Our courses
Leadership Dynamics
Leadership Dynamics highlights the critical factors of personal and small group functioning and their relationship to successful business enterprises.
The course develops the overarching theme of 'the individual and group in the business context' within the conceptual and philosophical framework of the MBA program and provides insight into the roles, processes and personal behaviours necessary for successful functioning and problem solving as managers and leaders in organisations. The course provides the opportunity for students to facilitate their individual and professional growth as they move towards refining their own unique and personal leadership style.
Accounting for Decision Making
Accounting for Decision Making provides students with the accounting knowledge and skills to utilise accounting information to improve their performance as managers. Students will first understand financial accounting principles, processes and techniques involved in preparing financial reports and other accounting information. Then, they will develop an appreciation of management accounting and the significance of business managers understanding costs, costs systems, budgets, control systems and financial decision making principles. The course includes a focus on contemporary issues within the discipline so that students are in tune with, or ahead of, accounting developments within their organisations. The effective delivery approach aims to enable students to share practical experiences of a range of accounting issues with other colleagues.
There is in the business environment a new, competitive and highly dynamic landscape that is imbedded with monumental and discontinuous change. This globally competitive business 'battlefield' is strewn with mortally wounded firms and executives as we move into the 21st century. With the rapid spread and integration of business activities around the world, the task of equipping leaders and managers with essential capabilities and competencies has become increasingly complex. In order to understand this evolutionary process, and indeed to share insights for the future, Contemporary Management Perspectives addresses the history of the discipline of management. It builds an understanding of systems thinking as it applies to organisations and strategy development, and considers the impact of contemporary management perspectives, including risk management, decision making and corporate and social responsibility.
Creative and Accountable Marketing
As markets become more competitive, the need for marketing expertise becomes more necessary. For large organisations, for example, there exists not only competition with similar organisations for identical markets, but also internal competition for organisational resources. Marketing capability in these circumstances not only helps the organisation as a whole, but helps individuals and departments to achieve their goals within the enterprise. Marketing can be defined as 'demand management' and so public sector organisations that do not trade but provide services can use marketing techniques to help them cope by 'demarketing' if necessary.
Creative and Accountable Marketing is a course for those who are, or who aspire to be, general managers and who have a marketing function reporting to them; managers who oversee the strategic marketing directions of the organisation; and monitor the outcomes of the organisation's marketing. The course covers contemporary principles of marketing and also passes on the findings of the major, worldwide research program into how markets actually work, which is being conducted by the Marketing R & D Initiative, which has already shown some of the assumed 'principles' of marketing to be false.
At the completion of this course participants will be able to monitor, audit and contribute to a strategic marketing function, and to identify the key steps involved in planning and implementing a marketing approach in an organisation.
Leading and Managing People
Leading and Managing People is concerned with managers as leaders and their strategic leadership of people. In our present turbulent environment firms require strategies for maximising the human resource contribution from all employees in order to sustain their organisation's competitive advantage. This course aims to explore some of the key factors that influence people's performance and behaviour in organisations from a perspective that draws upon leadership, organisational behaviour and HR literature.
The course will use a range of approaches to introduce students to the concepts of organisational behaviour, leadership and human resource management. Students will be able to evaluate contemporary thinking about business issues and recognise the importance and value of effective people management.
International Business
International Business aims to provide an understanding of the complexities involved in managing an international business, while familiarising students with the range of strategies available to managers and business leaders who want to compete more effectively in today's rapidly emerging global economy. On completion of the course, students will be able to demonstrate sensitivity to the differences between operating in the domestic and global markets, and understand various policies and strategies for coping with the international business environment. Students will also gain an understanding of the issues associated with governing the international trading and investment system, and be able to deal with differences in political, economic and cultural perspectives among nations, as well as develop strategic choices for global operations.
Real World Economics (to be renamed Managerial Economics)
The objective of managerial economics is to explore how economic theory and decision science tools can assist in the formulation of optimal solutions to managerial decision problems. Real World Economics applies many familiar concepts from economics, such as demand and cost, monopoly and competition, the allocation of resources and economic trade-offs. Students will also acquire quantitative skills in business and economic forecasting, linear programming and cost analysis. At the end of the course, students should be able to use these analytical tools within the economic framework on real-world business applications.
Managerial Finance
Managerial Finance equips students with knowledge and skills in the contemporary theories and practices in financial management. The major topics include financial decisions, objectives and basic concepts; financial calculations; basic investment analysis and valuation techniques; project evaluation and capital budgeting; capital structure theories and cost of capital analysis; finance theories and applications; financing techniques and decision making; and dividend payout decisions. Upon completion, students should be able to demonstrate an adequate understanding of the rationale and process of financial decision making as well as the ability to apply the acquired financial skills in real life situations.
Competitive Strategy
Competitive Strategy covers industry analysis; competitive dynamics; firm and competitor analysis; understanding the value chain; and functional, business and corporate level strategies. The course also explains how strategy differs in a stable versus a turbulent environment, and an embryonic versus mature environment. The focus is on discerning what drives firm-level competitive advantage. Students undertaking this course can expect to understand why some firms consistently outperform others and will be able to use this knowledge as a basis for designing superior strategies for their own organisations. Assignments are designed to be highly practical, with students encouraged to apply many of the concepts covered to organisations with which they are familiar.
Sustainable Corporate Strategy
Sustainable Corporate Strategy builds upon and applies from a senior management perspective the concepts and tools developed in earlier courses relating to leadership, strategic thinking, and the strategic management process. The focus of the course is on the theory and processes involved in corporate level decision making, with an emphasis on how large multiple-purpose organisations in public and private sectors may strategically develop and function. This focus includes issues posed by the multiple-purpose nature of large organisations, regionalisation, globalisation, sustainability of organisations, and changing social and political attitudes at national and international levels. Through consideration of such issues and concepts this course helps managers develop a broader contextual understanding of medium to very big businesses.
Entrepreneurship & Innovation
Entrepreneurship involves 'building something from nothing'. It is the process of seizing or creating opportunity without regard to the resources controlled. Innovation is involved in the process as is managed risk taking. Entrepreneurship & Innovation focuses on gaining an understanding of the underlying dimensions associated with developing, growth-oriented, entrepreneurial businesses. It aims to help you appreciate and systematically apply an entrepreneurial way of thinking that will allow you to create and/or identify business opportunities that may be commercialised, and to appreciate relevant strategies for achieving this. The course content provides a framework that is relevant to new ventures, existing SMEs, and entrepreneurial ventures within larger organisations.
Management Research and Consultancy
Management Research and Consultancy establishes an applied and conceptual framework for the practice of management consulting. Participants will analyse the nature of the consulting industry and will identify the key roles and essential skills of the internal and external consultant. The consulting firm practice will be examined from the perspective of establishment and management and from the viewpoint of the nature of its consultancy projects (advisory, research, contract outsourcing, technical design and installation). Techniques for identifying, contacting and formally engaging with clients and maintaining effective communication networks will be discussed.
The role of consultant as researcher will be emphasised. Participants will study philosophical and paradigmatic issues in management research and will identify the phases of a research project. A range of methodological approaches to data collection and analysis, synthesis of solutions and modelling techniques involving statistical and soft systems methodology tools will expose students to the strengths and uses of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
Course participants will develop strategies for reporting consultancy and management research outcomes as well as designing consultancy evaluation instruments.
Above all the course establishes the importance of well conducted consulting engagements and management research projects as an aid to successful strategic management.