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COURSE INFORMATION
Course Title: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Code Course Type Regular Semester Theory Practice Lab Credits ECTS
BUS 426 B 2 3 0 0 3 7.5
Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) NA
Main Course Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: Prof.Dr. Osman Nuri Aras oaras@epoka.edu.al , Thursday, 09:00-11:30
Second Course Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: NA
Language: English
Compulsory/Elective: Compulsory
Study program: (the study for which this course is offered) Master of Science in Business Administration
Classroom and Meeting Time: Wednesday, 18:00-20:45
Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours: NA
Code of Ethics: Code of Ethics of EPOKA University
Regulation of EPOKA University "On Student Discipline"
Attendance Requirement: min 75%
Course Description: The goal of this course is to inform and familiarize students with what strategic management means to today’s global world. Often people are unaware of how the strategy-making process affects them. We are all used to going to work and going into companies such as restaurants, stores, and banks, and buying the goods and services we need to satisfy our many needs. However, the actual strategic management activities and processes that are required to make these services available to us commonly go unappreciated. Similarly, we might know that companies exist to make a “profit,” but what is profit, how is it created, and what is profit used for? Moreover, what are the actual strategic management activities involved in the creation of service, and why is it that some companies seem to be more effective and more “profitable” than others? Hence, this course has been structured to address these issues. The goal is to explain in a clear, comprehensive, but concise way why strategic management is important to people, the companies they work for, and the society in which they live. Consequently, to provide the overall “big picture” of what strategic management is, what strategic managers do, and how the strategy-making process affects company performance. The course provides a focused, integrated approach that gives students a solid understanding of the nature, functions, and main building blocks of strategic management. Despite of the schematic view of Strategic Management, the course offers also integrated materials from influential scholars such as Peter Drucker and Henry Mintzberg in order to develop a critical thinking approach on students.
Course Objectives: The objective of this course is twofold, FIRST, it aims to equip students with the latest skills and concepts needed to effectively formulate and efficiently implement a strategic plan that can lead to sustainable competitive advantage for any type of business. It is aimed at providing students with a more practical, skills-oriented strategic management approach. This course is designed to enable students to learn “how to do strategic planning,” rather than simply memorize seminal theories in strategy. Students attending this course will follow an integrative model that appears in every chapter as the “process” unfolds. Students learn how to construct strategic planning matrices and how to implement resulting strategies, such as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and threats (SWOT); The Boston consulting group (BCG); The External Factor Evaluation Matrix (EFE); The Competitive Profile Matrix (CPM); The Internal Factor Evaluation Matrix (IFE); The Strategic Position and Action Evaluation Matrix (SPACE); The Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix (QSPM) etc. Students also learn how to perform strategic-planning analyses, such as earnings-per-share/earnings-before-interest-and-taxes (EPS/EBIT) and corporate valuation... SECOND, through the Group VCL (Virtual Collaborative Learning) Project, it is aimed at offering students a learner-centered approach based on problem-based learning. The VCL project will revolve around a realistic scenario, offering flexibility through synchronous and asynchronous phases. Student groups will collaborate for 2 months using MS Teams as the main technical platform. It is expected that the benefits and potential of VCL include enhanced problem-solving skills, increased student engagement, and the capacity to prepare learners for complex, real-world challenges.
BASIC CONCEPTS OF THE COURSE
1 Strategic Management: The art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions to achieve organizational objectives.
2 Vision and Mission Statements: Essential elements that define an organization’s purpose, guiding its long-term strategic direction.
3 External Assessment (Environmental Scanning): The process of analyzing external factors (economic, social, technological, legal, political, etc.) to identify opportunities and threats.
4 Internal Assessment: Evaluating a firm’s internal strengths and weaknesses across key functional areas such as management, finance, marketing, and operations.
5 Strategy Formulation: The process of generating, analyzing, and selecting the best strategic alternatives for achieving long-term objectives.
6 Strategy Implementation: The execution of chosen strategies, requiring organizational change, resource allocation, and management coordination.
7 Strategy Evaluation and Control: The process of assessing the effectiveness of implemented strategies, making necessary adjustments, and ensuring continuous improvement.
8 Competitive Advantage: A firm’s ability to perform better than its competitors due to unique capabilities, resources, or positioning.
9 Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Sustainability: The importance of ethical decision-making, corporate social responsibility, and sustainable practices in strategic management.
10 Virtual Collaborative Learning (VCL) and Smart Cities: The integration of technology and innovation in urban planning to create sustainable and interconnected cities.
COURSE OUTLINE
Week Topics
1 Course Introduction. Strategic management is the art and science of formulating, implementing, and evaluating cross-functional decisions that enable an organization to achieve its objectives. Syllabus Review. Details about the course content and evaluation. Introducing the Term Project, which is a VCL (Virtual Collaborative Learning) project with the theme “Conceptualising Tirana as a Smart City”. The purpose of this group project is to explore innovative solutions that address current issues and help transform the city of Tirana into a an efficient, sustainable, and interconnected ‘smart city’. It is aimed to engage students in a comprehensive exploration of Smart City concepts, collaborate virtually across borders, and present tangible and sustainable solutions to real-world challenges.
2 Chapter 1_The Nature of Strategic Management & Chapter 2_The Business Vision and Mission (p4 &p39) In strategic management, nine key terms are defined such as competitive advantage, strategists, vision and mission statements, external opportunities and threats, internal strengths and weaknesses, long term objectives, strategies, annual objectives and policies. Strategic management allows an organization to be more proactive than reactive in shaping its own future, it allows an organization to initiate and influence activities. All firms have a strategy, even if it is informal, unstructured, and sporadic. Every organization has a unique purpose and reason for being, which is reflected in vision and mission statements. The nature of a business company mission or vision can represent either a competitive advantage or disadvantage for the firm. Well designed vision and mission statements are essential for formulating, implementing and evaluating strategy.
3 Chapter 3_The External Assessment. (p59). This chapter examines the tools and concepts needed to conduct an external strategic management audit, called environmental scanning or industry analysis. The purpose of an external audit is to develop a finite list of opportunities that could benefit a firm as well as threats that should be avoided. This chapter provides a framework for collecting and evaluating economic, social, cultural, demographic, environmental, political, governmental. Legal, technological and competitive information. A major responsibility of strategists is to ensure development of an effective external audit system. The external audit approach described in this chapter can be used effectively by any size or type of organization.
4 Chapter 4_The Internal Assessment. (p89). This chapter focuses on identifying and evaluating a firm’s strengths and weaknesses in the functional areas of business, including management, marketing, finance. Accounting, production, operations research, management information systems. Also, strategic implications of important functional area concepts are explained. In addition, this chapter describes the process of performing an internal audit. A strategic management audit of a firm’s internal operations is vital to organizational health. Many companies still prefer to be judged solely on their bottom line performance, while it is essential that strategists identify and evaluate internal strengths and weaknesses to effectively formulate and choose among alternative strategies.
5 Hands-on Practcie and Feedback Session about the VCL Group Project. Focus on project outline, timeline, group formation, technical platform to be used, project roles, project evaluation etc.
6 Chapter 5_Strategies in Action. (p129). In this chapter characteristics of objectives and benefits of having clear objectives are identified and discussed. Through involvement in strategic management activities, managers and employees achieve a better understanding of an organization’s priorities and operations. Long term objectives represent the results expected from pursuing certain strategies, which represent the actions to be taken to accomplish long term objectives. Objectives should be quantitative, measurable, realistic, understandable, challenging and obtainable. Diversification strategies are discussed in this chapter, which are related to the two general types, related diversification and unrelated diversification. In addition to integrative, intensive and diversification strategies, organizations also could pursue defensive strategies such as retrenchment, divestiture or liquidation.
7 Chapter 6_Strategy Analysis and Choice. (p167). In this chapter strategy analysis and choice process are described. Strategy analysis and choice largely involve making subjective decisions based on objective information. This chapter introduces important concepts that can help strategists generate feasible alternatives, evaluate those alternatives, and choose a specific course of action. Behavioral aspects of strategy formulation are featured, including culture, politics, ethics and social responsibility considerations. Modern tools for formulating strategies are described, and the appropriate role of a board of directors is discussed. The important strategy formulation technique, which can be integrated into a three stage decision making framework, is also discussed. The essence of strategy formulation is an assessment of whether an organization is doing the right things and how it can be more effective in what it does. Objectives and strategies should be consciously developed and coordinated and should not merely evolve out of day to day operating decisions.
8 Chapter 7_Implementing Strategies: Management, Operations, and Human Resource Issues. (p205). Implementing strategy affects an organization from top to bottom, including all the functional and divisional areas of a business. This chapter focuses on management, operations and human resource issues most critical for successful strategy implementation. The reasons why annual objectives are essential for effective strategy implementation are discussed, why policies are essential for effective strategy implementation as well. We discuss the need to match a firm’s structure with its strategy, we identify, diagram, and discuss types of organizational structure. In a single word, strategy implementation means change, and it is widely agreed that the real work begins after strategies are formulated. Successful strategy implementation requires support of, as well as discipline and hard work, from motivated managers and employees.
9 Practical Session. Hands-on Feedback about the VCL Group Project. Students present their Tasks completed so far.
10 Practical Session. Hands-on Feedback about the VCL Group Project. Students present their Tasks completed so far.
11 Chapter 9_Strategy Review, Evaluation, and Control (p279) This chapter presents a framework that can guide managers’ efforts to evaluate strategic management activities, to make sure they are working, and to make timely changes. Guidelines are presented for formulating, implementing, and evaluating strategies. We discuss the strategy evaluation process, criteria, and methods used. We identify and describe characteristics of an effective strategy evaluation process. We also explain the role of auditing in strategy evaluation. Effective strategy evaluation allows an organization to capitalize on internal strengths as they develop, to exploit external opportunities as they emerge, to recognize and defend against threats, and to mitigate internal weaknesses before they become detrimental.
12 Chapter 10_Business Ethics, Social Responsibility, and Environmental Sustainability (p305) Business ethics can be defined as principles of conduct within organizations that guide decision making and behavior. In this chapter, we explain why good ethics is good business in strategic management. We explain why whistle blowing, bribery, and workplace romance are strategic issues. In this chapter is also discussed why social responsibility and policy are key issues in strategic planning. Business ethics, social responsibility and environmental sustainability are interrelated and key strategic issues facing all organizations.
13 Practical Session. Hands-on Feedback about the VCL Group Project. Students present their Tasks completed so far.
14 Final VCL Project Pitches
Prerequisite(s):
Textbook(s): David, Fred & David, Forester (2020). Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases - A Competitive Advantage Approach. 16th ed. Pearson Education Inc. ISBN 978-0134167909
Additional Literature: Course Files, Case Studies
Laboratory Work: NA
Computer Usage: MS Teams for Course Materials and for the VCL Group Project
Others: No
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
1 Actively think about and engage in strategic management issues and decision making
2 Understanding the relation between mission, strategy, structure, and performance
3 Apply strategic analysis skills to identify key stakeholders, potential risks, and innovative solutions to address complex challenges.
4 Learn to navigate on change and complexity while building resources, capabilities, and competencies
5 Enhance teamworking skills by working in mixed teams in a virtual collaboration environment using platforms like MS Teams.
6 Foster communication, intercultural and social competencies by working in mixed teams with peers from different academic and cultural backgrounds.
7 Develop digital readiness and digital collaboration skills
8 Develop project management skills by creating a comprehensive project plan with tasks, milestones, and deadlines.
COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES
(Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution)
No Program Competencies Cont.
Master of Science in Business Administration Program
1 Integrate theories from business and economics to tackle business problem 5
2 Inspire an open minded-attitude through continuous learning and team-work. 5
3 Demonstrate ethical, social, and legal responsibilities in organizations 5
4 Organize and pursue scientific research projects 5
5 Enhance persuasive communication and presentation capabilities. 4
6 Critically evaluate contemporary research in specific business areas. 5
COURSE EVALUATION METHOD
Method Quantity Percentage
Project
1
50
Final Exam
1
40
Other
1
10
Total Percent: 100%
ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)
Activities Quantity Duration(Hours) Total Workload(Hours)
Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours) 16 3 48
Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice) 16 5 80
Mid-terms 0
Assignments 3 5 15
Final examination 1 20 20
Other 1 24.5 24.5
Total Work Load:
187.5
Total Work Load/25(h):
7.5
ECTS Credit of the Course:
7.5
CONCLUDING REMARKS BY THE COURSE LECTURER

This course provides a comprehensive exploration of strategic management, equipping students with the essential knowledge and tools to analyze, formulate, implement, and evaluate business strategies effectively. Through theoretical insights, case studies, and the project, students will develop critical thinking skills and a practical understanding of how strategic decisions shape organizational success. By the end of the course, students will be able to assess internal and external business environments, create actionable strategies, and address contemporary challenges in an ethical and socially responsible manner. Success in this course will not only enhance students' strategic decision-making abilities but also prepare them for leadership roles in an increasingly dynamic and interconnected world.
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