This course explores strategic leadership and the role of executives at the top of companies. It uses a blended pedagogy including lectures, case studies, discussions and a speech contest. The course objectives are to provide an introduction to strategic leadership, discover emerging issues, and provide inspiration for leadership development. Assessment includes a final exam, class participation and a group work. The course concludes with a conference where students interview a panel of CEOs about their leadership experiences.

1. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MASTER 2 - 2011/2012
STRATEGIC LEADERSHIP
Business Management Track
SEMESTRE 2 – 15 hours
Professors
Valérie Petit, professor of Management
valerie.petit@edhec.edu
Isabelle Mari, professor of strategy
isabelle.mari@edhec.edu
COURSE OVERVIEW
This course explores the nature, the conditions and the practice of power and leadership at the top of
companies
Building on a multidisciplinary perspective which brings together strategic management, leadership
and corporate governance, the course offers a solid introduction to the emerging field of strategic
leadership and opens the black box of the C-suite.
This course builds on a blended pedagogy (lectures, case-studies, research based discussion, self-
assessment, speech contest) and ends up with a special conference with a panel of European CEOs.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Providing a theoretical and practical introduction to strategic leadership and CEO studies
Discovering emerging issues in leadership and strategic leadership
Providing inspiration for future leadership development
LEARNING OUTCOMES
After the course, the participants will be able to:
- Describe the diversity of Leadership styles at the top and its impact on firm strategy,
performance, culture, ethics and management (Lecture 1)
- Understand the patterns and the challenges of Top executive environment (Lecture 2)
- Discover end explore emerging issues in strategic Leadership (Lectures 3 & 4
- Design a suitable governance structure to support strategic leadership (tutorial 1)
- Develop their personal leadership and charisma (tutorial 2 – speech contest)
- Get inspiration from authentic and transformational business Leaders ( cases studies & final
conference)
PREREQUISITES
Compulsory reading
Group work (tutorials 1 & 2)

2. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MASTER 2 - 2011/2012
Important: The participants are supposed to be familiar with the definition of leadership (Bachelor
course, comportements & Organisation) and the corporate governance structures (Master 1 course,
corporate Governance and CSR)
COURSE CONTENT
The course includes 2 plenary sessions (all the Msc students) and 2 tutorials (7 groups of Msc
students). Each tutorial has been designed in order to echo the professional purpose and culture of
each Msc.
The course is structured as follow:
I. Plenary session #1 (6h): four lectures on emerging issues in Strategic Leadership
With Prof. Isabelle Mari and Valérie Petit
Introduction. Do top executives matter ? strategic leadership, a new field of research,
Lecture 1. Changing the tapestry of the C-suite: diversity and global leadership at the top
Lecture 2. Who’s (really) the boss? Beyond shareholder value in corporate governance
Lecture 3. It’s all about them: destructive leaders at the top
Lecture 4. Beyond the corporate savior: Leading change in times of crisis
II. Tutorial # 1 (3h): Creating a strategic corporate governance structure
With Prof. Isabelle Mari
III. Tutorial # 2 (3h): Developing charismatic and transformational leadership
With Prof. Valérie Petit
IV. Plenary session #2 (3h): speech contest and “Meet the CEOs conference”
With Prof. Valérie Petit
TEACHING & LEARNING METHODS
The course will use multiple instructive methods such as:
Lectures
Case Studies
Research presentations
Discussions
Discourses analysis
Speech contest
Self-learning exercises and self-assessment
Conference with a panel of CEOs
ASSESSMENT METHODS
50% Final Exam : short questions and MCQ
15% Active class participation during the tutorials
35% Group work
COMPULSORY READING
Participants are asked to read the papers before attending the session. The final exam will include
questions taken from these articles.
Introduction

3. BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
MASTER 2 - 2011/2012
Finkelstein, S., Hambrick, D.C. & Canella Jr, A.A. 2008. Strategic Leadership. Theory and Research
on Executives, Top Management Teams and Boards, strategic management series, Oxford University
Press: introduction
Lecture 1
Terjesen, S., Sealy, R. & Singh, V. 2009, Women Directors on Corporate Boards: A Review and
Research Agenda, Corporate Governance: An International Review, 17(3): 320–337
Jokinen, T. (2005). Global leadership competencies: a review and discussion, Journal of European
Industrial Training, Vol. 29 No. 3: 199-216.
Lecture 2
Daily, C.M., Dalton, D.R. and Cannella, A.A. Jr (2003). Corporate governance: decades of dialogue
and data, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 371-82.
Lecture 3
Petit, V & Bollaert, H. (2012), Flying too close the sun: Hubris among CEOs and how to prevent it,
Journal of Business Ethics.
Lecture 4
McKinsey, (2009). Women leaders, a competitive edge in and after the crisis
http://www.mckinsey.de/downloads/publikation/women_matter/women_matter_3_brochure.pdf
Tutorial 1
To define
Tutorial 2
Northouse, P.G. (2010). Leadership: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, chapter on
transformational leadership
Antonakis, J., Fenley, M & Liechti, S. (2011).Can charisma be taught? Test of two interventions,
Academy of Management Learning and Education, V 10 (3): 374-397.
Speech contest
Inspired by TedX as well as classical speech contests, the participants will be asked to write a 10’
speech using the charismatic tactics described by Antonakis (2011) and discussed during the tutorial
2. The 5 best teams will be invited to offer their speech on stage during the final conference.
The winner will receive a gift and a bonus.The participants will receive detailed information on this
contest during the first plenary session.
Final Conference
This 2012 year edition will be dedicated to Women in leadership.
A panel of European top executives will be interviewed on stage by a team of 4 EDHEC students. The
invited CEOs will share their experience of the CEO position as well as their practice of leadership.