Hoorcolleges O&E
Hoorcollege 1 – 14-04
It’s time to meet the beast
Koen van den Oever
Strategic management → strategic formation
Another course on strategic management?
But is that reality?
– Strategy formation done by visionaries
– Strategy is formed by humans: biases in strategic decision making
– Strategy is formed by whoever is the strongest politically
– Strategy is formed by imitating what other firms do
– And many more perspectives!
It’s not the organization that makes the strategy, it’s the human within the organization that make the
strategy. However, individuals are biased. Some have a broader/narrower vision.
Enquête die we moesten invullen:
, You have the view that strategy
formation is more a collective
process. It’s the whole
organization, the culture
influences the strategy and
otherwise.
Group assignment: tackling a practical organizational problem.
What theoretical perspectives will we discuss?
,Network school → Professor Alberts will provide an extra lecture about the network school, therefore
you have to read 2 articles. It is not in the book. However, it is part of the exam!
Why so many theories?
We would like to teach you perspectivism
Example: what is a rock? → the same goes for what is strategic management? How is strategy
formed?
If you only have one look at the world, there is no perspectivism.
That sounds very theoretical!
– The theories will allow you to identify practice
– We will show how practice also leads to theory development
– Being able to comprehend these different perspectives will help you understanding what goed
on in the world
– It will also help you in making arguments
Lectures → 24 hours available, from 08:00
It’s not to be annoying, it’s because they want to make sure we attend the lectures at the appropriate
time.
Articles → are part of the exam!
, You need a VPN connection to get these articles
The University’s agenda contains other classes, you can disregard these classes. Just follow what’s in
the course manual.
How is grading done?
– Course grade = exam grade*0,75 + group assignment*0,25
– Both grades need to be above 5,5
– The exam committee is currently looking into possibilities to have a heavily randomized online
multiple choice exam in which time pressure will be high.
Heavily randomized means that each of us will have a ‘personal exam’.
The group assignment
– Group of 6 students
– You should be able to use the group communication to talk to each other
What do we need to do?
– Identify a company dealing with strategic change
– Apply the contents of strategy safari to analyze a real business context
– Sample reports from previous years are posted on BS
– You will need to hand in the first half of the report on Monday 4th of may
– Full report → deadline June 8th
Hoorcollege 2 – 17-04
Design school & planning school
Dr. Rick Aalberts
Overview lecture 2 and 3
– Design school
o Ideal image of strategy, characteristics and assumptions, limitations, contribution
– Planning school
o Ideal image of strategy, characteristics and assumptions, limitations, contribution,
comparison.
Next lecture: positioning & entrepreneurial school
Learning objectives – a recap
– To internalize the idea of perspectivism
– To reason according to different perspectives and schools of thoughts, premises, assumptions,
contributions, strengths and weaknesses.
– To identify practice according to theory
– To analyze how practice can lead to theory development
– To explain the development of the major schools of organizational theory and their
dependencies as they developed over time.
Hoorcollege 1 – 14-04
It’s time to meet the beast
Koen van den Oever
Strategic management → strategic formation
Another course on strategic management?
But is that reality?
– Strategy formation done by visionaries
– Strategy is formed by humans: biases in strategic decision making
– Strategy is formed by whoever is the strongest politically
– Strategy is formed by imitating what other firms do
– And many more perspectives!
It’s not the organization that makes the strategy, it’s the human within the organization that make the
strategy. However, individuals are biased. Some have a broader/narrower vision.
Enquête die we moesten invullen:
, You have the view that strategy
formation is more a collective
process. It’s the whole
organization, the culture
influences the strategy and
otherwise.
Group assignment: tackling a practical organizational problem.
What theoretical perspectives will we discuss?
,Network school → Professor Alberts will provide an extra lecture about the network school, therefore
you have to read 2 articles. It is not in the book. However, it is part of the exam!
Why so many theories?
We would like to teach you perspectivism
Example: what is a rock? → the same goes for what is strategic management? How is strategy
formed?
If you only have one look at the world, there is no perspectivism.
That sounds very theoretical!
– The theories will allow you to identify practice
– We will show how practice also leads to theory development
– Being able to comprehend these different perspectives will help you understanding what goed
on in the world
– It will also help you in making arguments
Lectures → 24 hours available, from 08:00
It’s not to be annoying, it’s because they want to make sure we attend the lectures at the appropriate
time.
Articles → are part of the exam!
, You need a VPN connection to get these articles
The University’s agenda contains other classes, you can disregard these classes. Just follow what’s in
the course manual.
How is grading done?
– Course grade = exam grade*0,75 + group assignment*0,25
– Both grades need to be above 5,5
– The exam committee is currently looking into possibilities to have a heavily randomized online
multiple choice exam in which time pressure will be high.
Heavily randomized means that each of us will have a ‘personal exam’.
The group assignment
– Group of 6 students
– You should be able to use the group communication to talk to each other
What do we need to do?
– Identify a company dealing with strategic change
– Apply the contents of strategy safari to analyze a real business context
– Sample reports from previous years are posted on BS
– You will need to hand in the first half of the report on Monday 4th of may
– Full report → deadline June 8th
Hoorcollege 2 – 17-04
Design school & planning school
Dr. Rick Aalberts
Overview lecture 2 and 3
– Design school
o Ideal image of strategy, characteristics and assumptions, limitations, contribution
– Planning school
o Ideal image of strategy, characteristics and assumptions, limitations, contribution,
comparison.
Next lecture: positioning & entrepreneurial school
Learning objectives – a recap
– To internalize the idea of perspectivism
– To reason according to different perspectives and schools of thoughts, premises, assumptions,
contributions, strengths and weaknesses.
– To identify practice according to theory
– To analyze how practice can lead to theory development
– To explain the development of the major schools of organizational theory and their
dependencies as they developed over time.
