TERM: Fall 2009

COURSE #: SEEK 441

SECTION: 61

COURSE NAME: Strategic Management in Non-Market Environments

INSTRUCTOR: Daniel Diermeier

CASEPACK - YES or NO?:  YES

FIRST ASSIGNMENT: The reading for this session illustrates the types of issues to be considered in the course and presents approaches for organizing your analysis of the non-market environment.  Future sessions will examine these components in more detail with an increasing emphasis on the development of analytic concepts and the formulation of non-market strategies. These concepts will be discussed in the context of the Consumer Financial case.

Reading:                BIE 1-16, 33-42, 47-53, 66-85
Case:                      Consumer Financial [in course reader]

Assignment:

It is December 10, 2002. You are the engagement team of the consulting company Non-Market Strategy, Inc., the leader in non-market strategy consulting. Your client is Consumer Financial Services, the nation's largest independent mortgage lender. You need to familiarize yourself thoroughly with the document provided by the client. During class you will have your first meeting as team. Your senior partner is expecting a report on how to address Consumer Financial’s challenges as she needs to meet with client later that day. Your task it to develop, as a team, a 5-10 minute presentation that your partner can then present to the client. I will select one group randomly to present their analysis. The rest of the class will assume the role of senior partner.

IS ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MANDATORY – YES OR NO?: YES

1.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?:  REQUIRED

AUTHOR: David Baron

PUBLISHER: Prentice Hall

TITLE: Business and It’s Environment

ED./DATE: 6th Ed.

2.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?: Required

AUTHOR: Malcolm Gladwell

PUBLISHER: Back Bay Books

TITLE: The Tipping Point

ED./DATE: Reprint ed. January 7, 2002

3.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?: Required

AUTHOR: Thomas L. Friedman

PUBLISHER: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

TITLE: The World is Flat

ED./DATE Expanded and Updated edition, April 18, 2006

TERM: Fall

COURSE #: 440A

SECTION: 76

COURSE NAME: Values and Crisis Decision-Making

INSTRUCTOR: Tim Feddersen

CASEPACK - YES or NO?: YES

FIRST ASSIGNMENT:
On March 14, 2009 AIG’s CEO Edward M. Liddy sent a letter to Timothy F. Geithner, United States Secretary of the Treasury. The letter explains AIG’s position regarding previously agreed retention bonuses for employees in AIG's Financial Products unit that had housed AIG’s credit-default swap business. AIG was contractually obligated to pay about  $220 million in employee retention payments for 2008, $55 million of which were paid in December and $165 million required to be paid by March 15. 

Please review Ed Liddy’s letter (in the course packet) and two articles that provide some background information on AIG until the early part of March. You need to be prepared to comment on the letter and AIG’s position in class. You do not need to prepare any written materials or Power Point presentations.

Please DO NOT conduct any additional research on AIG other than the documents supplied in the course reader. Rather, as much as possible, I want to assume the position of AIG’s CEO when the letter was written, without the benefit of hindsight from subsequent developments.

IS ATTENDANCE AT FIRST CLASS MANDATORY – YES OR NO?: YES

1.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?  Recommended

AUTHOR:  David P. Baron

PUBLISHER: Pearson

TITLE: Business and Its Environment

ED./DATE: Sixth Edition

2.  TEXT - REQUIRED or RECOMMENDED?:

AUTHOR:

PUBLISHER:

TITLE:

ED./DATE: