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CM J42 - Strategy making and value creation by using intangibles* "CLOSED FOR FURTHER ENROLMENT"

Faculty
Prof Jan Annerstedt, Prof Jan Mouritsen, Assistant Prof Patricia Plackett, invited specialists and other resource persons
Course Coordinator
Prof. Jan Annerstedt
Prerequisite/progression of the course
Students should have completed their bachelor degree courses.
Course content, structure and teaching
This course is about business firms and other organizations that master their ‘hidden resources and capabilities’ (intangible assets) when shaping strategy, managing innovation and incremental change, and creating value. We are offering the course participants a variety of analytical approaches to identify, measure and assess intangibles in organizations and in networks of organizations. We will discuss how to put intangibles into effective use, thereby also promoting more ‘knowledge-intensive’ or ‘intelligent’ organizations to succeed in swiftly changing environments that are highly competitive. Focus is put on effective modes of managing intangibles in large corporations and public institutions as well as in small and medium-sized business enterprises, including start-up firms.
The course is analytical as well as practical in orientation by exploring original case material from ongoing comparative research on firms operating globally and in six countries in Europe (Denmark, Italy, Spain) and Asia (China, India, Vietnam). The actual illustrations of explicit, detailed organizational practices to be complemented by a review of selected metrics of intangibles, expert methodologies, etc.
For example, IKEA’s principal intangible resources and capabilities will be part of the case material. Once a business enterprise specialized mainly in retail of home and office furniture and household equipment, IKEA now manages an increasing diversity of unconventional service operations by exploiting more broadly its systems of logistics and transportation. In this course, we will explore IKEA’s ‘modularized’ services related to food products and meals, banking and asset management, insurance, telecom, construction, real estate and facility management, high-tech business operations, entrepreneurial start-up firms, etc.
Apart from the lectures, the course is a combination of several types of learning and builds on continuous interaction during the course period of eight weeks with the teachers, other experts and resource persons:
Reviews of analytical perspectives on the management and measuring of intangibles and on ‘knowledge-intensive’ or ‘intelligent’ organizations.
Extensive readings (of required and optional literature).
Brief group presentations and assessments of various methods, tools or instruments for strategy making and value creation in practice.
Participants in this course will not only get novel insights by unique case material, drawn from on-going research activities. They will also be exposed to the current global intellectual discourse on the management of intangibles to which researchers at the CBS contribute.
Appropriately, the eight sessions of the course are structured according to an international textbook, currently being produced by the course organizers with support from more than 30 specialists on strategy and management in Asia and Europe. Some of the sessions will include group discussions and mini-workshops on specific themes. Course participants, already starting to prepare a Master thesis project, will be assisted by the teaching staff.
Quality enhancement: Course participants will benefit from a quality assurance methodology. An elected group of course participants will support the course coordinator and the lecturers in securing a high level of quality and relevance of the contents of the course. The work of this quality assurance group, to meet every week after class, will be pro-active and flexible. It should influence positively the on-going planning of the course.
The course's development of personal competences
As future managers and leaders of organizations, the course participants will be equipped with relevant analytical and professional skills, intensified by up-to-date practical insights for managing intangibles in local and global contexts. Case studies have been selected to gain fresh insights into best practices and allow each student to make an independent judgment of the most essential intangibles put to use.
Course participants should learn to apply the principal concepts, relevant theories and appropriate methodologies. Each student will be assisted in building expertise through the identification, development and use of intangible resources and capabilities to create value.
Learning Objectives
At the end of the course the student should be able independently to present, apply and discuss a limited number of:
  • Key concepts and analytical approaches for strategy making and value creation by the application of intangibles such as by leadership, skills and competencies, business systems, and organizational intelligence.
  • New ways to measure and make effective use of an organization’s intangible capabilities, including its intellectual capital and highly specialized client relationships.
  • New methods and means when taking advantage of intangible assets to energize capabilities for innovation, organizational effectiveness and entrepreneurial business development.
Type of examination, exam aids and assessment
Individual oral exam, using a synopsis as the starting point. The synopsis, written in English or in a Scandinavian language and delivered at least two weeks before the examination, is to be produced by one student (3-5 pages) or by group work with 2-4 students (maximum 8 pages).
Recommended literature
  • Ciborra, C. U. and R. Andreu (2002). Knowledge across Boundaries: Managing Knowledge in Distributed Organizations. The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge. Edited by C. W. Choo and N. Bontis. Oxford, Oxford University Press: 575-586.
  • Compendium of case studies: Shaping Intangibles: New Modes of Value Creation in the ‘Knowledge Societies’ of Asia and Europe, CBS: Department of Operations Management, 2010.
  • Deloitte (2009). Measuring the Forces of Long-Term Change: The 2009 Shift Index. San José, Deloitte Center for the Edge.
  • DTI (2001), Creating value from your intangible assets: Unlocking your true potential. London: Department of Trade and Industry
  • Hagel, J. and J. S. Brown (2008). From Transactional Markets to Relational Networks. Stanford, Stanford University: Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
  • Hagel, J., J. S. Brown, et al. (2008). "Shaping Strategy in a World of Constant Disruption." Harvard Business Review (October).
  • Kaplan, R. S. and D. P. Norton (2004). Strategy Maps: Converting Intangible Assets into Tangible Outcomes. Boston, Harvard Business School Press.
  • Mouritsen, J. and H. T. Larsen (2005). "The 2nd wave of knowledge management: The management control of knowledge resources through intellectual capital formation." Management Accounting Research 16: 371-394.
  • Weick, K. E. and K. M. Sutcliffe (2001). Managing the Unexpected: Assuring High Performance in an Age of Complexity. San Francisco, Jossey-Bass.

Last updated by The Electives Office 18/08/2010