MSc Business & Management

This class develops skills in the effective practice of business analysis through the application of tools and techniques and to develop an appreciation of the issues which may require careful management if the decisions made are to be based upon valid data and models.

This class develops your ability to understand the nature and limitations of the information provided in the external, and internal, financial reports. It introduces some of the accounting techniques underlying business activity, and builds your awareness of the financial implications of strategic and operational decisions.

This class considers the key aspects of design, planning and control of operating systems in a global context. By examining the practice of leading organisations it will help you understand how organisations configure their operations and the challenges involved in managing them.

This class will introduce you to the principles of financial markets and institutions, corporate financial theory and financial decision making. It examines the core concepts and valuation models involved in pricing securities, the choices firms make over how to fund themselves and the techniques used to evaluate internal investment proposals.

This class examines contemporary international practice, exploring the major concepts and techniques involved in the marketing planning process. It will help you analyse what companies are offering, how customers behave, and ultimately identify what they need to do next to deliver on their objectives.

The central premise of this class is that while prudent management is essential, it is not sufficient to assure sustainable business success. Leadership in any sector involves using creativity and vision to navigate a unique path through problems and times of uncertainty.

This class draws together the latest theories and practices in order to develop your skills and understanding for effective leadership in the context of change. You'll also gain an understanding of the practices of leadership in innovative project teams.

This class provides opportunities to explore, understand and apply the language of strategy and strategic management. By examining real-life organisations, you will develop your understanding of the forces within their contextual and transactional environments that influence their strategy, and by applying different strategic frameworks, develop the ability to critically analyse the strategic direction being adopted.

As the final class in the degree program the Consulting in Practice class is aimed at developing effective and reflective practitioners/managers. This class provides students with the opportunity to deploy many aspects of their learning by engaging with a live issue provided by a client company. It commences with a review of key theories and tools that students have studied as part of their degree with consideration given on how to use these in this exercise. This is followed by analysis of material provided by the client which describes the issue to be addressed and the outcome expected by the client.

This then leads into a group activity which applies particular techniques for addressing aspects of the client’s issue. More detailed client input is provided at certain points in the process often through direct interface with the client. This allows students to gain a more in-depth understanding of the issue and to try out various solutions. Further analysis is carried out by the groups and the class concludes with students presenting their thinking to their client. The client presentations are then followed by a reflective session where the tutor, client and students are encouraged to explore the process of the class and develop the learning gained.

Innovation has become a core management capability for those organisations that want to succeed in today’s tough business climate.

The class focuses on the management of technological innovation in contemporary business firms with a strong emphasis on the key role of people and organisations in creating, developing and transferring new knowledge, products, processes and services. By drawing from the state of the art innovation literature as well as a wealth of original, in-depth, real world case study materials, the course analyses the opportunities and challenges related to creating, sustaining and managing innovation in the 21st century.

This class develops your awareness and capabilities as a manager using a Personal Development Plan (PDP) process to help you critically evaluate the skills and attributes needed to be effective. Over the course of the year, workshops and exercises will help you identify and move towards fulfilling your potential.

The project provides the opportunity to apply what you have learned to a practical situation. Working under the supervision of a member of faculty, you'll spend time working individually, or in a group, on a topic of central interest to you in the area of Business and Management. You'll learn the skills needed to develop a proposal and conduct an effective enquiry into your topic area, producing a report that is both informed and practical.

The projects are diverse, with a vast array of industries and disciplines being undertaken. Many projects are undertaken with organisations and the business school may be able to assist in identifying appropriate clients.

In New Venture Creation, students will learn to develop and validate winning business models. Students will cover a broad range of topics that critically examine various approaches to establishing and operating a venture, supported by frequent guest lectures from successful entrepreneurs.

In this class you will gain an understanding of the essential economic issues in international trade, market structure, and the role of international institutions in promoting trade liberalisation and disciplining international commercial interaction. You will analyse the distribution of the gains from trade, identifying the circumstances where trade liberalisation is mutually beneficial and those where there are winners and losers at the international or national level. The class will also address current issues facing the world trading system – such as Brexit – and how these might be resolved.

This module aims to provide students with skills and knowledge relating to the use of practices in Project Management with particular respect to the project triple constraint: time, cost and quality.

The mission of this elective is to provide a solid understanding and application in the strategies of global brand management. Key skills and theories of brand management will be presented and discussed in order to equip the learner to operate effectively in a global brand management environment. Students will gain a clear appreciation of the role of brand strategy within the corporation’s operating plan.  This will entail consideration of environmental factors causing changes to the structure and composition of the brand portfolio as well as discussion of conceptual issues surrounding the strategic roles of brand management.

The class will consider a number of financial decisions of strategic importance, ranging from capital expenditure decisions to those concerned with the evaluation of the terms of a merger. These decisions will be explored through lectures, exercises and most importantly, case studies. The preparation of the case studies and the discussion of the analysis will provide the focus of the class.

This class provides MSc students with insights into ‘Service’ Operations Management, an area of study that is increasingly relevant to our graduates as compared with traditional/manufacturing operations management. Emerging concepts such as ‘services science’ emphasize the need to understand operations management within the service sector as a whole, while providing specific examples from different service sectors to illustrate the wide range of challenges within service industries. Aiming to be as practically useful as possible, the class provides both conceptual and technical perspectives on services. The technical perspective utilises discrete event simulation (DES) as a powerful tool to analyse service operations and facilitate decision making for service operations managers.

In this class, participants explore aspects of governance, work ethics and succession as well as family dynamics, conflict on gender issues. The class gives students insights into effective and professional work with and within family firms.

The aim of this module is to:

• sensitize students to the basic skills involved in managing people in Europe with a focus on cultural and knowledge issues as well as managing cross-cultural differences
• understand the European context in terms of HRM and employment relations and manage effectively in this context
• be able to adapt to different cultural environments and to manage effectively in an intercultural European context as well as a global context

Games of strategy are ubiquitous throughout the corporate world, political environments, and in everyday life. Game theory provides a framework within which such strategic situations can be modelled and analysed. Through studying game theory and learning how to think strategically you can better optimize your well-being by trying to outmanoeuvre your adversaries by recognizing the fact that they are trying to outmanoeuvre you. A world of strategic thinking awaits that will transform the way you think about making decisions!

The module starts by looking at the main types of business vehicle that are used in the modern commercial environment. It goes on to explore how commercial contracts are formed and how the concept of agency can affect contracts. An exploration of common contractual problems follows.

The module then turns to examine practical skills: goal setting, time management and risk management (all of which are set in a theoretical context for participants). Finally, participants learn about the theory of negotiation and have the opportunity to bring all of their theoretical legal knowledge and practical skills to bear during a negotiation simulation.

The mega-trend of digital transformation is first examined to familiarise the student with the environmental drivers – social and technological – behind the rise of digital transformation.

Key technological advances powering digital transformation as a global phenomenon are introduced, including:

• elastic cloud computing
• big data & analytics
• the internet of things (IoT)
• artificial intelligence (AI)
• machine learning

Social implications for work and life are examined, and examples explored as to how digital transformation is already reshaping nations, sectors, organisations and individuals.

The principal aim of this course is to provide students with the ability to understand how changes in the global economic environment could impact upon future business models – and to gain experience in identifying the strategies that best respond to different situations. Learn about major ‘grand challenges’ and how they might impact upon your business model.

To provide students with a strong understanding of how an economy operates (and can impact upon individual businesses), and the role of policy in shaping economic outcomes, and in turn inform business strategy.

This elective provides an understanding of how sports management practice can help any type of organisation. This is very different from other classes that we currently have for electives offerings. The key objective of MBA and MSc education to develop effective business leaders.

The aim of this class is to introduce the strategies, tools and techniques utilised by organisations in business and sport who not only improved performance over a sustained period of time – they changed the rules of the game in their industry or sector.