For this assignment, students will investigate the question, ‘What is Strategy?’, from a practitioner’s perspective.
This means you are not to use any academic sources (e.g. Harvard Business Review), nor websites such as Investopedia, nor descriptions of strategy from academics (e.g. Roger Martin, who was the former Dean of the Rotman School of Business at the University of Toronto), nor any textbooks.
Rather, find videos and websites where strategy is being discussed from a practitioner’s perspective. For example, A. G. Lafley, former CEO, President, and Chair of Proctor & Gamble (P&G), describes how he thinks about strategy, and how he implemented strategy at P&G. Ray Anderson, CEO and Chair of Interface Carpets, talks about how he came to focus on sustainability and how that mission became a strategy for his business. NOTE: you are not allowed to use any practitioners that we use in class.
Classroom ceo discussed IN CLASS — Don Simpson, A.G Laffey, Ray Anderson, Don Flow, Roger Martin, Bergman & Grove THESE CEOS SHOULD NOT BE THE PART OF THE WRITING
individual are required to use 9 different sources
For example, a source would be A. G. Lafley, and even if you found 4 or 5 websites where he explains strategy in different ways and each provides you with some additional insight, that is still only one source.
Students are then required to synthesize their findings and put together a document describing what they have learned.
All sources must be properly documented in APA style.
All students must follow the proper attribution protocols when quoting a source or paraphrasing a source.
See the section on plagiarism in the syllabus, and consult the APA guidelines for citations.
To help the individual synthesize their findings, use the Strategic Management organizing framework from your textbook on p11.
Try to understand what practitioners are saying in relation to that framework.
Do the things practitioners are saying/doing fit within the framework, and where? Is there anything that does not seem to fit (really think hard about this—don’t force everything into the framework, but also don’t just assume it doesn’t fit).
Note anything that seems surprising to you (for example, in relation to what you have learned so far in the course). But also do not simply accept everything a practitioner says as ‘the way it works’.
Part of being a good manager is being reflective about what is going on around you and trying to understand those things from frameworks you learn in this program, and specifically, in this course.
