HARVARD UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

George F. Baker Foundation

COMPETITION AND STRATEGY

Summer 1999

COURSE OUTLINE AND ADMINISTRATION

Professor Kenneth S. CortsProfessor Michael E. Porter

Professor Jan W. Rivkin

COURSE OUTLINE

Module / sub-module Date Class ReadingPrior toMay 10

§ Corts, Porter, and Rivkin, “Introduction toCompetition and Strategy”§ Porter, “What Is Strategy?” (Reprint 96608)§ Begin to read: Corts and Rivkin, “A Note on

Microeconomics for Strategists” (N9-799-128)

May 10 § Intel Corp: 1968-1997 (9-797-137)

From Functions to Strategy

May 11 § Intel Corp: 1968-1997 (9-797-137), continued§ Course introduction

§ Porter, “How Competitive Forces Shape Strategy”(Reprint 79208)

May 12 § The Offshore Drilling Industry in 1998 (N9-799-111) § Complete by now: Corts and Rivkin, “A Note onMicroeconomics for Strategists” (N9-799-128)through Section III

May 13 § The Aluminum Industry in 1994 (N9-799-129)§ Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf’s Hillside

Project (N9-799-130)

§ Complete by now: Corts and Rivkin, “A Note onMicroeconomics for Strategists” (N9-799-128)

May 17 § A Hundred-Year War: Coke vs. Pepsi, 1890s-1990s(N9-799-117)

May 19 § CF Motorfreight in 1992 (9-793-100)

IndustryStructure

May 21 § R&B Falcon (N9-799-110) § Begin to read: Ghemawat and Rivkin, “CreatingCompetitive Advantage” (N9-798-062)

May 24 § Husky Injection Molding Systems (N9-399-137)

May 25 § Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (9-794-024) § Complete by now: Ghemawat and Rivkin, “CreatingCompetitive Advantage” (9-798-062)

May 26 § Nucor at a Crossroads (9-793-039)

June 1 § Airborne Express (A) (N9-798-070)

CompetitiveAdvantage

June 2 § Airborne Express (A) (N9-798-070), continued§ Module summary

§ Porter, “A Framework for Competitor Analysis” inCompetitive Strategy: Techniques for AnalyzingIndustries and Competitors, New York: The FreePress (1980).

June 10 § Bitter Competition: The Holland Sweetener Co. vs.NutraSweet (A) (9-794-079)

FoundationsofCompetitiveStrategy

CompetitiveDynamics

June 11 § Progressive Corporation (9-797-109)

June 14 § Matching Dell (N9-399-139)

June 15 § Matching Dell (N9-399-139), continued § Ghemawat, Strategy and the Business Landscape,Reading: Addison-Wesley (1999), pp. 84-105.

June 21 § Eckerd Drugs (N9-799-141)

June 23 § Eckerd Drugs (N9-799-141), continued§ Module summary

§ Begin to read excerpt from Porter, “Competing AcrossLocations: Enhancing Competitive Advantagethrough a Global Strategy” in On Competition,Boston: Harvard Business School Press (1998).

June 24 § Novo Industri (9-389-148)

June 29 § The California Wine Cluster (N9-799-124) § Complete by now: Porter, “Competing AcrossLocations”

July 1 § Robert Mondavi: Competitive Strategy (N9-799-125)

July 2 § CFM International, Inc. (9-792-097)

Competitionand Location

July 7 § Module summary § Porter, “From Competitive Advantage to CorporateStrategy” (Reprint 87307)§ Collis and Montgomery, “Creating Corporate

Advantage” (Reprint 98303)

July 9 § The Walt Disney Company (A): Corporate Strategy(1-388-147)

July 12 § Cooper Industries’ Corporate Strategy (A) (9-391-095)

July 14 § Vivendi: Revitalizing a French Conglomerate (N9-799-019)

Corporate Strategy

July 15 § EnClean: Malcolm Waddell’s Story (A) (9-794-115)

July 19 § Yahoo!: Business on Internet Time (N9-399-138)

July 21 § Leadership Online: Barnes & Noble vs. Amazon.com(9-798-063)

July 26 § Retail Financial Services in the Late 1990s (N9-799-127)

Industry Transformation

July 27 § Edward Jones (N9-799-126)

Conclusion July 30 § Course Wrap-up

Final Exam August 3

ADMINISTRATIVE NOTES

Assignments

Assignments for class will be posted on the Course Platform and updated there.Assignments for each week will be finalized by the preceding Thursday at 5 PM. We will try tonotify you during class of any late changes to the assignments, but the Course Platform is thedefinitive source of information. Please check it regularly.

We will use pre-class polls for some cases. The polls are important, and completing thepolls will be treated as part of your class participation.

Grading

Class participation will account for 50% of your grade. At the beginning of the term,each instructor will discuss how he evaluates participation. We expect you to attend all classesand be actively engaged in the discussion. In the case of excused absences from class (see theguidelines provided by the MBA Program Office), please notify your C&S instructor in advance,if at all possible.

A final exam, based on a case, will account for the remaining 50% of your grade. Weencourage you to prepare for the final exam by writing up your analyses of selected cases duringthe course. The cases on Nucor, Airborne Express, Eckerd, and Edward Jones would beappropriate cases to use as practice for the final exam. For each of these cases, one of theinstructors will hold a lunchtime session to discuss what a good exam might include.

Our goal is that each and every member of the January cohort master the core conceptsof C&S. Accordingly, we will hold a number of lunchtime, course-wide sessions during the termto reinforce concepts that might be new and puzzling to some students (e.g., microeconomics,quantitative analyses in C&S). These sessions, which are purely optional, will be scheduled laterin the term.

Visitors

The CEO’s of several of the case companies will visit class during the term and sharetheir perspectives on the discussion. To accommodate their busy calendars, we will occasionallyhave to configure the class schedule in odd ways. Please watch the Course Platform for details.

The Use of Data Outside the Case

A strategy case usually addresses a defining moment in a company’s life. Consequently,you may know what choices the company made and how the company fared afterwards.However, we are interested in the concepts and analyses that should have informed thosechoices, not the choices themselves. Also, many companies have made poor strategic decisions.It is expected that you work purely from the data in the case and not be blinded by whattranspired after the close of the case. It is particularly important that outside information not beintroduced into class discussion because it could undermine the learning of others.

If you are particularly familiar with a company or industry and would like to comment onthe case from that perspective, please let your instructor know this before class.