Advanced Management Program (blended online/on campus)

Module: Financial Tools for Managers

(Simon Bracher)

This module covers aspects of financial management for owners and key employees of mid-size companies. Major topics include understanding financial information as a critical component for controlling and growing a company; identifying financial tools for effectively managing company assets, including cash, receivables, inventory, plant and equipment; applying capital budgeting, credit management, and working capital management for improving business operations; using horizontal, vertical, and ratio analysis of financial information for effective business management; creating and using financial projections for channeling and managing business resources; and anticipating business change and how to handle it. 

 Topic 1: Assessment of an organization’s financial health

• Profitability
• Cash Flow
• Liquidity
• Leverage

Topic 2: Planning of the organization’s future financial performance

• Planning
• Budgeting
• Forecasting

Topic 3: Financing of the organization’s operations

• Classic equity and debt financing
• Contemporary financing tools

Topic 4: Evaluation of business and investment opportunities for the organization

• Asset approach
• Income approach
• Market approach

Module: Transformational Leadership in a global context

(Dr Michael Gerlich)

In times of rapidly changing business contexts and globalized work, managers depend more than ever on their subordinates to get results. Employees may thus represent both a key resource and a liability for managerial success. Tapping the full potential of employees, however, may require leadership and people management skills that stretch beyond ordinary managerial competencies.

Topic 1: Emotional Intelligence

• Establishing self-awareness and self-management
• Managing relationships within an organization
• Building organizational awareness
• Developing a team culture of emotional intelligence and psychological safety
• Learning resilience

Topic 2: Coaching and Mentoring

• Introduction of the principles, skills and impact of coaching and mentoring 
• Establishing key coaching and mentoring relationships and skills
• Support the development of individuals and teams
• Developing skills in managing team dynamics, equality and diversity

 Topic 3: Leading Change

• Understand different approaches to leading organizational change
• Understand how to manage resistance to change
• Understand how social and informal networks can help facilitate change
• Understand the impact of cultural differences on leadership

 Topic 4: Situational Leadership

• Understand the different alternative styles of management and leadership
• Get clarity on the management mix and leadership approach
• Understand the impact of over-supervision and under-supervision
• Set the goals for the team members and align them with the goals of the organization
• Understand how to set goals and evaluate the performance
• Improve job satisfaction and the morale of the team

 Topic 5: Motivating employees

• Understand the key motivators of human behavior
• Acquire novel ideas on how to motivate employees beyond money
• Understand the importance of designing motivating work, as well as how to redesign work so that it is more motivating.

Module: Strategic Marketing in a digital world

Marketing strategy isn’t confined to a marketing team. By understanding how to align marketing strategies with business strategy, high-performing business leaders make better decisions about their products, services, customers, brand, and competition. This module goes beyond traditional marketing practices and helps you learn how top brands are applying cutting-edge AI, automation, and customer journey mapping to make better decisions and gain efficiencies.

Topic 1: A Framework for Marketing in a Digital World

Understand customer expectations and learn about the five marketing transformation lanes

• Customer Expectations in a Digital World
• Marketing Transformation as a Journey
• Laying out the Framework: 5 Marketing Transformation Lanes

Topic 2: Understand Customers and Generating Insights

Learn about the nature of customer insight through social data, as well as map the customer experience.

• Customer Insights: Deductive and Inductive
• Ethnography
• Customer Experience Mapping
• Human Factors Research
• Social Data Mining
• AI in Customer Insight

Topic 3:  Customer Segmentation and Behavioral Marketing

Study the fundamentals of customer segmentation and how to select target markets based on behavior and responses.

• A Priori vs. Response-based Segmentation
• Segmentation Process Overview (Hypothesize, Quantify, Validate/Describe)
• Behavioral Marketing and Automated Behavioral Marketing

Topic 4:  The Customer Journey and Content Strategy

Find out where your customers are in their relationship with your brand and learn how to create new ways to engage and inform.

• Customer Journey Mapping
• Improving Customer Experience with ERRC Grid (Eliminate, Raise, Reduce, Create)
• Content Management Process
• Creating Content Hubs

Topic 5:  Brand Storytelling in a Digital World

Understand how to engage with impactful and thoughtful stories to connect customers with your brand and values.

• Structure of Storytelling
• Transmedia Storytelling
• Storytelling Campaign Design

Topic 6:  Designing and Executing Digital Marketing Campaigns

Explore the end-to-end process of designing and executing digital campaigns, and learn how marketing automation software helps to optimize the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

• Campaign strategy
• Steps for implementation
• Measuring, monitoring, and adjusting campaign execution
• Automating the campaign process with AI and machine learning

Module: Strategies in a globally challenging environment

(Dan Ravick Fiala)

This module focuses on strategy and strategic management within the global context and explores the effects of globalization as well as de-globalization and the ways businesses can adapt in the changing global environment and respond to the emerging challenges and competition.

Topic 1: Analyzing the Internal Environment: Resources and Competences

• VRIO Analysis
• McKinsey 7S Framework
• SWOT Analysis

Topic 2: Analyzing External Environment

• Porter’s Five Forces Analysis
• PESTEL Analysis
• Competitor Analysis        

Topic 3: Strategy Formulation – Strategic Choices

• Vision, mission, value statements
• Four levels of strategy in an organization
• Four choices of strategy formulation (financial performance, markets, competitive advantage, and operating model)
• Market entry strategies
• Adaptation or mitigation

Topic 4: Strategic tools

• Balanced scorecard
• Organizational timelines
• Action item checklists

Topic 5: Stakeholder Management

• Internal and external stakeholders
• Stakeholder mapping
• Stakeholder analysis
• Stakeholder management strategies

 Topic 6: Strategy Implementation

• Institutionalization of Strategy
• Developing proper organizational climate
• Formulation of operating plans
• Developing proper organizational structure
• Periodic Review of Strategy

Module: HRM in an upside-down world: How to stay an attractive employer

(Dr. Günther Singer)

The aim of this module helps to understand and analyze the impact of internal and external environmental forces on organizational strategy and management of people. Also, to analyze a range of organizational contexts and how they develop ways to respond to such environmental forces and the role of HR professionals in contributing to it. Not only did COVID19 have a huge impact on human resource management but as well the changed roles of employers and employees.

Topic 1: What happened to HRM in the past 5 years?

• Working from home
• Work life balance
• Gen-Z, Gen-X and baby boomers
• Psychological pressure created outside the organization

Topic 2: Employee retention – what it really takes

• Vision of a company 
• Employee engagement
• Hierarchy of needs
• HR development tools

 Topic 3: Employee Health and Well-Being

• Physical health
• Emotional health
• Economic health
• Sources of stress
• Mindfulness in the workplace
• Implementation of employee mental health programs

Topic 4: Future employment models

This topic will discuss ideas of future employment models which will be further developed by the students in groups.

Module: Digital Transformation: A holistic approach

As technology has proliferated and advanced, it has opened up far more opportunities for businesses to improve their processes and operations, leading to better services and customer experiences. But digital transformation isn’t a one-and-done project or an initiative confined to the IT department. To truly keep a company competitive and adaptable, it is necessary to adopt a holistic approach to digital transformation.

Topic 1: Introduction to digital transformation

• Define digital transformation and its benefits, and identify examples in your industry.
• Describe the challenges faced by organizations attempting to digitally transform.
• Explain how digital transformation can lead to new business models.
• Identify business needs that can be solved through digital transformation.

Topic 2: World of data

• Analyze the use of descriptive, predictive, or prescriptive modeling and how to assess the different sources of data and problems related to the quantity and format.

Topic 3: The Process of Digital Transformation

• Master looking at processes through a customer-centric lens to identify the scope of improvement and create process flows for your organization.

Topic 4:Digital Business Models

• Understand how subscription models are driving massive growth and the difference between dynamic and personalized pricing.

Topic 5: People and the Organization

• Identify the importance of specifying strategic imperatives for a digital transformation and the key performance indicators that can be used to measure an organization’s performance relative to these imperatives.

Topic 6: Technology and Policy

Understand the regulations around data collection and usage and the ethical questions that emerge. Explore algorithmic bias and uncover when and why algorithmic decisions can be biased.

Module: Social Entrepreneurship: Business model for a better future

(Dr. Sally Shamieh)

Social entrepreneurship is at the heart of debates about social change and tackling global social problems. As social consciousness grows, so has the need for organizations that have purpose and ethical business practices built into their foundations. There is also increasing impetus to integrate social purpose into corporate strategy to maintain a competitive advantage and for long-term survival.

Topic 1: Understanding social problems

• Define the concept of social entrepreneurship
• Identify the main drivers of change in social entrepreneurship in the social and political environments
• Articulate the opportunities for social entrepreneurship in relation to the drivers of change

Topic 2: Becoming a social entrepreneur

• Analyze how organizations can be generators of social impact
• Assess how entrepreneurial tools and skills can be used to address social problems
• Draft a Business Model Canvas

 Topic 3: Business models for social entrepreneurship

• Identify social entrepreneurship business models
• Choose a business model for a social entrepreneurship idea
• Analyze the suitability of a business model for an organization
• Justify a social entrepreneurship business model for a particular business idea

 Topic 4: Funding for social entrepreneurship

• Determine the different characteristics and constraints of traditional funding sources
• Investigate the nuances of innovative funding sources
• Assess pitching techniques
• Present a pitch designed to obtain funding for your social entrepreneurial idea

 Topic 5: To profit or not to profit: Choosing your organizational form

• Articulate the differences between organizational forms
• Contrast standard organizational forms with hybrid organizational forms
• Analyze the benefits and challenges of different organizational forms
• Decide on and justify an appropriate organizational form for a social entrepreneurship idea

 Topic 6: Measuring social impact

• Articulate the importance of social impact in social entrepreneurship
• Show how the Theory of Change relates to impact and the evaluation lifecycle
• Analyze key elements of an evaluation report
• Recommend key criteria for determining how social impact can be measured
• Design an impact evaluation plan

Module: How sustainability leads to higher profitability

(Dr. Bert Wolfs)

As sustainability becomes an increasingly critical part of global consciousness, businesses are faced with one of their biggest opportunities for innovation to date. Today, companies have the chance to transform their practices to drive not only progress, but profits as well. Success requires both a structured program to improve performance and a sustainability philosophy. Such efforts often get stuck, especially at the business-unit level, when managers have other priorities. This module will show you that sustainability and profitability are not opposing each other.

Topic 1: Sustainability and value creation

Topic 2: Applying performance management to sustainability

Topic 3: Managing risks

Topic 4: Circular economy

Topic 5: Take advantage of new business opportunities

Module: Re-inventing Capitalism

(Dr. Bert Wolfs)

The course gives an overview of the current big problems and challenges companies are facing. Is it worth for private companies to engage and to make the world a better and fairer place? The origins of capitalism are reviewed and challenges are discussed. We look at the role of investors and shareholders, the role of leaders in the newest normal world, and look at the implications of the new economic models for the future of the students and their careers.

Topic 1: Scoping the problem

Topic 2: capitalism and challenges

Topic 3: The purpose of a corporation in an uncertain, unfair world

Topic 4: re-inventing capitalism: is it really our choice?

Topic 5: Challenges and prospects for the future generations

Module: Business Simulation

(Dr Michael Gerlich)

Over the period of the whole course you will apply your gained knowledge in a business simulation competition in groups. This real-life simulation lets you make all the management decisions to successfully run a business in a competitive environment.

Modules:

• Induction online (0.5 days)
• Financial tools for Managers online (12 teaching hours)
• Transformational Leadership in a global context on campus (3 days)
• Strategic Marketing in a digital world on campus (3 days)
• Strategies in a globally challenging environment on campus (3 days)
• HRM in an upside-down world: How to stay an attractive employer online (12 teaching hours)
• Digital Transformation: A holistic approach online (12 teaching hours)
• Social Entrepreneurship: Business model for a better future online (12 teaching hours)
• How sustainability leads to higher profitability on campus (1.5 days)
• Re-inventing Capitalism on campus (1 day)
• Business Simulation (0.5/0.,5 days) on campus/online