From Fundamentals to Strategy Leadership

Objectives

This module is designed to focus the students in bridging from a systemic perspective, the role of a leader within the overall strategic development of the organization. It will cover Strategizing methodologies for structuring and disseminating strategic thinking within organizations and the challenges to implement the strategic of the organization. It covers the following fundamental areas: foundations of strategic thinking and, methodologies of strategizing (“Strategic Intent-based Planning”), with a special focus on overcoming the barriers to change management under uncertainty. The learning outcomes are:
•The ability to Interpret the business environment and its impact in the creation and evaluation of strategic options.
•The ability to interpret internal conditions of each organization and its impact in the creation and evaluation of strategic options.
•The ability to implement a model of strategic execution based on addressing the barriers of inertia to change management.

General characterization

Code

14240

Credits

5

Responsible teacher

Miguel Pina e Cunha

Hours

Weekly - Available soon

Total - Available soon

Teaching language

Portuguese | English

Prerequisites

Available soon

Bibliography

• “Thinking in New Boxes, a New Paradigm for Business Creativity” by Brabandere, Luc and Alan Iny, Random House 2013 (1st edition).
• “Creating Competitive Advantage” by Pankaj Ghemawat and Jan Rivkin, HBS 9-798-062, Rv Feb, 25th 2006
• “The Science of Organizational Change: How Leaders Set Strategy, Change Behavior, and Create an Agile Culture (Leading Change in the Digital Age)”, Gibbons, Paul, Phronesis Media, 2019
• “The Halo Effect”, Rosenzweig, Phil, Free Press, 2007

Teaching method

The course will be a mix of theory, case studies/exercises and real-life situations’ discussion. A “Hands-on/Board Decision Making” approach to the subject will be used as a basis of class participation. Likewise, the course will count heavily on the students’ active participation, both in class and in its preparation.

Evaluation method

The assessment of this CU is done together with the block of CUs of the same area of knowledge. This assessment has 3 moments, which together define the final grade of the CU:
•Individual exam with a weighting of 50% of the total mark
•Group work with a weighting of 35% of the total grade value
•Individual reflection-action exercise carried out at the end of the curricular unit, with a weighting of 15% of the total grade value. The set of individual action-reflection exercises is a journaling activity, which will constitute, at the end, a learning portfolio capable of synthesising the contributions of the Executive Master for that student.

Subject matter

The main topics covered in the course are:
1) Revisiting the foundations of Strategic Thinking.
2) Strategizing methodologies for options generation and selection.
3) Linking leadership and change management through a model of strategic implementation.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: