GSIA Course

45-848: Meeting the Challenges of Corporate Leadership

Professor: Sam Deep (deepsam@aol.com, 412-487-2379)
Meets Tuesdays from 6:30-9:30p.m. in Cooper Auditorium

The teaching of this course is dedicated to Granville H. "Pete" Jones, emeritus professor of the Carnegie Mellon English Department. Professor Jones died of cancer in Laguna Beach, California on May 17, 1998. As my freshman English Lit. instructor in 1960, he showed me the thrill of reading the likes of Hemingway, Huxley, Salinger, Kerouak, Nabokov, and even Joyce. In the midst of his English Composition course the next semester I became inspired to write and to teach. Thankfully, in later years I had the opportunity to tell him and even to show him what his teaching meant to me.

Introduction

For the purposes of this course, corporate leadership comprises the opportunity that a fortunate few--including GSIA grads--are given. That is the opportunity to provide vision, create strategy, and execute plans against strategy in a manner such that the employees of business enterprises are equipped to accomplish extraordinary goals.

The challenges of corporate leadership change with the times, with the economy, within industry, by function and level, according to geography, and across world cultures. Their commonality is that these challenges all fit into one of the "six boxes of leadership"--a central framework for this course. The six boxes comprise (1) clients, (2) people, (3) markets, (4) operations, (5) innovation, and (6) strategy.

Course Objectives

This course aims at five major learning outcomes:
1. To discover how to use the six boxes of leadership to pilot an organizational unit such as a company, division, office, or team with great effectiveness.
2. To identify the critical success factors of corporate leaders--factors that enable them and their organizations to win.
3. To identify the most common challenges facing the leaders of U.S. corporations as the second year of the third millennium begins.
4. To critique actual approaches taken by corporate leaders and consultants to solve the most vexing corporate challenges.
5. To master tools that you can use on your own to solve the corporate challenges you will face.

How the Course Will Proceed

In the first class we will examine leadership and the critical factors that lead to its success. We will also learn how to use the six boxes of leadership to guide an organizational unit of responsibility.

The remaining classes follow a consistent pattern. In the first half of the class, a corporate leadership challenge currently faced, or recently solved, by a real corporation, division, office, or team will be presented to students. Sometimes, a corporate executive will present the challenge. Students will critique the solutions recommended for each of the challenges. In the second half of the class, the instructor will present additional tools that can be used to solve the kind of challenge presented in the first half of the class.

Course Materials

No textbook purchases are required. Students receive a copy of Power Tools and Act On It!, two books co-authored by Sam Deep, as well as other handouts. Students are expected to consult other resources as may be needed. Outside resource recommendations will be made at the first class.

Course Components Used for Grading Course

Course Component	Maximum Points Earned
Class attendance and contributions to class discussions	20
In-class critiques of the solutions to corporate challenges presented by the instructor or guest executives. Alternatively, you may be asked to submit a short paper.*	48 (six, worth 8 points each)
Examination given during the final exam period (March 5)	32

*NB: The typical criteria used to grade the critiques are as follows: 8 points for truly superior and insightful comments; 7 points for very good comments; 6-5 points for average comments; 4-3 for sub par comments; and 2 points for doing the assignment. The critiques will be submitted on a template distributed and explained at the first class.

Grading Scheme

Letter Points

A+	98-100
A	92-97
A-	90-91
B+	88-89
B	82-87
B-	80-81
C+	78-79
C	72-77
C-	70-71
Pass	70+

Finally

If you would like to meet or converse with Sam Deep at any time during the course period, please call or email him at your convenience. You may also make appointments in-person before or after class for meetings or telephone calls.

Good luck in the course. This is one of those experiences in life--however brief--where you'll reap what you sow. I can't remember one case where a student attended class regularly, contributed to class discussions, and took the assignments seriously, and where that student was disappointed with his/her grade or value received.

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