In the high-stakes game of today's global marketplace, business leaders must successfully navigate a constantly changing and complex environment to ensure that their organization is winning. How do you recognize the unique challenges and opportunities your organization faces and craft strategies to effectively leverage your corporation's competencies? How do you instill your organization with the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit needed to continuously evolve and sustain competitive advantage? This program will enable you to resolve the challenges you face each day and ultimately finish the game with the winning hand.
Thomas M. Siebel Professor of Business Leadership, Strategy, and Organizations; Senior Fellow, Woods Institute for the Environment at Stanford; Codirector of the Executive Program in Strategy and Organization; Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy; BP Faculty Fellow in Global Management for 2011-2012
William Barnett studies competition among organizations and how organizations and industries evolve over time. He has studied how strategic differences and strategic change among organizations affect their growth, performance, and survival. This research includes empirical studies of technical, regulatory, and ideological changes among organizations, and how these changes affect competitiveness over time and across markets. His studies span a range of industries and contexts, including organizations in computers, telecommunications, research and development, software, semiconductors, disk drives, newspaper publishing, beer brewing, banking, and concerning the environment.
John H. Scully Professor of Economics, Strategic Management, and International Business; Professor of Economics (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences; Faculty Director of the Global Management Program; Codirector of the Executive Program in Strategy and Organization
John Roberts' teaching and research involve the application of economic and strategic (game-theoretic) analysis to management problems. His specific areas of current interest involve international business, the organization of the firm, and the connection between strategy and organization. He also has published extensively on industrial competition, emphasizing how informational differences among various parties affect strategic behavior, and on complementarities as a driving force in organizational design and strategic choice. As well, he has helped develop new techniques for deriving robust conclusions from economic models.
Associate Professor of Political Economy
Laurence W. Lane Professor of Organizations; Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences; Codirector of the Stanford- National University of Singapore Executive Program in International Management
Professor of Economics
Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior; John S. Osterweis Faculty Fellow for 2011-2012
Atholl McBean Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources; Director of the Managing Talent for Strategic Advantage Executive Program; Codirector of the Customer- Focused Innovation Executive Program
Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy; Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, Hoover Institution; Professor of Political Science, School of Humanities and Sciences; Denning Director of the Center for Global Business and the Economy
David and Ann Barlow Professor of Political Economy; Professor of Political Science (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences
Robert A. and Elizabeth R. Jeffe Professor; Professor of Organizational Behavior; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences; Director of the Center for Social Innovation; Codirector of the Executive Leadership Development Program; Susan Ford Dorsey Faculty Fellow for 2011-2012
Morgridge Professor of Organizational Behavior; Professor of Sociology (by courtesy), School of Humanities and Sciences; James and Doris McNamara Faculty Fellow for 2011-2012
Jagdeep and Roshni Singh Professor of Operations, Information and Technology; Codirector of the Stanford-National University of Singapore Executive Program in International Management
Leadership in Crisis Management – NEW!
What should management do when a crisis focuses the harsh spotlight of public opinion on their organization? Whether it results from a firm's own missteps (think BP) or from strategic activism or media action (think Greenpeace), crisis is increasingly on the agenda for today's executives. In this session we will explore the skills and organizational structures required to prepare for, and productively manage, a crisis to avoid bringing lasting damage to a firm's reputation.
Discovering Successful Business Models – NEW!
While successful business models are often discussed and examined for their value as a preplanned approach to business, the fact is that most successful business models are actually discovered as the result of an iterative process conducted over time. We will review the three essential ways in which successful business models are discovered: through exploration into new possibilities, through improved exploitation of what we already know, and by harnessing competition as a source of continued innovation.
Decision Power and Ownership: Organizing Activities Inside and Outside the Firm – NEW!
We will study the economic principles governing optimal allocation of decision power within a firm as well as outsourcing activities and vertical integration issues. We will discuss a variety of ways in which incentives, monitoring, and asymmetric information interact and which organization method is optimal for each setting.
Pizza Hut: Franchising, Misalignment, and Long-Term Relationships – NEW!
We will use a franchising case to analyze a situation combining aspects of organization, strategy, and game theory. We begin by applying the insights from the previous session to the franchising organization method. We then study the misalignment between the various types of franchisees and the franchisor and the impact of this multi-party disagreement on information revelation. We will see how the structure of the long-term relationship between the parties determines the control over the major strategic decisions that the franchise faces.
Industry and Competitor Analysis
One of the most important determinants of firm performance is the attractiveness of the industry in which it competes. This session will provide practical tools for conducting an industry analysis and for evaluating a firm's position in its industry.
Innovation and Competition
To sustain a competitive advantage, many of today's firms must compete in a global industry marked by rapid technological innovation that continuously changes the competitive landscape. In this session you will learn a framework that will help you identify the organizational challenges that need to be tackled in order to compete effectively in high-velocity industries and the business policies that can improve a firm's performance in these circumstances.
Organizing for Improved Performance
This session will introduce a broad range of themes in organizational design. Four main aspects of organization will be emphasized—people, architecture, routines, and culture—and while some are more easily influenced than others, all four can be shaped by the leaders of the firm.
Managing Organizational Culture
We will introduce a framework for understanding the concept of "organizational culture" that managers can use to diagnose and shape the culture in their own organizations. Relying on exemplary cases from several innovative firms, we will highlight strategies aimed at creating and reinforcing the desired culture as a way to advance the firm's overarching business goals.
Strategy Beyond Markets
For a company to achieve superior overall performance its strategy beyond markets must be integrated with its market strategy. This series of sessions considers firms' strategic interactions with important constituents, organizations, and institutions outside of markets. Topics of discussion will include boycotts, legislation, intellectual property enforcement, all of which substantially impact firms' performance and profitability.
