I am currently involved with a class known as INTBUS 202: Foundations of strategy. The course is intended to get people experienced in using the main tools of strategy; such as SWOT, Porter's five forces, and so on.
As I've noted elsewhere (here, here, and a bit here), For me, one of the consequential overarching themes, is good judgement. Thus, participants in the course need to practice their judgement--and get feedback on it--so as to refine it.
One of the ways in which we (Dan Tisch and I) have students exercise their judgement is by getting them to "do" cases.
Today's case was Edward Marshall Boehm (that classic by "James Quinn"). I was really pleased at how the students handled the case and the quality of the contributions they made. I think after today's session they had a good understanding of the situation (the business, the industry, and the customers) facing the company. From that, I think they could then build a strong position as they addressed the somewhat conflicting goals presented by Edward and Helen.
What was nice was the people at the back of the class (often a quiet area) contributed. There was one woman who was able to bring in her own detailed knowledge of a similar situation here in New Zealand (Morris and James). I hope others in the class will take there cue from her, and bring their 'expert' knowledge to bear when they can.
