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It's Not Too Late to Do Something Fun in Class

Updated (Free) Strategy Teaching Tools Website

Please check out the new tools, experiential exercises and videos at:

www.CarpenterStrategyToolbox.com.

You can filter by type of tool (exercise, video, etc.) using the tabs at the top or you can filter by topic in a strategy course (5 forces, RBV, global, etc.) using the categories on the right side. There is also a search function. You should find something useful in no time at all.

Please help make the site more useful:

·       Comment on tools you have used in class (adding tips, etc.)

·       Submit new tools so the resource is always growing

·       Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions

Be sure to check out the most popular post this week – David Kryscynski's Learn Strategy Videos! After that, here are links to a few recently added exercises and resources that you might find especially useful:

·       Exercise: Business Combination Scavenger Hunt. This simple exercise involves asking your students to search for odd business combinations to discuss how and why they occur in a corporate strategy module. There are many to choose from but my favorite is probably the funeral parlor/mini golf business (in Illinois). You can find more materials on experiential exercises by filtering on that topic.

·       AT&T Scenario Planning Success – sort of. In 1993, AT&T released a series of commercials offering their vision for the future. Their predictions were surprisingly on target (ebooks, turn-by-turn GPS directions, iPads, sending documents via mobile devices, video conferencing, electronic tollbooths, on-demand videos). And yet, AT&T was decidedly NOT the company to bring us this future: it was effectively gone within a decade. This will spur a discussion on scenario planning and the organizational barriers to taking advantage of forecasting abilities. You can find more videos by filtering on videos.

·       Dollar General Love Triangle Goes Hostile. Family Dollar stores would like to be sold to Dollar Tree; perhaps so the CEO can keep his job. Dollar General has offered $500M more and has gone directly to shareholders with the hostile offer. This is a great "ripped from the headlines" case complete with a spreadsheet & decision tree. Other cases can be found by filtering on cases.

The FAQ shows you how to download and convert videos so they can be inserted into PowerPoint presentations.

-Russ

__________________________________________________________

Russell Coff, Wisconsin Naming Partners Professor of Strategic Management

bus.wisc.edu/faculty/Russ-Coff | Phone: 608-263-6437 | fax: 608-265-5031

It's Not Too Late to Do Something Fun in Class

Updated (Free) Strategy Teaching Tools Website

Please check out the new tools, experiential exercises and videos at:

www.CarpenterStrategyToolbox.com.

You can filter by type of tool (exercise, video, etc.) using the tabs at the top or you can filter by topic in a strategy course (5 forces, RBV, global, etc.) using the categories on the right side. There is also a search function. You should find something useful in no time at all.

Please help make the site more useful:

·       Comment on tools you have used in class (adding tips, etc.)

·       Submit new tools so the resource is always growing

·       Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions

Be sure to check out the most popular post this week – David Kryscynski's Learn Strategy Videos! After that, here are links to a few recently added exercises and resources that you might find especially useful:

·       Discussing Terrorism in a Strategy Class. When there is a terror event in the news, how might you discuss it in the strategy classroom? This post outlines some questions you might ask (after the Paris attack).

·       Exercise: Dollar Auction – Show me the bubble. Economic bubbles reflect irrational escalation but there is always an element of underlying rationality. This classic exercise, the Dollar Auction, is an ideal vehicle to emphasize how this can come about - even with actors who intend to be rational. You can find more materials on experiential exercises by filtering on that topic.

·       Video: Having your IP Stolen is a Real Beach.  This clip illustrates what happened to Kramer (on Seinfeld) when he approached Calvin Klein with his idea for a new cologne called "beach" hoping to access their resources while gaining a signal of the idea's value. He reveals the idea in an effort to obtain both. While it is funny, it will also kick off a serious discussion on this issue. You can find more videos by filtering on videos.

·       Disney Wields its Princess Power. Mattel just lost to Hasbro on producing Disney princess dolls - a $500M a year business. This brings to an end a 60+ year strategic alliance. A recent Bloomberg article tells the story of what happened and makes a nice start to a mini case. There are many facets to this that might be of interest in the classroom. Bargaining power is probably front and center. Mattel wanted to have their own princess line that they didn't have to pay the substantial licensing fees to Disney. Other cases can be found by filtering on cases.

The FAQ shows you how to download and convert videos so they can be inserted into PowerPoint presentations.

-Russ

__________________________________________________________

Russell Coff, Wisconsin Naming Partners Professor of Strategic Management

bus.wisc.edu/faculty/Russ-Coff | Phone: 608-263-6437 | fax: 608-265-5031

It's Not Too Late to Do Something Fun in Class

Updated (Free) Strategy Teaching Tools Website

Please check out the new tools, experiential exercises and videos at:

www.CarpenterStrategyToolbox.com.

You can filter by type of tool (exercise, video, etc.) using the tabs at the top or you can filter by topic in a strategy course (5 forces, RBV, global, etc.) using the categories on the right side. There is also a search function. You should find something useful in no time at all.

Please help make the site more useful:

·       Comment on tools you have used in class (adding tips, etc.)

·       Submit new tools so the resource is always growing

·       Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions

Be sure to check out the most popular posts this week – including the Alaska Goldmine Exercise and David Kryscynski's strategy video collection! After that, here are links to a few recently added exercises and resources that you might find especially useful:

·       Mini-Case: Will Pokémon Keep GOing? This phenomenon added $7.5B to Nintendo's market value in the first two weeks of July. Then investors realized Nintendo had limited ownership in its partner Niantic that had released the game. How can Nintendo take advantage of the other valuable assets (games) from its consoles in the smartphone gaming market? This is a great live case to start the semester. Other cases can be found by filtering on cases.

·       Exercise: Negotiating Coordination Costs. Don't you envy folks teaching negotiation since students always find the exercises to be fun? Try the MicroTech negotiation to focus on the challenge of cooperation across units (for example to achieve synergies). MicroTech is a negotiation over the terms to transfer a technology between 2 divisions to take advantage of a market opportunity. In the process, about 20-40% of the potential value is typically left on the table. The discussion focuses on how to align objectives and achieve cooperation. Such cooperation is hard to achieve and may be a VRIO resource... You can find more materials on experiential exercises by filtering on that topic.

·       Video: Princess Bride and Iocane Powder.  Most students quickly grasp the concept of game theory–figuring out what your opponent is likely to do helps you decide what you ought to do. As this clip shows, however, failing to understand the real decision choices to be made can lead to deadly, but funny results. You can find more videos by filtering on videos.

·       Research: Archive of PhD Seminar Syllabi. While the toolbox is focused mostly on teaching strategy at the MBA and BBA levels, there is also room to provide some resources for PhD programs as well. Below are some strategy PhD seminar syllabi that may be useful. Check these out and feel free to send recent syllabi to add.

The FAQ shows you how to download and convert videos so they can be inserted into PowerPoint presentations.

It's Not Too Late to Do Something Fun in Class

Updated (Free) Strategy Teaching Tools Website

Please check out the new tools, experiential exercises and videos at:

www.CarpenterStrategyToolbox.com

You can filter by type of tool (exercise, video, etc.) using the tabs at the top or you can filter by topic in a strategy course (5 forces, RBV, global, etc.) using the categories on the right side. There is also a search function. You should find something useful in no time at all.

Please help make the site more useful:

·       Comment on tools you have used in class (adding tips, etc.)

·       Submit new tools so the resource is always growing

·       Let me know if you have any questions or suggestions

§  Be sure to check out the most popular posts this week – including the Paper Fight Exercise and Putting Together the Strategy Puzzle! After that, here are links to a few recently added exercises and resources that you might find especially useful:

·       Live-Case: Amazon Eats Whole Foods. With its $13.7B bid, Amazon agreed to pay a 27% premium over Whole Foods' previous market valuation. The market rewarded Amazon with an increase in its stock price. While some opportunities are apparent, it remains unclear how Whole Foods will be worth 27% more to Amazon (and that's just to break even). This is a great live case to start the semester. Materials include news articles, poll, and a spreadsheet to test scenarios. Other cases can be found by filtering on cases.

·       Exercise: Negotiating Coordination Costs. Don't you envy folks teaching negotiation since students always find the exercises to be fun? Try the MicroTech negotiation to focus on the challenge of cooperation across units (for example to achieve synergies). MicroTech is a negotiation over the terms to transfer a technology between 2 divisions to take advantage of a market opportunity. In the process, about 20-40% of the potential value is typically left on the table. The discussion focuses on how to align objectives and achieve cooperation. Such cooperation is hard to achieve and may be a VRIO resource... You can find more materials on experiential exercises by filtering on that topic.

·       Video: Moving Mountains on a Rugged Landscape.  This is a very short clip showing a huge boulder falling on the road in front of a car. This can be used to introduce the topic of anticipating what might go wrong while implementing a strategy. You can find more videos by filtering on videos.

·       Research: Archive of PhD Seminar Syllabi. While the toolbox is focused mostly on teaching strategy at the MBA and BBA levels, there is also room to provide some resources for PhD programs as well. Below are some strategy PhD seminar syllabi that may be useful. Check these out and feel free to send recent syllabi to add.

The FAQ shows you how to download and convert videos so they can be inserted into PowerPoint presentations.