Strategic Management: Unit 4 Discussion

1) Reflect on the case you chose for the Unit 3 discussion. If you want to revisit the cases, they are here:

https://www.bcg.com/Interactives/ICL/#

2) Looking at
business level strategies, review the the material on Porter’s Generic
Strategies in Chapter 7 (pp. 151-160) and, looking at functional level
strategies, review the material on marketing strategies in Chapter 8
(pp. 174-179).

3) Respond to the discussion question with a minimum of 250 words and 2 scholarly sources by Wednesday, at 11:59 pm CST.

4) The book and the BCG website will meet the source requirements. I should have thought of that in Unit 3.

5)
Reply to the initial posts of two classmates who completed the same
case you did. Each reply should be a minimum of 75 words and are due by
Sunday, at 11:59 pm CST.

Here’s the discussion question:

A) Identify and explain which business level strategy your company (in the case) was using.

B) Identify and explain which functional level strategy your company was focused on.

C) Conclude with a
sentence or two about whether I should use the BCG exercise in Unit 4
for future classes, keep it in Unit 3, or write it off as a failed
experiment. As before, be honest.

Some additional details

• This
  is another new discussion question. Snags are less likely than in Unit
  3, but if there are any, I won’t let that have a negative impact on
  anyone’s score.
• Update the subject line of the initial post to reflect the case you chose.
• If you chose the airline case, part A) of the discussion question will be easy, and part B) will be a little more challenging.
• If you
  chose the pharmaceutical case, part B) of the discussion question will
  be easy, and part A) will be a little more challenging.
• If the
  cases caused stress in Unit 3, don’t let that carry over. I’m mostly
  trying to get feedback on the exercise and how it fits or doesn’t fit
  with the class material. BCG was discussed in the material on corporate
  level strategies in Unit 3, but the cases themselves are more centered
  on the business and functional level strategies in Unit 4.