SM9636 - Strategic Management for Sustainable Leadership

There will be 2 lectures each week, and one seminar (or workshop) every fortnight. Each mode of delivery will require the reading of key material in advance of the session. Working on the assignment will be an academic and experiential process for students leading to their first production of a strategic briefing document. The feedback received from markers will be a key element of the learning cycle.

Support will be provided to you by a member of academic staff leading the module and providing the majority of lecture input. You will also gain from interaction with a number of other academic staff who will deliver specialist input via workshops and lectures.
This module features Harvard Case Study Workshops. These are interactive two-hour sessions held in the Harvard Suites of CCE1. This is the original “flipped classroom” experience developed by Harvard University Business School in the 1970s. Students will download the designated case from the Harvard Business Publishing Website and conduct their preparatory in-depth analysis prior to the session. Every student will be asked questions and open discussion between students will be facilitated by the member of staff leading the session. These sessions are part of the student’s formative development. Harvard Case Study Teaching can also provide invaluable practice for future recruitment exercises (that you might undertake at an assessment center). The four seminars in this module provide students with formative assistance with the taught analysis techniques and progressively build understanding of the assignment structure.
Your module is supported by an extensive e-learning portal (eLP) which contains lecture and seminar materials and explanation videos of the key concepts. The eLP will also provide links to the electronic reading list that is maintained by the Library. On-going formative assessment is provided by means of eLP self-test quizzes that can help to reinforce your understanding of terminology and concepts.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:
MLO-1: Know how leaders and various stakeholder groups measure and appreciate business success.
MLO-2: Understand how to critically evaluate endogenous and exogenous strategy perspectives for a sustainable business environment.

Intellectual / Professional Skills & Abilities:
MLO-3: Develop Desk Research skills in preparing and writing a thoroughly researched and compelling strategic argument for a company.
MLO-4: Ability to critically analyse business strategies and present suitable, feasible, acceptable and sustainable recommendations to business leaders in a succinct manner.

Individual Assessment (100%):
An electronical-submitted written assignment with maximum word limit of 3000 +/- 10% (not including introduction, tables, charts and diagrams). The assignment sectional structure and marking weighting will be as stipulated in the SM9636 Assignment Brief. Assignment will be submitted to the latest version of TurnItIn. The student will choose only one company from a defined short-list issued by the Module Tutor at the end of Week 4 (Lecture No.8).

The assessment is experiential in using synergistic analysis methods (ML0-2) and creating a credible set of strategic options for business leaders (MLO-1, MLO-3 and MLO-4).

NOTE: Only companies on the SM9636 Company List issued for that semester will be allowed as the subject of analysis in the student’s final submission. With the large number of Programmes featuring this core module it is not possible to offer Programme-specific company choices in the short-list. However, the choice will provide a selection of companies giving all students adequate opportunities to deploy the strategic techniques taught on this module. The transferrable skills developed by students on this module can be appreciated in virtually any management career (either as a strategist or a specifier of such services).

None.

None.

If you were asked to conduct an external strategic analysis on a company and then create a compelling set of appropriate strategic recommendations for its leadership; could you do it? This module transfers highly-sought-after graduate level consultancy skills that can be brought to bear in analysis of commercial companies. Here you learn to synthesize the major Resource-based View concepts of Capability, Competence and Resource with Value Chain analysis, and how to deploy these tools to create a strategy for a sustainable and commercially successful future for an organisation. The development of recommendations meeting the generic tests of Acceptability, Suitability, and Feasibility will also require the consideration of Leadership, Stakeholders, Sustainability and Business Ethics. This module prepares the student for structured strategic appreciation in an increasingly complex business environment.