MARKETS - 2022/3

Module Overview

To be competitive in today's increasingly difficult and demanding markets it is vital for companies to identify market opportunities and challenges and react accordingly. Companies need to understand market dynamics and develop strategies to compete in the right markets in optimal ways. This module provides the foundations for doing just that by introducing students to theories and practices of strategic management. It investigates how business strategies are formed and how they are implemented and develops the conceptual, analytical, and practical skills for students to be able to contribute to the strategic process.The module makes the critical connection between the business model and value proposition, investigating the idea of strategic alignment between the two. It provides students with a thorough overview of strategy in the context of organisational structure, culture, relationships, and organising. 

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

O'BRIEN Justin (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 7

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None.

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• Understanding markets and competition


• Industry attractiveness, industry value chain and industry lifecycle


• Internal business resources, capabilities, and core competencies


• Strategic planning process and strategy cycle


• Strategy in practice: understanding the strategic process


• Value and creating value propositions


• Business models and business strategy


• Aligning the business model and the value proposition 


• Realising strategy: organisational design, systems, and culture


• Current trends in strategic management

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

INDIVIDUAL COURSEWORK (1,500) - 60% INDIVIDUAL VIVA VOCE (5 mins) - 40%

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate critical understanding of the subject matter and mastery of the learning outcomes through practical application.

The assessment provides students with the opportunity to showcase their subject-specific knowledge and cognitive skills, as well as their practical ability to apply their learning to complex problems and tasks in the relevant domain of professional practice. At the end of the module students will make an in-class presentation (40%) to their peers in small groups and submit a group report (60%).

Highly interactive workshops will encourage peer-to-peer reflective learning to take place to help build effective group working skills and foster confident and persuasive oral presentation capabilities.  

Module aims

• Introduce a range of key theoretical perspectives pertinent to understanding of business and corporate strategy in the context of market competition.
• Equip students with a sound understanding of the process of strategic management and the different components of the strategy development cycle.
• Enable students to integrate theoretical concepts and models in strategy with practical application to business situations and familiarise students with current trends in strategic management.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to use industry informed, group based applied learning through project work.

Learning and teaching follows a student-focused, experiential, flipped-classroom methodology with experiential workshops, self-directed, beyond class group discussions and independent learning.

Prior to attending the workshops, students are expected to undertake the essential reading and prepare for active engagement in class.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MANM453

Other information

None.

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2022/3 academic year.