Course: Business Analysis (PF 608)

MPF Program
Department of Finance
July- December Session, 2017
Course Teacher; Dr. M. Masud Rahman
Professor, Department of Finance, DU

Course Descripti.on

Business analysis needs an understanding of the unique nature and culture of the firm. Different
lirms hold different strategies to ensure a sustainable competitive edge. For the same aircrafts,
Pingapore .Airlines, charges 2O70-depreciation.and e@". Plane .fare o"f SA
increases but customers a.r still happy as they are less price-conscious and more serious about
timely arrival and departure of flights. Another stakeholder is shareholders. The shares of the firm
are held by the Singapore government and so ihe owners do not mind about the 1or,v margin. So the
firm is successful with the assumption of 5 year Life of the commercial aircralt. American Air
assumes 20 years commercial life. It reduces cost and increases profit margin" Customers are happy
with 1ow fares. They do not mind about flight delay on technical reasons. Shares are spread out
among different clients who are happy with high profit margin even though flight delays and cancels
are quite common. These are apparently 2 different yet successful strategies related to finance. This
ta-lks about organizational culture. philosophy, goals and priorities. Another example of financial
strategies is corporate diversi.fication. Nokia is more successfui now when it is more concentrated on
celi phone manufacturing than before rn.hen it was a large conglomerate r,vith diversified products. On
the other hand, rvhen Singer was a leading sewing machine producer, it was iess appreciated by
shareholders than todali- r.vhen it is inr,olved in r.videi.v- diversified home appliances. Ariazon.cclt: a
pioneer in electronic commerce sectol-made its fortune brv on line book sel1ing. The firm then became
a bit too desperate in diversification of product line and started to sel1 everythlng including medlciae
and drugs. Outcome rvas not very encouraging as selling books is different from seiling drugs. Use oI
off-baLance sheet financing or lease finalcing is a popular financial straies/ to understate assets and
overstates return on assets. Business analysis needs an arlalysis of strdtegies. Strategic management
was traciitionaiiy regarcieci as a management couise bur oveitime i'r has ,-ioi-v lij.i'itcd. ij.p as a
discipline of integrated management rather than functiona-1 managernent (1ike marketing
management, personnel management or finarlcial management). Throughout the whole course lve
would be interested to knolv the ansu-er to the fundamentai question like why some firms are
successful and some are not. Not that u,e would be capable of answering them a-11 but our approach
would be more systematic with the course than without the course.

Text Book:. Hi11. Charles W.L and Gareth R. Jones: Theory of Strategic Management With Cases, 9th
Edition, 2010, South-Western, Ca:rada, Third indian Reprint 2013,

Course Contents:
1. Introduction of strategr and game theory (C1ass lecture)
2. Leadership, strate$/ & Competitive Advantage (Chapter 1)
a
Opportuniti.es and Threats-Analyzing the External Environment (Chapter 2)
+. Competencies and Profitability-Analyzing Internal Resources (Chapter 3)
5. Strategr at the Functi.ona-l Level (Chapter 4)
6. Strategr'at Business Levei (Chapter 5)
7. Industry Environment at Business-Level Strategr (Chapter 6)
8. Global Strategr (Chapter 8)
9" Strategr'at Corporate Level (Chapter 9)
f 0" Corporate Diversification strategr (Chapter 10)

Case Study: Students in a group of 3 students a-re supposed to submit an assignment in the form of
a case study on strategic management of a listed company of Dhaka stock exchange" The submission
would accompany individual presentation on the multi-media. The submission wouid take place just
after the 2nd midterm test.

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