Overview
Our Mini MBA is a practical, detailed and highly interactive course with expert facilitators and thought-leaders.
This Mini MBA utilises key strategic and contemporary management ideas and techniques, which are fused with exemplary practice from the private and public sectors.
The result is an innovative programme that encourages those in attendance to apply the very best in management thinking to live and demanding challenges in their organisational context.
The Mini MBA is taught in small groups, not in large lecture theatres, which means in>Professional Development are able to offer a more personal style of teaching tailored to individual needs and experience with access to, and support from, leading experts and academics.
There is a strong focus on ‘action learning', integrating theory with workplace practice, plus an innovative mix of group and individual learning experiences.
Our Mini MBA will enhance future career prospects, develop management awareness and provide an integrated knowledge of the core disciplines of management, leadership, organisation and relationships at work.
Entry Requirements
Work experience: Minimum of 3- 5 years of management experience
Academic qualifications: Undergraduate degree. Equivalent, relevant work experience also accepted.
English language: Confident business English (all teaching and learning materials are provided in English only)
Agenda
During the Mini MBA, you will develop a broad range of business management knowledge and leadership thinking in the core areas of human resource management, finance, marketing, operations, creative thinking and strategy.
- Leading organisational culture
- Leading organisational change and knowledge
- Becoming a strategic leader and decision maker
- Leading a change process
- Critical decision-making processes at a strategic level
- Developing soft skills for performance (coaching and mentoring)
- 21st Century leadership practice
- Leading the development of a continuous improvement strategy
- Strategic process improvement an system thinking principles
- Designing and implementing change programmes and project management
- Core processes and end-to-end delivery
- Delivering excellence in project management tools
- Developing a marketing plan and strategy
- Examining value and market share from research data
- Critiquing the market research process
- Customer relationship management and brand loyalty
- Developing a brand personality and the universal truth
- The analysis of consumer and industrial buyer behaviour and the purchasing decision making process
- Pubic Affairs and stakeholder communications
- The evaluation of the world of digital and social media marketing
- Working within data protection legislation and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
- Understanding corporate social responsibility when making strategic marketing decisions
- The examination of global marketing principles
- Developing strategies for international marketing
- Financial accounting – financial reporting/statements of the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and a cash flow statement/corporate financing/financial control techniques/cash flow management
- Management and cost accounting – operational/implementation/strategic financial decision making/performance measurement/budget analysis
- Investment decisions – appraisal/risk/financing/capital rationing/strategy/acquisitions/rationalisation/strategy/acquisitions and mergers using appropriate tools
- Value-based management - shareholder value/valuation/contemporary and ethical issues in financial decision-making
- Understanding the overall role of strategic managementand leadership
- Developing and executing a strategic business plan
- Shaping organisational cultures and values
- Leading the development of a quality strategy
- Strategy development and change knowledge management
Tutor(s)
Stewart McCombe - gunnercookeCONSULTING
Stewart has a career background in corporate banking, and is a highly experienced commercial individual, who commenced a transition into the not for profit sector at the end of 2009. He now has a portfolio of Chair, Board and consultancy roles across not for profits and SMEs.
Throughout his career, Stewart has developed a proven track record in the North West corporate market. In roles covering both relationship management and business development, his key skills of brokering and relationship building ensured the management of multiple stakeholders, at all times undertaken with outstanding levels of integrity. Core to his roles at Bank of Scotland were the management of key entrepreneur relationships for the bank.
In recent years, he has rapidly developed a profile in the not for profit sector, maintaining key board roles across a range of areas, including leisure and social care
Who he works for:
Stewart has a range of financial, operational and strategic experience in the private, public and not for profit sectors, including charities, local authorities, banking and venture capital. This has captured a range of areas, including direct roles in leisure, adult care, the arts, environment and recruitment, coupled with a wide range of sectors including manufacturing, service, retail, building products and housebuilding during his corporate banking career. Stewart is at ease in any environment, from start-up to plc boardroom.
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Professor Ruth Ashford - Chief Academic Advisor
Professor Ashford has more than 25 years’ experience in Higher Education management within post-92 Business Schools in the United Kingdom. She has previously served as Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law at Manchester Metropolitan University and Executive Dean of Business and Management at the University of Chester.
As the former Chief Examiner of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) she was involved with the International launch of the CIM Student Chapter and CIM Professional syllabus. She served on the Quality Assurance Agency review panel for the UK benchmark standards in Business and Management for both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees.
Key areas of expertise include: strategic development for domestic and international programme growth; Business School restructuring; complexity and change management; curriculum development including apprenticeships and international franchises; leading School quinquennial reviews; professional body accreditation; recruitment/selection and mentoring senior academics; developing and designing school identities including visions, missions and communications strategies.
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Tim Evans - gunnercookeCONSULTING
Tim is an experienced coach and training development professional of 15 years working in behavioural change, personal development and organisational effectiveness. Operating at all levels of seniority with probity from c-suite through to delivery teams, customer service and sales teams, his focus is on building trust through consistent and supportive challenge of individuals to define and exploit their true purpose and potential.
Tim has a diverse range of skills enabling him to deliver considerable savings in efficiency and staff productivity. With first hand expertise in developing systems in the education sector, he is able to provide teams with the ability to apply strong leadership, improve job satisfactions and engagement, increase customer experience and achieve organisational KPIs.
Tim has experience building a rapport through a wide range of recognised business development and coaching methods – he helps clients to develop a deep understanding of their current practices and challenge their habits and beliefs to become more effective and fulfilled in their working lives.
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Matt Eld - gunnercookeCONSULTING
Matt is an expert in marketing strategy and business transformation. He is a senior leader with over 25 years’ experience of improving and growing businesses, gained from a variety of senior management roles. Matt has held MD and Director posts in a FTSE 250 organisation, Marketing and Communications agency and as a business owner. A CIM Marketer by background, Matt has amassed a wealth of commercial transformation and marketing communications experience. He is an accomplished communicator and is skilled at operating at all levels of the organisation, analyzing and quickly establishing business challenges and developing sustainable solutions. He has strong influencing and negotiation skills and can drive transformation change to success with authority and a clear vision. His broad range of experience covers multiple disciplines including marketing, communications and crisis management, commercial development, change management, organisational development, IT & technology deployment, project management and business improvement.
Matt is a director level project and transformation professional with demonstrated ability to create and translate strategy into measured operational performance improvement. He has extensive experience in marketing, customer acquisition, project management, organisational redesign and commercialization, which he has gained across direct and agency environments in Higher and Further Education, Media & Publishing and Local Government sectors. He is an accomplished leader and influencer from the boardroom to front line teams across multiple location.
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Warren Knight
Professional Speaker, Trainer, Coach and Top 100 Global Influencer, Digital Transformation (DX) Strategist, award-winning technology entrepreneur, blogger and author of Think #Digital First with over 10 years experience online.
Warren’s vision is to help 100,000 global businesses successfully sell more products and services through the strategic use of digital marketing by 2020.
To reach this goal, Warren is helping create a radical rethinking though his certified training and speaking on how organisations use technology in pursuits of building brand awareness and new revenue streams.
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Andy Bate - gunnercookeCONSULTING
Andy is a qualified chartered accountant who has spent 17 years in corporate finance/private equity and 5 years being a founder partner and building a fast-growing e-commerce business that is currently expanding overseas.
Andy is a one of the rare breed who has made the successful transformation from working on the services side, through his corporate finance/private equity background, to working on the executive side. This enables a rounded understanding of ALL stakeholders in a funded business. This is an invaluable insight, coupled with the vast amount of businesses Andy has appraised in his corporate finance and private equity career - enabling a quick and accurate appraisal of where a business is, where it needs to go, and most importantly, how that plan is executed.
Andy is incredibly energetic, hungry with a strong desire to succeed in any business he supports
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Dr Yvonne Moogan - Associate Professor of Online Business Education, University of Leeds
Yvonne Moogan is currently Associate Professor of Online Business Education in the University of Leeds. Before entering Leeds University Business School in March 2017, she was Director of MBA and Executive programmes at Salford Business School (SBS) from 2014 to 2017 where she gained AMBA accreditation in 2014. Having made substantial changes to improve the suite of Salford MBA programmes she re-validated the MBA in January 2016 to gain another successful AMBA accreditation in October 2016. During her time at Salford University she established the Salford Reds University partnership and the Manchester Storm Ice Hockey partnership.
Prior to joining Salford University, she was Associate Dean for PG as well as Director of Research in the private sector of Kaplan Financial (Higher Education Department) from 2010 to 2014 (based in London). After two years at Kaplan, Yvonne was then seconded to Kaplan Open Learning to set up a suite of on-line Post graduate programmes, whilst continuing to manage the Kaplan HE (MBA) programmes in London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow. In addition, Yvonne established the Kaplan PGCE programme so that all of her colleagues in Kaplan UK had the opportunity to undertake a formal teaching qualification and to reflect upon best practice.
Before joining Kaplan Financial, Yvonne spent 12 years at Liverpool John Moores University (1998 to 2010) where she was Director of MBA and MBS programmes (for six years) followed by being Head of Doctoral Programmes (during her last year). During her time in Liverpool Business School she undertook two Knowledge Transfer Programmes, spent eight years on the Merseyside Widening Participation committee and introduced the longitudinal induction programme for masters level students.
Via her work on widening participation Yvonne published several articles in the area of student buyer behaviour amongst students’ (with low SES) decisions to enter Higher Education. Delivering summer schools to school pupils was a rewarding time and when Yvonne left Liverpool Business School she continued her WIP work with Kaplan Financial in London. Leading a team of tutors in 2012, she created the Kaplan WIP scheme entering sixth form colleges across London and the south east with a programme of educational activities.
Prior to entering Liverpool Business School in 1998, Yvonne worked at the University of Chester, St Helens College, Salford College and Touche Ross Accountants, each for a duration of two years.
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Benefits
The Mini MBA will increase your confidence and your managerial abilities, particularly in terms of strategic delegation, deadline organisation, problem solving, change management, and team development.
Network with peers and share best practice
During your learning experience at our Mini MBA, you will be able to meet other like-minded professionals and develop new, beneficial connections. Following completion of your course, you will become part of an exclusive alumni, offering you access to an ever-growing community of current and future leaders.
Turn theory into practice
You will learn how to apply theories and best practices in your current role through simulations, role playing, case studies and discussions. The learning methods we use will enable you to apply business and management principles and theories directly into leadership practice and organisational policy-making
Enhance your career and your business
With the networking opportunities and advanced management skills included in the Mini MBA, you will be able to implement improvements in your workplace and proceed to senior positions.
Other benefits include:
- The essential theory, practice and techniques of an MBA condensed in to high quality short programme;
- Savings in your time and the huge costs involved in enrolling for a traditional MBA course;
- Guidance on your strategic planning with current tools, techniques and thinking;
- Improvement on the bottom line with your increased financial understanding;
- Exponential improvement in your leadership skills and personal confidence;
- Measurable results with your enhanced knowledge of key strategic marketing tactics;
- Success in the project you undertake with a greater understanding of how to take a project from start to completion successfully;
- Improvement on your ability to influence and impact colleagues and clients;
- Enhanced negotiation techniques and skills to increase your success in commercial agreements
Who Should Attend?
The Mini MBA Accelerator is designed for those with a minimum 3 years management experience and provides the core material expected from a high-quality MBA programme.
It is also appropriate for MBA graduates who would like a ‘refresher’ overview of core MBA subjects.
Accreditation
You can attend the Mini-MBA on an accredited and non-accredited basis
The Qualification
You can undertake the Mini MBA on an accredited basis, which on successful completion, will see you receive a PGCert in Business Administration (WBIS) from the University of Chester*
This Level 7 academic and work-based qualification is designed for senior people seeking to develop themselves as leaders and managers, who recognise they must satisfy various stakeholders and who want to invest in their own personal brand. They are looking to make the best use of resources, understand the need to innovate and optimise performance. They may also have to present arguments for change, construct business cases, lead change implementation and evaluate the impact of that change.
Results for the learner
- Know how to use an enquiry led evidence based approach to develop your leadership and management capability;
- Develop and enhance your personal brand;
- Develop, implement and evaluate high-level, strategic, business cases;
- Embed your leadership and management development in real work.
Impact for your employer
- Senior leaders and managers who have the ability to think and act strategically;
- Senior leaders and managers who make informed evidence based decisions;
- Motivated staff who can create and maintain a high-performance culture;
- Senior team members who are self-aware and take responsibility for self-development.
Assessment
- Learners will complete 3 assignments in order to achieve this qualification;
- Conduct top level organisational analysis, resulting in a research proposal for an empirical study into a leadership and management issue within the delegate’s professional environment.
- A robust data driven enquiry within the delegate’s professional environment that adds value through active participation in a learning community, and an evaluation of how this enquiry has added value to self and the organisation.
Student Support
You will be provided with:
- One to one telephone tutorial opportunities (as many as the student requires; typically, this would involve 3 one-hour tutorials);
- Group tutorials through conference calls;
- Monthly webinar events.
We encourage learners to engage with as many tutorials and learning opportunities as possible.
The blended learning method has been shown to provide flexible, student centred delivery and a high pass rate.