This module aims to enable students to:

Understand and have a practical appreciation of contemporary management challenges within a view of: supply chain management, project management, enterprise management and big data;

Understand the means by which benchmarking and comparative performance assessment can be undertaken;

Have a practical understanding of the importance of teamwork and communication;

Appreciate the need for competence in operations management and be aware of its impact on business performance;

Be more accomplished autonomous learners and be able to better manage their own learning experiences.

(LO1) Develop and demonstrate research skills and an appreciation of both strategic and functional management practices, as well as appropriate models and frameworks or tools to provide critical analysis of abusiness case, and present convincing and reasoned arguments to formulate solutions for strategic action and operational decisions;

(LO2) Demonstrate critical awareness of contemporary research in appropriate areas, ie operations and supply chain management; e-Business and technology management; project management, through extraction of knowledge from the literature in an analytic manner, and use them to develop ideas for research;

(LO3) Collect secondary data from various sources including financial statements, analyse the data in qualitative and/or quantitative forms, and use the outcome to interpret and compare business health and performance using a range of financial and non-financial measures;

(LO4) Demonstrate the ability to work within teams, and make an active contribution to work teams;

(LO5) Demonstrate the ability to plan and undertake work at postgraduate level within a management discipline;

(LO6) Critically evaluate and reflect on management theory and practice;

(LO7) Use relevant theory, concepts and tools (qualitative or quantitative; soft systems; manual or IT) to analyse situations and support decisions;

(LO8) Manage data effectively; use appropriate methods to acquire and process data; analyse data competently; evaluate and interpret data soundly; synthesise data to enhance conclusions.

(S1) Core academic skills of understanding and mastery of research techniques, ability to assemble and analyse data, capability to plan improvements and assess outcomes. Developed via introduction to research in semester 1, lectures, playing business game, undertaking independent research for benchmarking, tutorial for development of the works and tasks, supervision, encouraging and guiding for preparing group presentations.

(S2) Problem solving skills. Developed by engaging in a live and active business game, with an induced competitive context to design, develop and manage a business in which problem solving plays a key role.

(S3) Commercial awareness. Developed by playing the business game.

(S4) Organisational skills. Students need to plan and organise a business, manage people and assets, and measure performance. Organise teamwork and group presentations.

(S5) Communication skills. Developed through class exercises and discussions, teamwork and group communication, preparation of reports and presentations.

(S6) Lifelong learning skills. Students will develop research skills through benchmarking exercise, theoretical and conceptual thinking about business strategic issues, teamwork and coping under pressure.

Lectures x 16 hours
Teaching in traditional lecture will be used for both parts of the module to present the principles, theories, models and methods pertinent to both business and benchmarking.

Seminars x 8 hours
Considering the need for applying research techniques, the students will be presented with a seminar/workshop on research methods in semester 1.

Tutorials x 16 hours
Students will be given tutorials in undertaking group projects in business game, and similarly for doing benchmarking exercise. Weekly plans will be made for students to attend sessions for review of their progress, solving issues and answering questions.

Laboratory Work x 16 hours
Lab sessions will be used to guide students in learning and using online resources for undertaking business games. The sessions will be provided both for teaching the use of the online game as well as troubleshooting and solving issues raised during the game process.

Group Project x 1 hour
Groups in business game part will present their results in weeks 6-8, where each member presents their role and contribution in achieving the outcome for the group.

Supervision x 16 hours
As part of developing the second assignment, students are expected to undertake their research activities, literature review, case study, and presentations their final piece in the required format. Supervision sessions will be arranged to guide the students in groups and individual forms.

Self-directed learning x 527 hours
Students will carry out assigned tasks, games, research, assignment and self-study of topics covered in lectures, including guided reading.

Introduction to research and literature review. This one-day seminar will take place in the first semester.

Teaching syllabus will cover:

The Business Game:

The Sustainability Business Simulation is a team-based approach, which offers insights into the management of global corporations using sustainable business practices. Students will deal with a realistic global automobile manufacturer (or similar) environment, where the main objective is to build sales, improve profitability and to maximise shareholder value. At the same time students will be tasked to control total carbon emissions from the main business operations in a tightening regulatory environment. Hence, number of KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) will allow students to track improvements in CO2 efficiency, energy efficiency and corporate reputation, in addition to the more usual business indicators linked to profitability or cash flow. Therefore, the simulation will provide a realistic environment to s tudents in order to manage efficiently financial, marketing, operations and social requirements in industries. Within this context, and from a multi-disciplinary point of view, teams will be responsible for:

Management decision-making;

Key operations management decisions: operations and process design;

Measurement of operational efficiency and values of key performance indicators;

Managerial competencies and functional management strategies and roles;

Contemporary management challenges and responses;

Teamwork and communication;

Fundamental accounting concepts: profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, accounting ratios;

Operations and marketing functions key roles and decisions;

Establish the efficient project management directions;

Enhance supply chain management within a sustainable view.

Strategic Benchmarking Exercise:

Companies are analysed both on an internal level and in relation to other companies in the sa me business sector by covering:

Competitive strategy and the nature of competitive advantage;

Research methods and skills;

Annual reports;

Analysis of key operations and supply chain management initiatives;

Financial and non-financial analysis;

Benchmarking and performance measurement;

Translating strategy into action.

Emphasis is given to the balanced scorecard as a means of assessing business performance, to the critical success factors in the development of an appropriate operations strategy and in evaluating the relationship between operations performance and business success.

As part of this exercise the students produce a piece of research from the literature on the principles of strategic approach to business analysis and benchmarking.