This course syllabus outlines a corporate strategic planning course taught over 18 weeks. The course will cover topics including analyzing the external environment, formulating business and corporate level strategies, implementing strategies, and strategic control. Students will be assessed based on attendance, discipline, assignments, midterm exam, and final exam. Required reading includes textbooks on strategic management and assigned chapters will be supplemented with additional materials. The course is designed to help students integrate knowledge of strategic management and move firms toward achieving objectives.

1. Kingdom of Cambodia
Nation Religion King

Royal University of Law and Economics
Course Syllabus
Course Title: Corporate Strategic Planning
Lecturer: PHEA Vanna, Ph.D in economics, Member of ECOSOCC at COM
Semester: .....................................................................................................................................
1. Course Description
Corporate Strategic Planning consists of the Analysis (Environment: I&E) ,
Decisions ( what we compete in? & how we compete in those industries? ) and the last are
the Actions an organization undertakes in order to create and sustain competitive advantages
(that result in the Formulation & Implementation of plans designed to achieved a company’s
objectives).
2. Course General Objectives and Expected Learning Outcomes
Integrating the diverse knowledge required in business involves developing a clear
sense of the firm's strategic direction and making decisions designed to move the firm toward
achieving its objectives.
3. Course Outline
This course consists of 45 teaching hours which is divided into 18 weeks. Each week
consists of 2.5 hours. The following table is the teaching plan of this course.
1

2. Course topics and Learning Objectives
Week
D
a
t
e
Course topics Learning Objectives
1
Course introduction, Fundamentals of
Corporate strategic planning: Creating
competitive advantage; Reading: Chapter
One.
• the definition of corporate strategic
planning and its four key attributes
• the corporate strategic planning process
and its three interrelated and principal
activities
• why stakeholder management is so critical
in the corporate strategic planning process
and how “symbiosis” can be achieved
among an organization’s stakeholders
1
Fundamentals of Corporate strategic
Planning: analysis, formulation,
implementation.
Reading: Chapter One.
• the key environmental forces that are
creating more unpredictable change and
requiring greater empowerment throughout
the organization
• how an awareness of a hierarchy of
corporate strategic goals can help an
organization to achieve coherence in its
strategic direction
2
The General Environment; Reading:
Chapter Two pp. 36-52
• The importance of developing forecasts of
the business environment.
• Why environmental scanning, monitoring,
and collecting competitive intelligence are
critical inputs to forecasting.
• Why scenario planning is a useful
technique for firms competing in industries
characterized by unpredictability and
change.
• The impact of the general environment on
a firm’s strategies and performance.
2
The Competitive Environment: Porter's
Five Forces
Reading: Chapter Two pp. 52-68
• How forces in the competitive environment
can affect profitability.
• How a firm can improve its competitive
position by increasing its power vis-à-vis
forces in the competitive environment.
2
Review of external environment
Reading:
Case 35 UPS & FedEx pp. C321-C342
• How trends and events in the general
environment and forces in the competitive
environment are interrelated and affect
performance.
• The concept of strategic groups and their
strategy and performance implications.
3 Firm internal analysis: the value chain
Chapter Three pp. 74-88
• The benefits and limitations of SWOT
analysis in conducting (вести) an internal
analysis of the firm.
• The primary and support activities of a
firm's value chain.
• How value-chain analysis can help
managers create value by investigating
relationships among activities within the
2

3. firm and among the firm and its
customers and suppliers.
4
Firm internal analysis: the value chain.
Chapter Three pp. 74-88
Firm internal analysis: the resource-based
view of the firm
Reading: Chapter Three pp. 88-95
Evaluating firm performance (pp. 97-
104)
Review of strategic analysis
• The different types of tangible and
intangible resources, as well as
organizational capabilities.
• The four criteria that a firm's resources
must possess to maintain a sustainable
advantage.
• The usefulness of financial ratio analysis
as well as its inherent limitations.
• How to make meaningful comparisons of
performance across firms.
• The value of recognizing how the interests
of a variety of stakeholders can be
interrelated.
5 Test One over chapters 1-3
6
Business level strategy
Reading: Chapter 5 pp. 154-168
• The central role of competitive advantage
in the study of strategic management
• The three generic strategies—overall cost
leadership, differentiation, and focus
• How the successful attainment of generic
strategies can improve a firm’s relative
power vis á vis the five forces that
determine an industry’s average
profitability
7
Business level strategy
Reading:
Chapter 5 pp. 176-185
• The pitfalls managers must avoid in
striving to attain generic strategies
• How firms can effectively combine the
generic strategies of overall cost leadership
and differentiation
• The importance of considering the industry
life cycle to determine a firm’s business-
level strategy and its relative emphasis on
functional area strategies and value
creating activities
8
Corporate level strategy
Related diversification
Reading: Chapter 6 pp. 190-204
• How managers can create value through
diversification initiatives
• The reasons for the failure of many
diversification efforts
• How corporations can use related
diversification to achieve synergistic
benefits through economies of scope and
market power
9
Corporate level strategy
Unrelated diversification
Reading: Chapter 6 pp. 204-221
• How corporations can use unrelated
diversification to attain synergistic
benefits through corporate restructuring,
parenting, and portfolio analysis
• The various means of engaging in
diversification_ mergers and acquisitions,
joint ventures/strategic alliances, and
internal development
• Managerial behaviors that can erode the
creation of value
10 International strategy: Competing in
global markets
• The sources of national advantage, that is,
why an industry in a given country is more
(or less) successful than the same industry
3

4. Reading: Chapter 7 pp. 242-257
Review of strategy formulation
Quiz answers
in another country
• The two opposing forces—cost reduction
and adaptation to local markets—that
firms face when entering international
markets
• The advantages and disadvantages
associated with each of the three basic
international strategies—global,
multidomestic, and transnational
• The four basic types of entry strategies and
their relative benefits and risks that are
associated with each of them
11 Test Two over chapters 5-7
12
Strategic control
Reading: Chapter 9 pp. 302-316
• The value of effective strategic control
systems in strategy implementation
• The key difference between “traditional”
and “contemporary” control systems
• The imperative for “contemporary” control
systems in today’s complex and rapidly
changing competitive and general
environments
13
Corporate governance
Reading: Chapter 9 pp. 316-332
• The benefits of having the proper balance
among the three levers of behavioral
control—culture, rewards and
incentives/boundaries
• How a strong and positive culture and
reward system can lessen the need for
boundaries
• Why there is no “one best way” to design
strategic control systems and the important
contingent roles of business- and
corporate-level strategies
14
Basic forms of organization
Reading: Chapter 10 pp. 338-354
• The importance of organizational structure
and the concept of the “boundary-less”
organization in implementing strategies
• The growth patterns of major corporations
and the relationship between a firm’s
strategy and its structure
• Each of the traditional types of
organizational structure—simple,
functional, divisional, and matrix
15
Achieving organizational fit with strategy
Reading: Chapter 10 pp. 354-357
Review of strategy implementation
Quiz over organizational structure
• The relative advantages and disadvantages
of traditional organizational structures
• The implications of a firm’s international
operations for organizational structure
• The different types of boundary-less
organizations—barrier-free, modular, and
virtual—and their relative advantages and
disadvantages
16 Consultation
17 Consultation
18 State Exam
4

5. 4. Assessment
No. Description Score (%)
1 Attendance 10
2 Discipline 10
3 Assignment 15
4 Midterm 25
5 State exam 40
Total 100
5. Reading Materials*
1. Gregory G.Dess, G.T. Lumpkin and Alan B. Eisner.Straegic Management: Creating
Competitve Advantages,4th Edition, McGraw-Hill International
Edition,2008,2007,2005 and 2003.
2. John A. Pearce, Richard B. Robinson. Formulation, Implementation, and Control of
Competitive Strategy,10th Edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition,2007.
3. Thomas L.Wheelen, J. David Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy,
10th Edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition,2006.
4. Fred R.David. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases,8th Edition,Printic
Hall,2003.
5. Other text books of Management or websites are recommended to read(e.g.,
http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/strategic-planning/)
*All students are expected to read the assigned chapters in the text or any material
before class. The class schedule and a list of the assigned readings follow the grading policy.
As the semester progresses, I will supplement more handouts that are to be read prior to every
class or discussion. If you miss class some interesting things may also slip away. Students
also have to read and research for their homework or assignments. Plan yourself and time
carefully from the very beginning of the course before you countering read shocks or
frightening.
5

6. 4. Assessment
No. Description Score (%)
1 Attendance 10
2 Discipline 10
3 Assignment 15
4 Midterm 25
5 State exam 40
Total 100
5. Reading Materials*
1. Gregory G.Dess, G.T. Lumpkin and Alan B. Eisner.Straegic Management: Creating
Competitve Advantages,4th Edition, McGraw-Hill International
Edition,2008,2007,2005 and 2003.
2. John A. Pearce, Richard B. Robinson. Formulation, Implementation, and Control of
Competitive Strategy,10th Edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition,2007.
3. Thomas L.Wheelen, J. David Hunger. Strategic Management and Business Policy,
10th Edition, McGraw-Hill International Edition,2006.
4. Fred R.David. Strategic Management: Concepts and Cases,8th Edition,Printic
Hall,2003.
5. Other text books of Management or websites are recommended to read(e.g.,
http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/strategic-planning/)
*All students are expected to read the assigned chapters in the text or any material
before class. The class schedule and a list of the assigned readings follow the grading policy.
As the semester progresses, I will supplement more handouts that are to be read prior to every
class or discussion. If you miss class some interesting things may also slip away. Students
also have to read and research for their homework or assignments. Plan yourself and time
carefully from the very beginning of the course before you countering read shocks or
frightening.
5