Achieving Enduring Success
| Module title | Achieving Enduring Success |
|---|---|
| Module code | MBAM960 |
| Academic year | 2024/5 |
| Credits | 30 |
| Module staff | Dr Stuart Robinson (Lecturer) Dr Alex Connock (Lecturer) Dr Lina Zhang (Lecturer) |
| Duration: Term | 1 | 2 | 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Duration: Weeks | 4 days | 5 days | 4 days |
| Number students taking module (anticipated) | 35 |
|---|
Module description
This module will cover 3 fundamental management topics: Marketing, Strategy, and Operations.
Many MBA graduates take up roles in large organisations where success can take many meanings. In our view, success is not only creation of profit but also of social value. These modules teach you about the practical marketing, operations and strategic decision-making tools that good organisers use to drive success, however this is defined. Based on classroom learning, online learning, case study and simulation exercises you will learn how to use information and analysis to make a critical assessment of an organisation’s situation and recommend action that can sustain or improve performance.
Module aims - intentions of the module
This module will equip you with the business fundamentals necessary to provide strategic leadership within organisations.
Real World Marketing
Marketing is how companies grow, and without marketing, companies may cease to exist at all. It is a practical, ever-changing subject which grapples with the day-to-day challenges of producing and delivering attractive products, setting the right prices, promoting goods in the most cost-efficient manner possible and in the right channels, getting those goods to the end user as effectively as possible, and targeting and valuing the right customers. To do that, marketing touches on every discipline across the firm. This course looks at real-world marketing through the lens of key skills every business executive needs to have - in brand, segmentation, customer valuation, digital marketing and other key tools. It takes a journey from the basic underlying principles through to the latest AdTech techniques. There are practical exercises, industry guests, class presentations and groupwork.
Strategy
The aim of this module is to introduce strategy through an intellectually stimulating, and academically rich, yet practical study of strategic management. The module challenges and integrates theoretical ideas in strategic management. The module explores the ideas of both leading scholars to discuss what strategy comprises, and prominent practitioners to establish how strategy is implemented. The aims of the module are: to understand 21st century challenges such as globalisation, sustainability and responsible management from a strategic management perspective; to develop the ability to analyse and develop a holistic approach to strategic issues; to develop a critical understanding of strategic thinking and its implications for organisations.
Operations
Central to any organisation is its operational capability to reliably transform materials and resources into products and services for its customers with the desired quality and service levels. The aims of the module are to understand the challenges facing the organisation of operations in the context of a rapidly evolving technology landscape and need to achieve sustainability targets. The module takes an analytical approach and introduces the necessary concepts, theories, frameworks, and tools of strategic operations management so that existing operations can be analysed and improved, and new operations designed in the light of these challenges.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
ILO: Module-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 1. identify and apply appropriate theoretical principles to analyse complex organisational problems, offering a consistently strategic perspective;
- 2. use an integrated and holistic perspective when making strategic recommendations to issues related to growth, competition, and customer offering;
- 3. critically analyse an organisations competitive environment, evaluate competitive positions, and identify core competences using various tools and models of strategy;
- 4. explain the evolution, challenges and consequences of new business models and sustainable production.
ILO: Discipline-specific skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 5. assess whether organisations have developed successful segmentation, positioning, branding and communication strategies in order to evaluate the impact of marketing on shaping customers choices, and behaviour;
- 6. critically evaluate the role of operations within different business models and analyse organisations using standard benchmarking;
- 7. demonstrate a critical understanding of strategic management tools and concepts and evaluate firm strategies in light of global challenges;
- 8. Plan and deliver effective communications using the skills and tools of modern advertising, including the paid/owned/earned media framework, and in consideration of the ethical dimensions of modern marketing.
ILO: Personal and key skills
On successfully completing the module you will be able to...
- 9. take a global outlook: apply creative intelligence and ethical imagination to complex problems to ensure that environmental and social governance is taken into account
- 10. apply critical thinking: present and defend strategic analyses in multiple forms (written, verbal, digital) based on case material, desk based and empirical research;
- 11. work with a collaborative mind-set: give and receive feedback at all levels in a confident and respectful manner. Work inclusively across multi-cultural groups to research, explore and prepare a persuasive argument against an assignment or client brief;
- 12. develop an ethical perspective: improve personal effectiveness through consciously and diligently making decisions on behalf of all stakeholders, environmental, social and financial;
- 13. demonstrate technological and digital literacy: identify and apply relevant technologies to source, process and communicate accurate information.
Syllabus plan
Real World Marketing
- Introduction to real-world marketing, and the practical challenges of being a CMO
- Why everyone in the company is also in marketing
- Customer decision making, customer lifetime value
- Segmentation, targeting, positioning
- Brand
- Marketing ethics
- Customer journey and user experience from the perspective of the company
- Paid/owned/earned media, advertising, social media marketing
- Digital marketing/programmatic/AdTech
- New technologies in marketing including artificial intelligence
Strategy
- What is strategy?
- Models theories and concepts
- External and internal analysis
- Building tomorrow’s capabilities
- Scenario planning and horizon scanning
Operations
- Key concepts, models and frameworks
- Industry dominant and emerging strategies
- Modelling, simulation and analytics for performance analysis
- Managing supply networks
- Service operations, quality and the customer experience
- Disruptive innovation
- Eliminating waste, re-use and re-manufacturing
Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)
| Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 114 | 186 | 0 |
Details of learning activities and teaching methods
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 114 | Lectures & facilitated group discussions |
| Guided independent study | 186 | Reading, research, group work, writing |
Formative assessment
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing group discussions | 30 minutes per group | 2,3,5,8-13 | Oral feedback |
| Strategy - group exercises | N/A | 1, 3, 7, 8-13 | Oral feedback |
| Operations - class discussions | 30 40 minutes in class | 3, 4, 6, 8-13 | Oral feedback |
Summative assessment (% of credit)
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 0 | 0 |
Details of summative assessment
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing - Written Report | 34 | 3000 words | 2,4,5,8,10,11,13 | Written feedback |
| Strategy - Slide Pack | 25 | Slide pack with narration 15 minutes in length (75%) | 1,2,3,7,9,13 | Written feedback |
| Strategy - Viva | 8 | 10 minute assignment viva (25%) | 1,2,3,7,9,13 | Verbal feedback and notes |
| Operations - Written Individual Assignment | 33 | 3000 words | 2,4,6,9,11,12,13 | Written feedback |
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 | ||||
| 0 |
Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marketing - written report 3000 words (34%) | Written report 3000 words 34% | 2,4,5,8,10,11,13 | Within 6 weeks of original submission |
| Strategy - slide pack | Strategy - slide pack with narration 15 minutes in length (75%) 25% | 1,2,3,7,9,13 | Within 6 weeks of original submission |
| Strategy - viva | 10 minute assignment viva (25%) 8% | 1,2,3,7,9,13 | Within 6 weeks of original submission |
| Operations 3,000 written individual assignment (33%) | 3,000 Individual Word Assignment 33% | 2,4,6,9,11,12,13 | Within 6 weeks of original submission |
Re-assessment notes
An overall module mark of 50% is required from across all three components.
Indicative learning resources - Basic reading
Basic reading Marketing:
- Marketing Management, Global Edition Paperback –2021by Philip Kotler (Author), Kevin Keller (Author)
- Media Management and Artificial Intelligence: Understanding Media Business Models in the Digital Age, by Alex Connock (Routledge, 2022)
Basic reading Strategy:
- Hitt, M.A., Ireland, R.D., & Hoskisson, R.E. (2020). Strategic management: Competitiveness and globalization (13th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.
- Thompson, A.A., Peteraf, M.A., Gamble, J.E., Strickland III, A.J., Janes, A., & Sutton, C. (2017). Crafting and executing strategy: the quest for competitive advantage: concepts and cases (2nd international ed.). London: McGraw Hill Education.
Basic reading Operations:
- Brown, S., Bessant, J., & Jia, F. (2018). Strategic operations management (4th ed.). London: Routledge.
- Slack, N., & Brandon-Jones, A. (2019). Operations management (9th ed.). Harlow: Pearson Education.
Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources
ELE –
Operations: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=10993
Strategy: https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=10994
Marketing: under construction
| Credit value | 30 |
|---|---|
| Module ECTS | 15 |
| Module pre-requisites | None |
| Module co-requisites | None |
| NQF level (module) | 7 |
| Available as distance learning? | No |
| Origin date | 31/01/2020 |
| Last revision date | 20/11/2024 |
