Course 2024-2025

Strategic management [EFASM059]

  • 5 credits
  • 30h
  • 2nd quarter
Language of instruction: French / Français

Learning outcomes

By the end of this course, the student should be able to: • Define the practice of "strategic management", its actors, its key elements • Define the strategic management process, its different stages, its objectives, and the difficulties associated with this activity • Provide conceptual and/or technical solutions to strategic management issues in an organisation • To approach the management problem with a critical view: to understand which strategic management tools are the most suitable, to target the strengths and weaknesses of the different theories studied in the lecture • Adopt a human perspective on the strategic management process and assimilate the basic concepts of ethical and responsible management • Develop a sufficient level of English (the course slides are in English, and the report is in French) The final report must be written in English. The course, however, is given in French).

Objectives

Students will receive theoretical courses and a portfolio of readings aimed at familiarising them with different historical strategic models (SWOT, BCG, Porter, Ansoff, McKinsey...); methodological tools for diagnosis, analysis, choice and strategic deployment; the role of strategic consultant and manager; good communication and relationship practices in a negotiation framework; case studies relating to the history of strategic management.); methodological tools for diagnosis, analysis, choice and strategic deployment; the role of the consultant and strategic manager; good communication and relational practices in a negotiation framework; case studies relating strategic successes or failures and the foundations of these; the concepts of culture, identity and organisational image; the notion of leadership (principles of psychodynamics of leadership); the notions of bounded rationality, enaction and sensemaking...

Content

• Part I - The Foundations of the Strategy

• Part II - Diagnosis of the company and its environment

• Part III - Strategic Formulation

• Part IV - Prioritisation and Strategic Implementation


Teaching methods

The course is structured around two types of sessions: • Classic "ex-cathedra" sessions in which key strategic management concepts are presented and practical cases are discussed; • More practical sessions, with the teacher, in which students are central to the teaching and are invited to participate proactively. These sessions are also an opportunity for students to share their observations, to make progress on their group work or to ask t h e teacher questions for further study.

Evaluations

The grade is based 100% on group work. In the first part of the assignment (90%), students are asked to develop a comprehensive strategic analysis of a company, from strategic diagnosis and problem statement to the proposal of a new/revised strategy. Students are also asked to reflect on the implementation of the strategy, its overall feasibility and its relevance to the strategic environment. In the second part (10%), students are invited to review the work of another group to develop a critical view of their own document and learn about the work of others. Students are asked to assess the relevance of the proposals, identify the strengths and weaknesses of the work, the quality of the models used by the other groups, etc. All documents produced as part of the assignment are written in English.

Language of instruction

French / Français

Location for course

NAMUR

Organizer

Faculté des sciences économiques, sociales et de gestion
Rue de Bruxelles, 61
5000 NAMUR

Degree of Reference

Master's Degree