Table of Contents

Section A: Introduction and Overview Chapter 1: What Is Strategy and Why Is It Important? Chapter 2: Charting a Company's Direction: Its Vision, Mission, Objectives, and Strategy Chapter 3: Evaluating a Company's External Environment Chapter 4: Evaluating a Company's Resources, Capabilities, and Competitiveness Chapter 5: The Five Generic Competitive Strategies Chapter 6: Strengthening a Company's Competitive Position Chapter 7: Strategies for Competing in International Markets Chapter 8: Corporate Strategy Chapter 9: Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environmental Sustainability, and Strategy Chapter 10: Building an Organization Capable of Good Strategy Execution Chapter 11: Managing Internal Operations Chapter 12: Corporate Culture and Leadership Section B: Cases in Crafting and Executing Strategy Case 1: Mystic Monk Coffee Case 2: BillCutterz.com: Business Model, Strategy, and the Challenges of Exponential Growth Case 3: Whole Foods Marketing in 2014: Vision, Core Values, and Strategy Case 4: Papa John's International, Inc.: Its Strategy in the Pizza Restaurant Industry Case 5: Under Armour's Strategy in 2014: Potent Enough to Win Market Share from Nike and Adidas? Case 6: Lulumon Athletica, Inc. In 2014: Can the Company Get Back on Track? Case 7: Lagunitas Brewing Company, Inc. - 2013 Case 8: Cooper Tire & Rubber Company in 2014: Competing in a Highly Competitive Market for Replacement Tires Case 9: Panera Bread Company in 2014 – Can a Slowdown in the Company's Growth Be Avoided? Case 10: Chipotle Mexican Grill in 2014: Will Its Strategy Become the Model for Reinventing the Fast Food Industry? Case 11: Sirius XM Satellite Radio Inc. in 2014: On Track to Succeed after a Near-Death Experience? Case 12: Sony Music Entertainment and the Evolution of the Music Industry Case 13: Vera Bradley in 2014: Will the Company's Strategy Reverse Its Downward Trend? Case 14: J. Crew in 2014: Will Its Turnaround Strategy Improve Its Competitiveness? Case 15: The United Methodist Church: Challenges to Its Ministerial Mission in 2014 Case 16: Nucor Corporation in 2014: Combating Low-Cost Foreign Imports and Depressed Market Demand for Steel Products Case 17: Tesla Motors' Strategy to Revolutionize the Global Automotive Industry Case 18: Tata Motors in 2014: Its Multi-Brand Approach to Competing in the Global Automobile Industry Case 19: Deere & Company in 2014: Its International Strategy in the Agricultural, Construction, and Forestry Equipment Industry Case 20: Wal-Mart, in Africa Case 21: PepsiCo's Diversification Strategy in 2014 Case 22: The Walt Disney Company: Its Diversification Strategy in 2014 Case 23: Robin Hood Case 24: Dilemma at Devil's Den Case 25: Southwest Airlines in 2014: Culture, Values, and Operating Practices Case 26: Nordstrom: Focusing on a Culture of Service Case 27: Employee Training & Development at Ritz-Carlton: Fostering an Exceptional Customer Service Culture Case 28: Amazon's Big Data Strategy Case 29: NCAA Athletics: Are Its Amateurism and Financial Assistance Policies Ethical? Case 30: TOMs Shoes: A Dedications to Social Responsibility Case 31: Samsung's Environmental Responsibility: Striking the Right Note for Corporate Survival

About the Author

Arthur A. Thompson, Jr., earned his B.S and Ph.D. degrees in economics from The University of Tennessee, spent three years on the economics faculty at Virginia Tech, and served on the faculty of The University of Alabama's College of Commerce and Business Administration for 24 years. In 1974 and again in 1982, Dr. Thompson spent semester-long sabbaticals as a visiting scholar at the Harvard Business School.

His areas of specialization are business strategy, competition and market analysis, and the economics of business enterprises. In addition to publishing over 30 articles in some 25 different professional and trade publications, he has authored or co-authored five textbooks and six computer-based simulation exercises. His textbooks and strategy simulations have been used at well over 1,000 college and university campuses worldwide.

Dr. Thompson spends much of his off-campus time giving presentations, putting on management development programs, working with companies, and helping operate a business simulation enterprise in which he is a major partner.

Dr.Thompson and his wife of 56 years have two daughters, two grandchildren, and a Yorkshire terrier.

Margaret A. Peteraf is the Leon E. Williams Professor of Management at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. She is an internationally recognized scholar of strategic management, with a long list of publications in top management journals. She has earned myriad honors and prizes for her contributions, including the 1999 Strategic Management Society Best Paper Award recognizing the deep influence of her work on the field of Strategic Management. Professor Peteraf is a fellow of the Strategy Management Society and the Academy of Management. She served previously as a member of the Board of Governors of both the Society and the Academy of Management and as Chair of the Business Policy and Strategy Division of the Academy. She has also served in various editorial roles on numerous editorial boards, including the Strategic Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, and Organization Science. She has taught in Executive Education programs in various programs around the world and has won teaching awards at the MBA and Executive level.

Professor Peteraf earned her Ph.D., M.A., and M.Phil. at Yale University and held previous faculty appointments at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management and at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.  

John E. Gamble is currently Associate Dean and Professor of Management in the Mitchell College of Business at the University of South Alabama. His teaching specialty at USA is strategic management and he also conducts a course in strategic management in Germany, which is sponsored by the University of Applied Sciences in Worms. Dr. Gamble's research interests center on strategic issues in entrepreneurial, health care, and manufacturing settings. His work has been published in various scholarly journals and he is the author or co-author of more than 50 case studies published in an assortment of strategic management and strategic marketing texts. He has done consulting on industry and market analysis for clients in a diverse mix of industries. Professor Gamble received his Ph.D. in management from the University of Alabama in 1995. Dr. Gamble also has a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Arts degree from the University of Alabama.  A.J. (Lonnie) Strickland received a BS in Math and Physics from the University of Georgia, an MS in Industrial Management from Georgia Institute of Technology, and a PhD from Georgia State university. He currently holds the rank of Professor of Strategic Management in the Graduate School of Business at the University of Alabama. He has done extensive consulting and research work. In recent years, he was honored with the Outstanding Professor Award for the Graduate School of Business, and was the recipient of the Outstanding Commitment to Teaching Award for the University of Alabama.