Subjects
Core subjects
The World of Management (integrated)
The World of Management is an intensive course which introduces students to some of the central ideas and approaches to understanding management and developing managerial skills. The subject will provide an overview of management and a set of tools for students to enable them to manage themselves through the Master of Marketing program and improve their effectiveness at work.
The subject emphasises four aspects: Personal Development, Perspectives, Periods and Processes. The personal development section will enable students to build on their personal management and interpersonal skills. The second aspect explores the various perspectives that are taken in understanding management issues. Different disciplines such as finance, marketing and human resources often take different approaches to analysing issues. Also, stakeholders in the community have varying views about management and their actions and the subject raises these perspectives and provides avenues for integrating them. The third aspect is concerned with how management has been viewed at different periods in time, and how some of the original management models have been built on to improve management understanding, while others have been discarded as fads. The fourth aspect will emphasise learning processes and help students look at different ways of gathering and analysing data, making decisions and deriving the most benefit from these different approaches.
Accounting for Managers
Accounting plays a dual role in an organisation: it provides relevant information to both external users (financial accounting) and internal users (management or cost accounting) to assist them in decision making. The course aims to provide an understanding of both of these roles and the interface between them. The financial accounting part of the course will cover the elements of the traditional accounting system, the measurement of profit, the valuation of assets and liabilities, the elements of owner’s equity, the estimates and choices inherent in modern accounting treatments, and an introduction to the use of financial accounting information in measuring the performance and financial strength of an organisation. The management accounting elements of the subject will deal with the internal planning and control function, the nature of costs and their behaviour, cost-volume-profit relationships, the behavioural aspects of management accounting, and an introduction to costing systems and budgeting.
Managing People for High Performance
To help people perform well at work, managers need a sound understanding of why individuals behave the ways they do and how people behave in groups. This subject uses the discipline of organisational behaviour to provide insights into individual personality differences, what motivates people to work, what factors produce job satisfaction, and why people in organisations have difficulty in communication. Students explore the critical factors involved in organisational change, the bases of leadership and power, and how work-based groups affect individual and organisational effectiveness.
Marketing
The Marketing subject focuses on the challenges management faces in developing and implementing a successful marketing program. The importance of marketing arises from its role as the boundary function between the organisation and the marketplace. Changes in the market require changes from the company. Similarly, changes made by the company create changes in the market.
This subject takes a strategic approach to creating a competitive advantage through marketing. It seeks to familiarise students with the challenges of marketing analysis, planning and implementation in a variety of settings. It also seeks to demonstrate the role of marketing, and marketing thought in other areas of business activity, particularly in more general business strategy.
Consumer Behaviour
At its essence, marketing is an attempt to influence consumers, and this subject seeks to provide insights into consumer psychology as a basis for developing powerful consumer-influence tactics. As students become more effective creators of marketing, they will gain a better understanding of themselves as targets of marketing influence. And along the way, they will be encouraged to address important ethical and social issues, which are a natural consequence of candidly adopting a consumer-influence orientation.
Data and Decisions
Many decisions require analysis of data. This subject covers the use of statistics and graphs, the fundamentals of probability and risk, and decision-making tools and models such as regression analysis. The subject is focused on applications and decision-making rather than being oriented towards theory.
Managerial Economics
This subject is an introduction to the core concepts in economics that are of particular use in managerial and strategic decision-making. Included are the concepts of economic value created and added value, predicting the outcomes of negotiations, the basic workings of markets, using innovative pricing for profit and the delivery of consumer value, and the interactions amongst firms and markets. A particular focus is how the forces of competition drive pricing outcomes and how these impact upon competitive strategy. Use is made of game theory to which students will receive a thorough introduction.
Marketing Research
Understanding of the customer is essential for effective marketing decision-making. Market research is the principal tool that assists managers to describe, explain and predict consumer response to marketing activity. This subject provides an understanding of how effective market research can be designed and data can be collected, analysed and integrated into marketing programs and decision-making.
Marketing Strategy
Students acquire an appreciation of the relationship between marketing activity and other functions and disciplines within the business. They explore and analyse how marketing decisions bring coherence to strategy. The subject aims to develop an ability to analyse business problems from a marketing perspective, to think creatively about marketing-based solutions and to explore alternative and innovative approaches to solving these problems.
Masterclass in Marketing
The Masterclass in Marketing is designed to explore contemporary issues in marketing theory and practice by promoting the direct engagement of students with leading marketing strategists and practitioners, and with academic researchers. It provides an opportunity for students to listen to practitioners’ ‘live’ issues and problems, reflect and comment on their experiences and concerns, and contribute proposals to marketing strategies and decisions. It also exposes students to current research in the field by recognized research experts.
Elective subjects
Electives
The Master of Marketing course is a program of nine compulsory subjects, plus four Marketing electives. Each year MBS offers a range of marketing related electives. While these vary, they usually include subjects such as:
Channels of Distribution
Product Management
Integrated Marketing Communications
International Marketing
Marketing in Asia
Brand Management
Service Marketing
Marketing in Context
Other subjects of interest to marketers drawn from the MBA curriculum include:
Asia Pacific Business Arena
Business and World Trade
Business Law
Business Strategy
Corporate Governance
Corporate Strategy
Corporate Finance
Decision Analysis
E-Commerce
Economics of Innovation
Economics of Strategy
Entrepreneurship
Financial Management
Fundamental Trends in World Business
Implementation of Strategy
Information Strategy
Managing Difference
Managing Innovation
Managing New Ventures
Managing Processes
Managing Regulation
Managing Service Businesses
Managing the international Enterprise
Negotiations
Operations Strategy
Outsourcing and Privatisation
Project Management
Strategic Human Resource Management
Strategic Public Management
Understanding Economic Policy
Detailed information on all subjects is available in the Course & Subject Guide
