MSc Innovation & Marketing Management

The aim of this class is to enable students to advance their understanding of the strategic marketing management process, to develop their knowledge of marketing planning and implementing the strategic activities of marketing within organisations in order to succeed in competitive markets.

The class provides an overview of discrete marketing tools used as well as theories and the fundamental terminology used in the field of strategic marketing management. In addition, the class aims to equip students with the analytical skills necessary to be able to implement and assess the outcomes of marketing decision making.

Marketing research and customer information provide key input to the development of a company's marketing strategy. The marketing concept is better implemented when information about the market, the competitors and potential buying behaviour is available.

This class introduces the decisions and stages of the marketing research process, within the context of customer and market information now available from a wide range of sources including databases, loyalty cards and the internet.

This class provides a series of strategic frameworks for managing high-technology businesses. The emphasis throughout the class is on the development and application of conceptual models which clarify the relationships between a firm's strategy, patterns of technological and market change and the processes for the development of organizational capabilities.

This is not a class in how to manage product or process development. The main focus is on the acquisition of a set of powerful analytical tools which are critical for the development of a technology strategy as an integral part of business strategy. These tools can provide a guiding framework for deciding which technologies to invest in, how to structure those investments and how to anticipate and respond to the behaviour of competitors, suppliers, and customers.

The class should be of particular interest to those interested in managing a business for which technology is likely to play a major role, and to those interested in consulting or venture capital.

The class utilizes lectures, case analyses and independent reading. The readings are drawn from research in strategy, technological change and organizational theory. The case studies provide an extensive opportunity to integrate and apply these abstract tools in a practical, business policy context.

The class aims to provide students with an in-depth knowledge and understanding of those key concepts, methods, tools and techniques that are fundamental to effective and efficient running of supply chain operations from suppliers’ suppliers to customers’ customers. On completion the participants will be able to design and manage operational supply chain planning, scheduling and controlling systems for complex and disparate operations.

The class aims to provide a structured introduction to the Design Management process, issues and tools. On completion participants will appreciate and understand the role of design within an organisation and the organisational structures required for effective design, appreciate the role of design models, approaches and methods, know a variety of aspects including socio-technical elements of design, and appreciate the role of innovation in design and value and performance in design.

The Marketing Works project provides you with a challenging organisation-based, action-learning opportunity to advise a company on a marketing problem/opportunity.

You'll consult your client-firm or client-organisation with the objective of delivering realistic recommendations which, if implemented, could reasonably be expected to help generate strategic marketing plans. The scope of the project is to allow you to work in groups to manage the project at hand, and communicate outcomes to your clients.

The groups are responsible for managing their relationships with their clients, and will be assigned a supervisor from the Department who will oversee the your progress.

Find out more about the Marketing Works: Group Project and see what companies you could be working with.

This class provides a detailed understanding of brand theory and application of key brand strategies. Major brands will be reviewed.

Aspects and theories of brand management will be presented and discussed in order to equip you to manage effectively in a global brand environment. You'll 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.

A theoretical look at how a company’s brand value is created and measured will be a key objective of this core class. Using core brand theories and concepts, this class reviews and applies brand strategies to a variety of business cases. The course is rich in branding theory and will put the theory to practice using branding applications to industry and reviewing key companies branding strategies.

This class aims to provide students with an understanding of strategic aspects of finance in relation to the decision-making process and analysis necessary for efficient management of organisations. Participants will demonstrate understanding of the financial organisation of industrial enterprises, understand, interpret and prepare financial statements and costing models of industrial enterprises, evaluate financial models to facilitate economic decision making, and evaluate the application and impact of performance measurement tools in a business environment.

To stay ahead of the game, corporations must innovate. They must improve their processes, launch new products and services, move into adjacent markets, and even launch breakthrough new businesses. There is just one problem; organizations are not built for innovation, they are built for ongoing operations. Furthermore, innovation and ongoing operations are always and inevitably in conflict. So, how can corporations achieve simultaneous excellence in both?

The central focus of this class is innovation implementation. The importance of the subject matter covered in this course is captured in the widely accepted “truism” that over 90 percent of businesses (as well as non-profit organizations) flounder on the rocks of implementation; either the 'plans' never come into being or get distorted, or the implementation is much costlier and time consuming than anticipated. However laudable the creative idea or innovation intentions may be, if they do not become a reality, they usually are not worth the paper on which they are written. Conversely, high-performing companies excel at execution. This class will provide concepts, frameworks, and tools to help the participant to gain that “execution advantage” while innovating.

This class provides the participant with insights into Strategic Purchasing Management, specifically the EXP (Excellent Purchasing Model), which summarizes the purchasing functions and processes at strategic, tactical and operational levels.

This interactive class provide participants with a critical understanding of why procurement is a strategic influence of an organisation, and determining the building blocks that are essential to this, and the skills and attitudes necessary to build a strategic procurement structure, and the functions that make it imperative to the organisation.

A good level of performance across both semesters is necessary for you to progress to the Dissertation stage of the MSc. The dissertation is your opportunity to study, in depth, a specific marketing problem in an area of personal interest.

Dissertations typically involve desk research and literature reviews, then case studies of individual companies or small scale primary research. This provides scope for originality of thought, research fieldwork and analysis and presentation of results.

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

On completion of the class the participant is expected to be able to:

• demonstrate a good understanding of project management practices and practical skills to manage project scope
• gain intellectual skills to apply various project planning
• scheduling and controlling methods with respect to the project triple constraints: time, cost and quality
• develop a good understanding of the inter-dependency between various project management knowledge areas
• understand the importance of project stakeholders and their impact on project management

This module aims to enable students to select and apply appropriate design methods as a part of the design process.

On completion of the class the participant is expected to be able to:

• select and apply appropriate design methods for a design project
• integrate appropriate design methods into a design process to ensure fitness of purpose of all aspects of the problem/context
• analyse literature sources to identify design methods suitable for a particular situation

The aim of this class is to provide participants with an in-depth understanding of the key principles, concepts, tools and techniques of total quality management and continuous improvement together with an awareness of how in practice these could be synthesised to design and deliver an integrated continuous improvement programme.

On completion of the class participants are expected to be able to:

• understand key principles, concepts, tools and techniques of total quality management and continuous Improvement
• apply key principles, concepts, tools and techniques of total quality management and continuous improvement
• construct improvement programmes within a particular context

Services represent more than a quarter of all world trade and the world market for services is growing at more than twice the rate of the product sector. Over the past two decades, academics and practitioners have become aware of the need to adopt a different emphasis when marketing services rather than products. Many companies producing products are turning to service to provide their differentiation.

At the heart of this elective is the recognition that services present unique challenges, and that building customer relationships through quality service is fundamental to marketing success in every organisation. The aim of this elective is to provide an introduction to the special challenges of Services Marketing with a particular focus on the international context.

This class focuses on describing the organisational buying behaviour of the B2B (business to business) customer and highlights the key differences between B2B and B2C (business to consumer) marketing. The theory and practice of relationship-marketing is then discussed so that participants can understand what relationship-management is and the implications for the company’s marketing strategy. The class addresses the challenges of identifying Key Accounts, how the supplier can develop a successful relationship with them, and the implications of Key Account Management for the supplier.

On completion of the class participants are expected to be able to:

• understand how and why organisational buying behaviour is different from that of individual consumers
• comprehend the implications for the marketing manager and the marketing task when selling to another organisation
• appreciate the significance of aligning and efficiently using scarce resources between different B2B customers to improve the ability of the supplier to manage a portfolio of B2B customers
• understand how to successfully develop and manage a relationship with a B2B customer