Warwick MBA – (MBA)

Contents

The Warwick MBA study programme has seven compulsory core modules which cover the disciplines of management and key business processes. This foundation gives you the essential building blocks to go on to explore more and varied management issues later in the programme. You will be taught using a variety of methods including lectures, case studies, models, visits, simulations and syndicate work.

CORE MODULES:

1. Accounting & Financial Management:

Evaluating the financial performance of business units is crucial to all managers. This module introduces you to the terminology, concepts, and problems of representing and measuring economic activity. You will cover the basic forms in which financial statistics are conventionally presented as well as techniques for their analysis and interpretation.

This module will give you an introduction to costing for performance measurement and for stock valuation. You will also explore the lack of certainty in accounting, the need for conventions, and the problems of choosing among equally logical, defensible, and consistent accounting conventions.

Topics usually covered include:

* The accounting world & rules
* Companies & their accounts
* Recording & preparation of accounting information
* Direct & indirect costs
* Creative accounting
* Cash flow statements & forecasts
* Interpretation of financial information
* The analysis of profitability
* Price-earning ratios.

By the end of this module you will:

* Understand the basic techniques of financial accounting
* Understand and be able to analyse financial information
* Understand how to evaluate financial performance.

2. Economics of the Business Environment:

This module introduces you to the ways macroeconomic and market context is determined and how this changes over time. You will study the macroeconomy and the general business environment as well as firm level decision-making within the macroeconomic and market context.

You will also examine how the context impacts upon organisational decision-making, behaviour, and performance. During the module you will become familiar with major recent national and international economic and business trends.

Topics usually covered include:

* The accounting world and rules
* Current macroeconomic and microeconomics issues
* Business, strategy, and the macroeconomy
* Levels of economic activity
* Price levels and unemployment
* Overseas trade
* Macroeconomic policy
* Coping with the macro context
* Industries and markets
* Supply and demand curves
* Dynamic decisions
* Investment as an entry barrier
* Uncertainty and its impact
* Real options techniques.

By the end of this module you will have:

* Been introduced to a number of basic economic concepts
* Studied the use of these concepts in business
* Understood how economics can be used to approach business related questions
* Have an increased knowledge of the global economy and of key current events
* Understand why business must cope with uncertainty and risk.

3. Market Analysis:

This module gives you a broad introduction to the marketing concept and the role of marketing in the modern organisation. You will examine the role of marketing in today's increasingly competitive, dynamic, and turbulent management environment. You will also explore the core themes addressed by marketing-oriented organisations, whether they are commercially focused or not-for-profit.

Teaching covers the key marketing principles in analysis and strategy as well as the tactical programmes and controls required to implement marketing strategies. You will focus on exploring the links between marketing analysis, the recommendation of a marketing strategy, and the development of a marketing mix set of tactics. The module will develop your skills in analysing diverse marketing situations, and in identifying marketing opportunities/threats.

Topics usually covered include:

* Marketing in the modern organisation
* The marketing & competitive environment
* Consumer & business-to-business buying behaviour
* Marketing research & marketing information systems
* Segmentation & targeting
* Positioning strategies
* Portfolio planning techniques
* Marketing strategy
* Creating a competitive advantage
* The marketing mix.

By the end of this module you will have:

* Understood the core process of marketing
* Developed a wider understanding of the role and value of marketing
* Understood an organisation's ability to respond to marketing opportunities and threats
* Put concepts and techniques into practice.

4. Modelling & Analysis for Management:

This module introduces you to the ideas of modelling and to the relevance of modelling for management. You will consider a variety of approaches that are commonly used in a business and management environment.

As a manager, you must be able both to extract information from data for decision-making and to think analytically about problems in situations where there is uncertainty or incomplete information. This module will help you understand a variety of means in which data may be processed in order to make usable decision-making information.

The module's emphasis is upon you being a critical consumer of quantitative information and quantitative modelling. You will look at the context and process of modelling rather than the technicalities underlying specific modelling approaches. You will examine some modelling approaches in detail as well as consider the interpretations placed upon the output of the models.

You will use case studies to examine how models may be used and how they may be employed. You will learn to understand the importance of, and benefits to be gained from, modelling for management.

Topics usually covered include:

* The nature of modelling and the modelling process
* Problem structuring
* Model validation
* Sampling, and the accuracy of sample information
* The relevance of modelling relationships in data analysis
* Forecasting
* The use of simulation in business
* The role of linear programming.

By the end of this module you will be able to:

* Brief specialist modellers to achieve specific outcomes
* Interpret data reports, and act upon their information.

5. Operations Management:

This module enables you to understand the concepts underlying the production/operations function. You will learn to appreciate the different nature of the tasks and issues involved in managing the production function in a manufacturing company and the operations function in a service organisation.

Topics usually covered include:

* The nature of operations management and its performance objectives
* Design-related activities which set the form and function of the operation and its products or services
* The planning and control activities necessary to run the operation over time
* Improving the way operations perform their function.

By the end of this module you will have:

* Understood the performance objectives of operations that are applicable to all types of organisation
* Examined the activity areas in which operations managers are involved
* Studied examples illustrating the principles of operations in a practical context.

6. Organisational Behaviour:

This module helps you examine some of the key concepts and problems associated with the management of behaviour in organisations. You will be introduced to alternative concepts and frameworks for understanding behaviour in organisations and for diagnosing and dealing with organisational problems.

You will consider the perspectives to be used when examining organisational behaviour and look at the relationship between individuals and the organisations in which they work. You will place particular emphasis on decision-making and leadership with regard to the formation and dynamics of group working.

Topics usually covered include:

* Individual behaviour
* Motivation
* The formation and dynamics of groups
* Leadership
* Organisational structure and design, and environment
* Power and the political context of organisations
* Managing organisational change.

By the end of this module you will have:

* Improved your knowledge of different research methods, and their practical applications, in the area of organisational behaviour
* Examined the group processes involved in different forms of organising and decision-making
* Understood organisational behaviour in its broadest multi-disciplinary context
* Familiarised yourself with the theoretical and practical literature relating to studying organisational behaviour

7. Strategic Advantage:

This module draws on various disciplines to provide you with good foundations for making strategic decisions, using the global business environment to provide context. You will be introduced to basic frameworks and methods to provide the crucial concepts used in setting long-term direction.

Strategy is fundamentally concerned with managing the long-term direction of the whole business. This Strategic Advantage module helps you to understand 'strategy' at the level of the individual business, or business unit, and at the corporate level. You will be equipped with the basic analytical concepts, frameworks, and methods used in setting long-term direction.

Topics usually covered include:

* Competitive strategy and the business environment
* The macro-economic context of strategy
* Adding value in multi-business firms
* Corporate failure and turnaround strategies
* Strategy and the entrepreneur
* Mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances
* Global strategies and international business
* Strategy and forecasting in a changing business environment.

By the end of this module you will:

* Be able to use business resources to achieve sustained, superior performance
* Have an integrated approach to business.

ELECTIVE MODULES:

WBS offers a vast array of elective modules to help you tailor your studies to your own requirements. They are often available in more than one study mode, allowing you to choose whichever suits you best.

Whichever delivery mode you have chosen for your core modules, you can pick and choose for your electives. It may suit you to stay in the same mode, or you might want, or need, to change stream for one or more elective modules.

You will choose six elective modules. Not all modules are available in all delivery modes, and modules on offer can change from year to year.

DISSERTATION:

Your management consultancy project is a vital part of the study programme. Academically, it tests your ability to apply your learning to real management issues. Professionally, it may well open the door to your next career move.

For some participants, the project is the incentive they can use to encourage their employer to sponsor them. The promise of the quality of focus and expertise which will be brought to the endeavour can be a powerful motivator.

We facilitate a number of projects for our full-time participants, and hold regular events for companies to come and talk about their project opportunities. However, most participants find it more satisfying to generate their own project to meet their personal needs and aspirations.

We run a project & dissertation workshop before you start, to help you along your way. You will also be be supervised by an academic member of the faculty who will help you focus on the relevant issues. Our Project Team will support you with the administrative side of writing and submitting your dissertation.

There are normally two outputs to your work:

* A management report for the organisation
* An academic dissertation of between 15-20,000 words, demonstrating your understanding and logical application of relevant concepts.