Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about TeachStrategy.com and the Strategic Management Textbook

1Q. Why did you decide to create TeachStrategy.com?
A. We wanted to provide some free teaching resources to strategy instructors and also make it easy for instructors to browse our textbook offering. We think we have some very cool teaching materials (especially our white board video animations and our strategy tools) and we think that TeachStrategy will make it easy to browse and experience these materials.
2Q. Why did you decide to create white board video animations to teach strategy?
A. Research shows that white board animations have a dramatic increase in student learning and recall (see https://www.sparkol.com/en/Blog/Psychology-behind-whiteboard-videos-%E2%80%93-how-they-increase-learning-by-15 ) . They engage students and make learning fun! Moreover, you can use them to flip the classroom (students watch the mini-lecture before class) or you can use them in class as an alternative and fun way to assist you in your “lecture” on a topic.
3Q. Given that there are many textbook offerings out there, why did you decide to write a textbook?
A. Our experience is that current textbooks have chapters that are too long (in an attempt to be comprehensive on a topic), lack interactive video or learning tools (they are expensive and difficult to create), lack basic strategy tools used by the world’s leading strategy consulting firms (like teaching students how to calculate a scale or experience curve or a net promoter score), miss important topics such as innovative strategies and disruptive business models (e.g., Free Strategies), and frankly, are not very student engaging or interesting to read. The authors of this text (Jeff Dyer, Ph.D UCLA; Paul Godfrey, Ph.D U. Washington; David Bryce, Ph.D Wharton; Robb Jensen, Ph.D Wharton) collectively have 13 years of full time management consulting at firms like Bain & Company, McKinsey & Company, and APM Management Consulting. We also know how to write to a busy management audience, having published eight articles in Harvard Business Review and another four articles in Sloan Management Review.
4Q. How would you describe the major benefits of adopting the Strategic Management textbook?
A. In addition to the white board video animations, our textbook offers:
A Conversational Writing Style: The succinct and unique conversational writing style of Strategic Management helps students make connections with the concepts they are studying. Currency and relevancy stand out in this course.

Contemporary Real-World Examples: Rich stories and cases contributed by industry professionals enable students to experience the complexities of the real world. Organizations featured range from large, well-known brands to small, entrepreneurial startups. Each is chosen to illustrate concepts in differing environments.

“Classic Cases” Casebook: The ever-expanding Casebook feature offers new, shortened, and updated “classic” cases involving familiar companies (e.g., Walmart, Coke, Pepsi, Intel, Southwest, Nike, etc.) plus cases on new companies that are interesting to students (e.g., Tesla, Uber, Netflix, ESPN, Skype, etc.) and companies that may need a turnaround strategy (e.g., Sears, Redbox). The cases and teaching notes for each case were written by the authors to dovetail perfectly with each chapter of the text and the core concepts.

Career Readiness Tools: Feature “Strategy in Your Career” boxes display 1-2 minute author videos that link key course concepts to career-readiness in the work-world and provide helpful information for landing a job and being successful in a job. Also, a full set of 23 author Career Videos cover a host of pertinent career-readiness topics and advice for strategy/business students:

SEGMENT: (with Speaker and Title)
1 Jeff Dyer - What is strategy?
2 Jeff Dyer - What are my career options—Consulting?
3 Jeff Dyer - What skills do I need to succeed?
4 Jeff Dyer - How can strategy frameworks help me find a great job and career?
5 Jeff Dyer - How can I apply strategy tools to develop my own strategy?
6 Jeff Dyer - How can industry analysis tools help me find a great job?
7 Jeff Dyer - How should I think about strategic alliances in my own career?
8 Jeff Dyer - What do consultants do?
9 David Bryce - How can I nail a job interview using strategy concepts?
10 David Bryce - How can understanding competitors help me make better career choices?
11 David Bryce - How can industry analysis tools help me find a great job?
12 David Bryce - What do product managers do?
13 David Bryce - Why you should always say “yes, I’ll do that!”?
14 David Bryce - How can corporate strategy help me think about my career?
15 Paul Godfrey - What’s new in the field of strategy?
16 Paul Godfrey - What are my career options in strategy other than consulting?
17 Paul Godfrey - How do I determine my resources and capabilities?
18 Paul Godfrey - How can I best present my resources and skills in an interview?
19 Paul Godfrey - How can I use the Company Diamond tool in my job search?
20 Paul Godfrey - How do I learn what differentiates me from others?
21 Paul Godfrey - How can corporate strategy help me think about my career?
22 Paul Godfrey - What is line of sight and how can I use it to succeed?
23 Paul Godfrey - How should I think about social value organizations in my career? How can I contribute?
5Q. Where do I find the other teaching support I need, like sample syllabi or a test bank for quizzes and exams?
A. These additional materials are available through: http://wileyplus.wiley.com/strategic-management/ ; all resources for both instructors and students can be found in one easy to find location in WileyPLUS. For those wanting a permanent ebook download, that too is available through www.wileyplus.com. For those that would like to use an ebook only, the instructor resources can be found the Wiley Companion Site http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1119411696.html.
6Q. Are there any other resources provided to help students if they adopt our strategic management that go beyond just the textbook offering?
A. Our publisher - Wiley - is committed to supporting your students in the classroom and into their career. As a result, they have partnered with two leading companies to provide students with excellent career feedback and job search tools that are available in our WileyPLUS LearningSpace system. CareerShift offers students a way to organize their job and internship search by harnessing the publicly available information on the internet. InsideTrack provides insightful resources to students on choosing a career path & offers them the ability to engage even further with Inside Track’s library of resources. Additionally, Wiley has produced a terrific video module providing students with a step-by-step guide for creating their own e-portfolio.