail the course.
For courses, for which class participation is an assessment component, students may not be penalised for an absence if the student has a legitimate justification for this absence. The student must notify the program coordinator via email (info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl) of such an absence BEFORE the lecture, describing the reason for missing the lecture. If the student does not notify the program coordinator before the lecture, the student will be penalised. Students may be required to provide further documentation to substantiate their case, and class attendance requirements are only waived under exceptional circumstances such as illness.
Students who are entitled to more exam/retake time must report to info@sbb.leidenuniv.nl 10 days before the exam/retake takes place.
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.