MBA Online

Before students can graduate in De La Salle University's MBA program they have a final hurdle to pass, which is the Oral Comprehensive Exam. Here, students defend their paper to a panel of 3 professors.

I've been a panel member on numerous occasions. The paper is usually a business plan containing the business strategies as proposed by the graduating student. And basically the strategies area formulated based on several frameworks. Below is a typical content of a business plan or paper.

I. External Analysis

Macro Environment Analysis
Macro environment is the environment outside the industry which affects an organization. A macro environment analysis is used in analyzing the economic, political, technological and social segments. Other segments such as ecological and institutional, if it will affect an organization, is analyzed.

Porter's Five Forces
Michael Porter's five forces framework model is used to analyze, identify and understand the level of competition in an industry. The framework examines the following:

1. Threat of New Entry
2. Intensity of Rivalry among Existing Competitors
3. Threat of Substitute Products or Services
4. Bargaining Power of Buyers
5. Bargaining Power of Suppliers

Using the Porter five forces will help an organization identify threats and opportunities to its industry.

Strategic Group Map Analysis
Analyze and identify firms within the industry. Strategies of other firms (i.e. competitors) are analyzed and those with similar strategies are grouped together. This framework helps in the choice of generic strategies and development of competitive strategies.

II. Internal Analysis

Financial Analysis
Evaluates a company's financial situation.

Value Chain Analysis
Framework that examines a company's primary and support activities to asses the competitive advantage of a company. It is a framework for evaluating internal processes and how they bring value to a customer.

Competitive Advantage Cycle
Framework use to identify, develop and maintain a company's competitive advantage over its competitors.

III. Strategy Formulation

Framework for strategy formulation is based on the external and internal analysis. Formulated are the company's vision, mission and objectives. Generic, corporate and functional strategies are also formulated.

IV. Implementation

Put the strategic plan into action.

7-S Framework
The 7-S model is used to see the interrelationship between strategy formulation and implementation. The 7-S are:

1. Strategy
2. Structure
3. Systems
4. Style
5. Staff
6. Skills
7. Superordinate Goals

8-Strategy Implementing Tasks
The 8-SIT framework is used to identify tasks that will effect changes in the organization. These are:

1. Building an organization with competencies, capabilities and resource strengths to carry out the strategy successfully.
2. Developing budgets to steer ample resources into those value chain activities critical to strategic success.
3. Establishing strategy supportive policies and procedures.
4. Instituting best practices and pushing for continuous improvement in how value chain activities are performed.
5. Installing information, communication and operating systems that enable company personnel to carry out their strategic roles successfully day in and day out.
6. Tying rewards and incentives to the achievement of performance objectives and good strategy execution.
7. Creating a strategy supportive work environment and corporate culture.
8. Exerting the internal leadership needed to drive implementation forward an to keep improving on how the strategy is being executed.

I hope this short introduction to the MBA program of DLSU will help you formulate and implement strategies for your own business. To learn more, I encourage you to enroll at De La Salle University Graduate School of Business (DLSU-GSB), which also has an MBA online program, wherein you can take certain subjects on the Web.

Joel R. Mangilit

  
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