It is a privilege to teach Strategic Analysis to undergraduate seniors at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business, which was ranked 32 in the nation by Business Week as one of the “The Best Undergraduate B-schools” in 2009.
This course focuses on the processes by which managers position their businesses or assets to maximize long-term profits in the face of uncertainty, rapid change, and competition. It covers various frameworks for analyzing an industry’s structure and a firm’s competitive position and for developing a coherent, viable, and defensible firm strategy. Seniors are required to integrate and extend the knowledge and skills that they have developed through their coursework (i.e., marketing, finance, economics, organizational behavior, ethics, information systems, statistical analysis, operations management, accounting, etc.) into a “total” business perspective.
The following is a link to my MGMT 162 Syllabus for Winter Term 2010. You may notice that the course provides a rigorous schedule of Harvard Business Case studies that we examine in class, along with executive guest lecturers that augment our discussions with real world business challenges.
One of our guest lecturers, Curt Van Inwegen, VP of Client Services at LEVEL Studios, discussed the topic of organizational growth and scalability. This discussion was centered around a Harvard Business case on Big Spaceship, a digital marketing firm, going through tremendous growth. Curt posed several questions to the students which explored the pros and cons as well as the cultural and strategic decisions companies face in determining whether or not they should “go big.” Later in the term, we studied Electronic Art’s transition into online gaming, which was reinforced by a visit from Peter Moore, President of EA Sports. To learn more about his visit, go to my blog entry “It’s in the leadership and organization [not just the game].” Lastly, Guy Simpson, Vice President at Comerica bank taught the students critical financial analysis tools and challenged those who aren’t in finance and accounting to “have enough core knowledge of finance to be able to carry on a conversation with clients and finance people alike.”
These lectures and case studies are all aimed at preparing students to form groups and study an unstructured business problem that has been recently stated in the Wall Street Journal. Students in my class subscribe to the Wall Street Journal and follow me on my Twitter page to keep updated with current business events that we discuss at the start of each session. For an example of a Capstone Paper, the Team Netflix Capstone Paper from my Winter 2010 section is available for download. This paper focuses on the challenge Netflix faces in shifting from a mail-based movie rental business to digital streaming.
Along with rigorous academic work, students are also challenged with various business simulations that bring additional realism to the classroom setting and also establishes a sense of camaraderie. The picture shown to the right is of Team Netflix collaborating to build the tallest tower out of various materials and under various business constraints.
Upon reflection of the class, Chris Vind, winner of Top Participant and Top Grade in my Winter 2010 section stated “Mr. Schneider’s capstone course places a heavy emphasis on practical knowledge for graduating business students entering the job market and starting their professional careers. It is the perfect opportunity to showcase the skills you have acquired during your time at Santa Clara, while at the same time preparing you to take the next step into the working world.”
Teaching Strategic Analysis is a true passion for me personally because it aligns with my two career focus areas: using analysis tools to develop sound, defensible strategies for my clients; while also helping future business leaders learn the skills and tools to succeed in their chosen profession. I am scheduled to teach Business Capstone in Winter term 2013 for anyone interested.
The following is a complete list of the award winning students from past sections my Winter 201o class section. Each student is entitled to receive a Linkedin.com recommendation for their accomplishment.
Winter 2013:
- Team Tempur-Pedic (Team Members include: Ivette Black, Connor Gavin, Chris Helgeson, Hannah Huckaby, Emmy Quinn, and Paige Sandhu)
- Top Classroom Participant: Chris Helgeson
- Top Team Leader: Jon Salim
- Top Grade: Jon Salim
Spring 2012:
- Team Intel (Team Members include: Nayan Govan, Danielle Hills, Ryan Mares, Anjay Patel, Vanessa Rubino, Jorge Vera, and Nicco Zuffaenlli)
- Top Classroom Participant: Nicco Zuffanelli
- Top Team Leader: Mindee Iguchi
- Top Grade: Rocco Lents
Spring 2011
- Top Project: Team Amazon.com (Team Members include: Robbie McGowan, Ashton Caesar, John Hart, Chrstine Nguyen, Caitlin Wallace, Todd Wiele)
- Top Classroom Participant: Endalk Yitref
- Top Team Leader: Robbie McGowan
- Top Grade: Meredith Hampton and Kevin Talebbeik
Winter 2011
- Top Project: Team Chevron (Team Members include: Greg Dalli, Jennifer Hill, Jeffrey Sobrato, Kira Keating, Chris Lombardi, Aubree Murguia, Jill Schoenfelder)
- Top Classroom Participant: Michael Kjellman
- Top Team Leader: Adam Campi
- Top Grade: Jessica Waller
Winter 2010
- Top Project: Team Netflix (Team Members include: Tyler Martin, Alex Krengel, Ann Dudek, Richard Momboisse, and Patricia Paik)
- Top Classroom Participant: Chris Vind
- Top Team Leader (as determined by his or her team): Brian Aubuchon
- Top Grade: Chris Vind
I loved how in class we saw how everything was integrated: Porter’s Five forces (buyer/supply side), environmental, resources, management, and finances gave a holistic picture of how companies face challenges in the real world. I’ve done many case studies for other classes, but they have not been in depth or relevant to how companies actually operate. Overall I loved the class and would not change a thing except to make groups actually be more involved with the company they pick and actually work with them to create a real plan for them to use.
John brings an enthusiasm to the presentation of everyone of his courses I’ve been in. There is, more than with any other professor I’ve had in my business curriculum, a need to apply business research–in this class specifically, strategic theory–to the actual workings of the corporate world. His class gave everyone the great opportunity to take every kernel we’d picked up over the last four years and to apply them to in-class cases, case papers, and the final capstone. Moreover, the final paper, rigorous and thorough, was a perfect opportunity to excel using one’s personal skill-set and knowledge base. It involves understanding how one might be used in the corporate world in the near future, in making and implementing, if not at least the ability to analyze key strategic decisions, and to stay on top of big-ideas; which is something every driven employee must have an appreciation for.
I wish I’d had more opportunities to take classes like this over my four years, which focus repetitively on the critical application of theory.
Before Professor Schneider’s class, I never had good opportunities to apply the analytical skills I learned at Santa Clara to real-life situations. His class taught me how to combine the marketing, management, and financial skills I acquired at Santa Clara to maximize my potential as I enter the workforce, and I left his class with the tools and confidence to succeed in business.
Professor Schneider’s class provided me with real knowledge of the business world and taught me how to use my problem solving skills in a business-like environment. Not only did I need to use solely my knowledge of marketing but also had to combine financial and management skills as well. He had a professional, yet fun environment in his classroom which was the perfect environment to increase my knowledge of business. I would recommend his class to anyone at Santa Clara University and was definitely one of the best I’ve ever taken.
Professor Schneider’s involvement in the workforce allows him to bring in other professionals to speak to the class. These speakers offer different perspectives on industry as well as insight into what recruiters look for in potential hires. His class also gave me an opportunity to tie in ideas from our text or case studies in a real-life industry situation. The case studies, smaller assignments and final paper allowed us to test out understanding in class and practice on the smaller assignments so by the time the final paper came due, we fully understood the concepts.
On first thought, you’d think someone with a very time consuming full time job wouldn’t have the time to manage a class as time consuming as Capstone. However, Professor Schneider couldn’t have surprised me more.
He is dedicated almost to a fault to making sure you get the most out of Capstone. You really get the whole package…a professor who works in industry, a Santa Clara MBA graduate, and a person who cares about the progress and success of Santa Clara students. He really understands how students want to learn and what they need to learn to make Capstone a valuable addition to the Santa Clara Business program.
Additionally, he spent considerable effort to ensure our class had influential business executives speak from companies such as Microsoft and Hulu. Professor Schneider is punctual in responses to students and was a great teacher to have teach Capstone.
Professor Schneider really cares about his students and is very enthusiastic about all things related to strategy and business decisions. He brings a real world perspective to the class due to his outside career, which is very helpful when understanding the material. Even though he works full time, he is very dedicated to responding to e-mails and helping students when they need it. He stayed very late after class for our group when we needed assistance and I really appreciated it.
I think the best part of the class is the guest lecturers. I was very impressed by the executives he could find to come talk and learned a great deal from them. Their ideas and lectures confirmed class room discussions and brought to life course material.
Overall, I learned a great deal from this capstone class and feel much more prepared for my career and the real world of business. I highly recommend this professor and I believe his class made a sizable contribution to my overall understanding of management decisions.
Professor Schneider is an excellent teacher to culminate your business school experience with. He brings a great deal of knowledge from his real world experience to the class. He will devote class time to material that he has used during his time in the working world, but will also touch on subjects that he has not personally worked with but has heard is prevalent in other fields.
Besides his experience in the working field, Prof. Schneider takes an active interest in his students. Being an SCU MBA alum, he knows the capstone project first hand. He is there every step of the way and has an answer or at least a recommendation of where to find an answer for just about every question.
I also really enjoyed the guest speakers he was able to get for the class. Each speaker had a different experience and all were extremely successful.
Finally, the class really helped me garner the tools necessary to work successfully in teams. He taught the material so that we could retain it and because of that everybody in the class was a strong team member.
Professor Schneider was one of the most dedicated professors I had at Santa Clara. He consistently ensured each student’s concern was addressed in a timely manner and inquired about progress without hand-holding. We were given the freedom to use our best judgment and apply our accumulated knowledge to a real-life situation. The structure of this class gave us the opportunity to learn from mistakes and openly discuss opinions on strategy.
Above all, relevance is what made this class most enjoyable and valuable because it kept us all up to date on current events and forced us to look at these events with a strategic business perspective. He understands the demands of the class, having taken it himself, and pushes his students to produce the best work possible.
Not only did he provide organization and relevance, but he exposed us to guest speakers with invaluable insight on various industries, strategic decision making, and our future in business. Professor Schneider was an excellent Capstone teacher and I cannot recommend him enough.
This class provided an in depth understanding of business strategy. Professor Schneider’s passion for students created an effective learning environment with all the tools needed to write the capstone. The inclass speakers were the best I have had in any class, I am amazed by the rare opportunity to hear from top executives from multiple industries in an undergraduate class. I recommend his Capstone, you will learn and grow.
Professor Schneider is a dedicated and passionate teacher and was always there to support the students. His class allowed me to apply and incorporate everything I had learned in my business classes to a current strategic move a company was making.
Prof. Schneider brought to the classroom real world experience and guided us to realize how what we have learned in school is applicable to the business environment.
Prof. Schneider was able to bring multiple top executives from varying business industries to speak in class. These speakers shared their differing current and past experiences in the business world. Having these speakers come to class showed Prof. Schneider’s goal of incorporating real business situations and experiences to the class material.
This class was one of the best business classes I had at Santa Clara University and I recommend him to future MGMT 162 Capstone students.
I have been fortunate enough to have Professor Schneider both my freshman and senior year. His Business leadership class was a great introduction to teh basic business concepts that we covered in our four years at Santa Clara, but Capstone was so invaluable as a final management class. John brought in many executives at surrounding Silicon Valley businesses to speak to us to help us further apply the concepts discussed in class. Not only did this offer great insight, but great networking as well. I highly recommend this class to any students wanted to be challenged, but rewarded.