CMGT 545 Communication and Global Competition

Image source: http://www.oecd.org/vgn/images/portal/cit_731/0/54/39748906GlobalForum_50_150dpi.jpg

Fall 2008

Professor Janet Fulk Office: 324E ASC; Phone: 213-740-0941 Office hours: M 2-3 PM; W 4-5 and by appointment Email: fulk@usc.edu Course Website: http://blackboard.usc.edu/

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OVERVIEW Researchers and practitioners are directing considerable attention to the changes being wrought within and across industries through globalization and employment of advanced communication systems. This course provides an overview of key concepts of competitive strategy with particular reference to global issues in communication. Pursuing global competitive strategy involves crafting goals, policies and plans that identify how an organization positions itself in its global competitive environment. These policies are under the purview of top management, yet all parts of the organization at all levels have the opportunity contribute to their development. Middle managers can best contribute to this important process from a base that includes a thorough understanding of business policy-making goals and processes. This course reviews a variety of theoretical approaches to crafting, implementing, sustaining, and innovating global competitive strategy. Regardless of theoretical approach, communication and information technologies are instrumental in helping organizations to identify and implement innovations that keep an organization one step ahead of the competition. When carefully envisioned and implemented, programs for innovation through communication and information technologies and processes can be a source of dynamic global competitive advantage. The course is designed to help the middle manager to become an astute observer and analyzer of the role of communication in competition. This outcome requires development of a perspective on communication and competition at the industry level and mastery of analytical skills needed to understand strategic choices. Sources of competitive advantage through communication are everywhere in an organization. All employees can contribute to assisting organizations in employing information and communication process and technologies in the service of obtaining and sustaining competitive advantage through communication. METHOD The course employs cases to illustrate how firms have used communication systems to accomplish these goals, and to highlight issues in the structure and competition of communications and related industries in the global context. Class sessions will include a combination of lecture, film, discussion of reading assignments, discussion of scanning reports and case discussion. This is a graduate seminar. Each of us needs to be prepared to contribute to the discussion in the classroom. READINGS 1. Required Text: Reich, R. (2007). Supercapitalism: The transformation of business, democracy, and everyday life. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 2. Harvard materials online: All of the readings from Harvard Business School Press are available for purchase at special academic prices at HBS Online. These are marked [HBS] on the topic schedule. You will go to the class site at Harvard online and purchase and download readings. Go to http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/relay.jhtml?name=cp&c=c23366 and register.

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Detailed instructions on accessing Harvard materials are posted in the course documents section of the course website. 3. Readings posted to class Blackboard site: The remaining readings are available free of charge via USC librarys electronic resources or directly through the Internet. You can access them through Blackboard.

ASSIGNMENTS AND EVALUATION Scanning reports. Each of you will be asked to be alert to developments in key industries and communication technologies on an everyday basis. You should scan relevant general business periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, Los Angeles Times, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, and industry-specific periodicals such as Variety, Communication News, Advertising Age, etc. in print or online. Each week you should come to class with a summary of a development related to communication and competition that you uncovered in your scanning. You should be prepared to share a brief summary of it with the rest of the class. Discussion Leadership. Each class member will take the role of facilitating class discussion for one of the course reading assignments. The discussion leader will prepare a small number of thoughtful questions to begin the class discussion, and then the leader will actually lead the discussion for a period of between 12 and 16 minutes. Guidelines for preparing for a discussion leader role are available on the course website under assignments. Each student in the class is expected to read all the assigned readings each week and to come prepared to contribute to the discussion, regardless of who is discussion leader. Class participation. Class discussion is a critical part of the effectiveness of this course. This is a seminar course, where we collectively grapple with issues and challenges to communication management today. Each individual is expected to be actively involved in class discussion during each class period. The primary assessment will be the quality of those contributions to the group effort. Good contributions are: o thoughtful o analytical o constructive to the group effort o topically relevant o linked to the readings assigned for that day Poor contributions: o simply restate what someone else has already said o take the discussion on a tangent o refer to issues we have already left behind as the discussion moves forward o do not respect the other participants o show that the individual has not done the assigned readings

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This assessment will be based on overall contributions throughout the semester based on the instructors judgment of overall frequency and quality. If you skip class, dont expect a high participation grade. If you want to know how you are doing on class participation, dont hesitate to ask me. Midterm Case Analyses. You will analyze a Harvard Business School case. Options are listed on the topic schedule. Your analysis will be presented to the class as a whole in an oral presentation supplemented by a written briefing of no more than 20 double spaced pages (excluding title, references, appendices) . You will complete the project in teams. Final Case Analysis. You will prepare a Harvard Business School case. Options are listed on the topic schedule. Your analysis will be presented to the class as a whole in an oral presentation supplemented by a written briefing of no more than 20 double spaced pages (excluding title, references, appendices) . You will complete the project in teams. Details on the midterm and final case assignments are available on the course website. The relative weights of the components are: Scanning reports 12.5% Discussion leadership 15% Class participation 12.5% Midterm case 30% Final case analysis 30% Submitting Written Report through Turnitin USC is committed to the general principles of academic honesty that include and incorporate the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others. All submitted written work for this course will be subject to an originality review as performed by Turnitin technologies (http://www.turnitin.com) to find textual similarities with other Internet content or previously submitted student work. Students of this course retain the copyright of their own original work, and Turnitin is not permitted to use student-submitted work for any other purpose than (a) performing an originality review of the work, and (b) including that work in the database against which it checks other student-submitted work. Turnitin submission is available through the course Blackboard site. For those who wish to precheck your papers prior to submission, you may submit a draft of any written reports to the turnitin site and receive feedback on the originality of the report. You will be permitted overwrite/resubmit a draft that you already submitted as long as it is resubmitted before the due date of the assignment.

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STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY The School of Communication is committed to the highest standards of academic excellence and ethical conduct. It endorses and acts on the SCampus policies and procedures detailed in the section titled: "University Student Conduct Code." See especially Appendix A: "Academic Dishonesty Sanction Guidelines." The policies, procedures, and guidelines will be assiduously upheld. They protect your rights, as well as those of the faculty. It is particularly important that you are aware of and avoid plagiarism, cheating on exams, fabricating data for a project, submitting a paper to more than one professor, or submitting a paper authored by anyone other than yourself. If you have doubts about any of these practices, confer with a faculty member. TOPIC SCHEDULE 8/25: Overview of Course Reich: Introduction: The Paradox 9/1: Labor Day Holiday no class meeting PART 1: CORE CONCEPTS OF GLOBAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGY 9/8: What is strategy? Porter, M. E. (2000) What Is Strategy? (HBR OnPoint Enhanced Edition) HBS 4134 CASE: Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, David B. Yoffie, Sasha Mattu (2005) Intel Corp.: 1968-2003. HBS 703427 Reading available on course website: Merrill-Lynch: How to Read a Financial Report

9/15: Industry Structure Reich: Chapters 1 & 2

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Quick MBA, Porter's Five Forces http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml CASE: David Yoffie. & Michael Slind (2008), Apple, Inc., 2008. HBS 9-708-480

9/22: Competitive Advantage Ghemawat, P. & Rivkin, J. (2006) Creating competitive advantage. HBS 9-798-062 Quick MBA, Competitive Advantage http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/competitive-advantage/ Quick MBA, Porter's Generic Strategies http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/generic.shtml CASE: Yuen-Ying Chan, Y-Y., & Farhoomand, A. (2007). Hong Kong Economic Times Group: Diversification and Differentiation. University of Hong Kong case HKU735 (available through HBS) 9/29: Cost Advantage Reich: Chapter 3 CASE: Farhoomand, A. & Wang, I. (2006). Wal-Mart Stores Everyday Low Prices in China. University of Hong Kong case HKU590 (available through HBS) 10/6: Competitive Dynamics Quick MBA, Game Theory http://www.quickmba.com/econ/micro/gametheory/ Peter J. Coughlan, Debbie Freier, Kaiho Patrick Lee (2002) Competitor Analysis: Anticipating Competitive Actions. HBS 9-701-120 CASE: Ali Farhoomand, Phoebe Ho (2006). Huawei: Cisco's Chinese Challenger. University of Hong Kong Case HKU599 (available through HBS) PART 2: STRATEGIC ECOSYSTEMS 10/13: Network Processes and Effects Thomas R. Eisenmann (2006) Platform-Mediated Networks: Definitions and Core Concepts HBS Note 807049 Thomas R. Eisenmann, Geoffrey Parker, Marshall W. Van Alstyne (2006) Strategies for Two-Sided Markets. Harvard Business Review, October HBS R0610F CASE: Thomas Eisenmann, Justin Wong (2004). Electronic Arts in Online Gaming. HBS 9-804-140

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10/20: Midterm Case Presentations CHOOSE ONE CASE PER TEAM: David B. Yoffie, Travis D. Merrill, Michael Slind (2008) iPod vs. Cell Phone: A Mobile Music Revolution? HBS 707419 David B. Yoffie, Michael Slind (2007) TiVo 2007: DVRs and Beyond. HBS 9-708-401 Hochleitener, M. Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) (2001). Graduate School of Business, Stanford University (available through HBS: SI06). 10/27: Sustainability Premkumar, G., Richardson, V.J. & Zmud, R.W. (2004). Sustaining competitive advantage through a value net: The case of Enterprise rent-a-car. MIS Quarterly Executive 3 (4), 189-199. CASE: Pankaj Ghemawat, Jose Luis Nueno (2006). ZARA: Fast Fashion. HBS 9-703-497

11/3: Outsourcing and Offshoring Tadelis, S. (2007). The innovative organization: Creating value through outsourcing. California Management Review, 50 (1), 261-277. Available through HBS. Knowledge@Wharton (2005). Move Over, India: The Shifting Geography of Offshore Outsourcing Creates New Challengers. Available at: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/articlepdf/1100.pdf? CFID=68667358&CFTOKEN=85114423&jsessionid=a83016ca41962e03b595 Cooper, Mary. (2004). Exporting jobs: Do low-paid foreign workers hurt or help the economy? CQ Researcher Online, 14 (7). Available at: http://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/getpdf.php? file=cqr20040220C.pdf CASE: Yadav, V., Bharadwaj, S. & Saxena, K.B.C. (2006). Tecnovate: Challenges of Business Process Outsourcing. HKU 611 available through HBS.

11/10: Clusters & Complementors; Wall Street Analysts

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Marco Iansiti, Roy Levien (2004) Strategy as Ecology. Harvard Business Review, March. HBS R0403E Bhaskar Chakravorti (2004). The New Rules for Bringing Innovations to Market. Harvard Business Review, March. HBS R0403D Hutton, A. (2001). Four Rules for Taking Your Message to Wall Street. Harvard Business Review, May. HBS R0105J Vron, Luc. The Competitive Advantage of Hollywood Industry. Working Paper, Columbia International Affairs Online. http://www.ciaonet.org.libproxy.usc.edu/wps/vel01/index.html. Enter through USC library online or download from course website

11/17: Government Stakeholders Reich: Chapter 4 Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Libby Cantrill, Patricia Wu (2007) Note on Lobbying. HBS : 9-707-471 CASE: Felix Oberholzer-Gee, Dennis Yao, Libby Cantrill, Patricia Wu (2007) Lobbying for Love? Southwest Airlines and the Wright Amendment HBS 9-707-470 Govindan Parayil (2005). From "Silicon Island" to "Biopolis of Asia": Innovation Policy and Shifting Competitive Strategy in Singapore. California Management Review, February. Available through HBS CMR303. CASE: Lynda M. Applegate, Boon-Siong Neo, John King, Carin-Isabel Knoop (1996) Singapore Unlimited: Building the National Information Infrastructure HBS 196012

11/24: Societal Stakeholders and Social Responsibility Reich: Chapter 5 Michael E. Porter, Mark R. Kramer, Simon Zadek (2007). Redefining Corporate Social Responsibility (HBR Article Collection) HBS 1678 CASE: Maria H. Jaen, Patricia Marquez (2007). Corporate Social Responsibility at CANTV. HBS SKE094

12/1 Final Case Presentations

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CHOOSE ONE PER TEAM: Kerry Herman, Thomas R. Eisenmann (2006). Google, Inc. HBS 9-806-105 Stephen P. Bradley, Masako Egawa, Akiko Kanno, Thomas Eisenmann (2005). NTT DoCoMo, Inc.: Mobile FeliCa HBS 9-805-124 Thomas Eisenmann, Lauren Barley (2007). Atheros Communications. HBS 9-806-093