CM A146 - Market-Based Management*, Q4 *NOT ESTABLISHED*

Faculty
Torsten Ringberg

Course Coordinator
Torsten Ringberg

It is preferable if students have a basic knowledge of theories about consumer behavior and marketing (bachelor level). The course is especially relevant for graduate students who do not have advanced graduate training in marketing strategy but seek to understand the broader application of their academic training (e.g., organizational behavior, finance, accounting, operations management) in the context of strategic decision making. Strategic decisions making includes inputs from both internal (finance, accounting, management, marketing, operation management) and external stakeholders (competitors, consumers, economy, etc.). Finally, the course is particular relevant for students with some applied experience although it is not necessary.

Market-based management is intuitively easy but deceptively difficult to implement within and outside the company. Increasingly, marketers are looking for employees with strategic concepts that enable a more sophisticated understanding of consumer needs and how a company can uniquely satisfy these needs in a competitive market place. The strategic concepts are important as they enable managers to understand different market contexts, yet of limited value if they are not applied in a way that delivers superior customer value and company profit. Both of these foci require measurability, including sophisticated performance metrics which are covered in this course.

The course integrates conceptual areas with methodological tools, and is designed to provide students with deeper insights and an appreciation of marketing management/strategy. Marketing, more broadly defined, is often associated with advertising and other media use. This is referred to marketing tactics. However, this course focuses on strategic marketing. Here, internal and external forces in the market are analyzed to identify unique competitive positioning (i.e., point of differentiation). The ability to proactively manage internal and external forces remains a core function of CEOs. In this course there is a unique opportunity to serve as a co-CEO (in small teams of three students), analyze market data, make a series of strategic and tactical decisions, present them, and receive feedback on how successful they are

The course is intense and you are expected to do the majority of the work (analysis and decision making) outside of the class room.

The course includes lectures, in-class workshops, industry presentations, and group presentations

The goal is for you to learn to make logical inferences based on relevant market data. As part of the process you will acquire conceptual tools that enable you to analyze and distinguish between relevant and irrelevant market data. The textbooks, lectures, and the simulation game provide you with very tangible methods (e.g. B/E Analysis, Price Elasticity, etc.) as well as conceptual theories (consumer behaviour theories). At the end of the course you should be able to describe the influence of and explain yours and competitors’ successful and less successful business decisions on your company’s performance and its market value.

Learning Objectives as part of the hands-on strategic simulation game:

Oral examination based upon a group mini-project.