Today, a key preoccupation of executives in most organisations is how to make their intended strategies work in practice. There is no shortage of good strategic planning but the issues surrounding how to implement strategies are understood less well. This course explores the key challenges facing senior managers seeking to execute strategy. It introduces a practical and rigorous process to drive from conceptual plans through to the concrete actions that deliver results. Methods are also introduced to ensure that all managers shaping and delivering initiatives and projects can align activities with strategic objectives effectively. Key issues such as performance measurement, organisation structure and reward systems are also explored to show how they affect implementation. A detailed exploration of competitive advantage shows how strategy implementation affects strategic positioning and, ultimately, long-term competitiveness. An in-depth case study based on real business situations provides further insights into how to make strategies work in practice.
- Teacher: Hayden Blades
This course is aimed at helping managers understand the key issues in the management and leadership of change in contemporary organisational contexts and providing them with practical advice, frameworks and tools to help them manage change more effectively in global economies. Drawing on a wide range of disciplines including organisational behaviour, HRM, marketing, IT, economics, strategy and operations, the course focuses on the nature of management and leadership, individual behaviour, motivations and engagement with organisations, the design of modern organisations and managing in international organisations and cultures. It also examines the nature of management and leadership of corporate reputations, brands and corporate social responsibility, the management of knowledge-based enterprises, the changing nature of technology in new forms of organisations and the management of changing cultures.
- Teacher: Allan Ramsaroop
- Teacher: Jerome Singh
Channel relationships are increasingly important in creating market value and sustainable competitive advantage. This elective provides an up-to-date perspective of the relationships among marketing channels using the channel relationship model (CRM). It looks at challenges and opportunities in the external channel environment, behavioural issues that beset channel relationships (internal channel environment), coordinations, conflict, cooperation, the economics of exchange and the development of channel relationships, including the implication of acquiring strategic partners.
- Teacher: Burt Gransaull
Marketing Communications lies at the heart of both the relational and
transactional exchange between a business and its people and customers.
This course will help executives to clarify their communication
strategies with a broad range of up-to-date marketing concepts.
- Teacher: Burt Gransaull
The marketing insights elective gives you a solid understanding of the marketing research process as well as the practical skills to do qualitative and quantitative research. It looks in detail at data collection methods, measurement instruments, sampling procedures and data analysis techniques. The emphasis is on solving marketing problems using marketing research. Extensive case study material offers insights into the problems and practical applications of the research techniques.
- Teacher: Michelle Majid
Mergers and acquisitions rarely create shareholder value. Why? There are three answers to this. First, organisations need to be clear about their strategic fit; very often they fail to realise that their capabilities and market segments do not match.
Second, the price paid is often too high in that potential gains are included in the bid; this frequently happens in a competitive bidding situation and executives often do not understand when they should stop pushing the price up.
Third, the change processes necessary to achieve successful integration are typically not identified up front, so even if there is a good strategic fit and a sensible price has been paid, the potential for value creation is not realised. All three aspects need to be got right.
Topics covered
- Strategic focus.
- Why mergers fail.
- Valuation.
- Bid tactics.
- Due diligence.
- The concept of implementation.
- Project management of implementation.
- Developing the implementation plan.
- Executing the implementation plan.
- Teacher: Dundee Thomas
Negotiation is one of several means that help managers make decisions. It is neither superior nor inferior to other forms of decision making. It is appropriate in some circumstances but not in others. Management is complex and deciding when negotiation is appropriate is just one aspect. The course aims to provide a thorough grounding in the science and practice of negotiation. Academic disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology, politics, anthropology and mathematics have researched negotiation and much of this material forms the basis for its scientific analysis.
Negotiation is one of several means that help managers make decisions. It is neither superior nor inferior to other forms of decision making. It is appropriate in some circumstances but not in others. Management is complex and deciding when negotiation is appropriate is just one aspect. The course aims to provide a thorough grounding in the science and practice of negotiation. Academic disciplines such as economics, psychology, sociology, politics, anthropology and mathematics have researched negotiation and much of this material forms the basis for its scientific analysis.
- Teacher: Carla Williams