About the course
The Ascot Mini-MBA consists of twelve Modules, each giving you an overview of a typical MBA
module.
As well as giving you all the essential theory and practice, each Module includes questions to consider (which can lead to an assignment if you choose), and a list of suggested further reading. Many additional materials are available via the Ascot Mini-MBA Student Resources Site, details of which are given to you when you enrol. All of this can be discussed by email with your tutor, who you can use as much or as little as you like throughout the course.
Although the Modules will be posted out to you, you can see what they're like by requesting a Free Sample, which we send as an email attachment.
The twelve Modules are:
Month 1: The Management Gurus: an overview
of management thinking, and an introduction to ten important writers, many of
whom we will be returning to later in the course.
Month 2: Strategic Management: an introduction to the subject of Strategy
formulation and implementation, and a consideration of some reasons for strategic
successes and failures. This Module also introduces several tools
commonly used in strategy formulation and analysis.
Month 3: Organisational Behaviour:begins with an overview of the various ways
commercial organisations may be structured, and goes on to ask some
important questions. Why do organisations act in the way they do, and how
do they interact with individuals and with other organisations? How do
individuals act within them, and why? This Module opens up wide areas of
thought and discussion.
Month 4: Employee Motivation: follows on from the previous Module, and attempts
to discover the ways in which employees of all kinds can be motivated and
demotivated.
Month 5: Leadership and Power: discusses the different types of leadership, and
the psychology that lies behind both the use of power and responses of others to it.
Month 6: Marketing:an introduction to some of the techniques used in the
Marketing function, and also to the concept of Marketing as an overall approach
to Business.
Month 7: Management and Technology. What are the opportunities and
challenges posed by the accelerating pace of Technology? How can
organisations cope with this, and use it to their best advantage - and what are
the pitfalls?
Month 8: Operations Management: a summary of the techniques by which companies
can best manage their resources to produce goods and deliver services that are
valued by their customers. What are the key resources of a business, and
how can they be used to maximum effect?
Month 9: Management of Change:draws together some of the themes of the
previous two Modules in an attempt to understand change and resistance to
change. Goes on to discuss the main techniques of Change Management.
Month 10: Finance, Accounting and Risk: discusses the objectives and nature of
the Accounting function, and goes on to give an overview of the techniques used
in Finance and Risk Management.
Month 11: Economics: a survey of the changing economic environment and its
effect on businesses of all types. The Module also describes some of the
models and tools used in Microeconomic and Macroeconomic Analysis.
Month 12: Course Review: summarises some of the main themes of the Mini-MBA,
and gives an opportunity for the student to consider the practical application
of some of the tools and techniques learnt on the course.
