The Executive MBA offers you an Executive perspective; you will become knowledgeable about the important concepts of key business disciplines, integrating this knowledge with your experience. You will have opportunities to design projects, manage messy problems and be creative in solving real problems you face at work, which enriches your education and has a positive impact on your job performance. You will develop leadership skills to support your career growth and gain confidence to prepare you to take on executive responsibilities. The course also offers a platform for building your professional networks.

The Units which make up the course are:

Effective leadership and management of staff is the key attribute of a good manager. This module will help you understand how effective people management can support broader goals of developing and sustaining organizations. An understanding of the basic principles of employee behaviour, an informed appreciation of the value of the human resource, and the ability to draw on the former to add to the latter, can optimise employee performance within the organisation.

Focusing on the relationship between people management and organizational performance, you will gain insights into the complexities of managing people in a changing environment. It will also explore what constitutes good leadership and its fit with the strategic goals of the organization.

All managers need a broad understanding of accounting to appreciate the financial implications of key business decisions. This module looks at both financial (external) and management (internal) accounting, covering areas such as measuring profit or loss, valuing tangible and intangible assets, contribution accounting, break-even analysis, variance analysis and evaluation of the performance of both organizational units and their managers. It emphasises the relationship between financial management and other aspects of general management - strategy, marketing and operations management. You will build both your broad accounting and financial knowledge and a specific understanding of how these relate to your sector and/or organization.

All organizations have customers – whatever they are called – and understanding their needs and how the organization can best meet them is the key to delivering a valued service or product that enhances the reputation of the organization. This module views marketing from a value-driven perspective and considers how the assets of the organization can be used to create and deliver value to customers and other stakeholders. It discusses the role of strategic marketing and how high level strategy can be implemented in practice by marketing planning in a range of organizations in the public and private sector. We will also explore the nature of markets as the basis for the creation and delivery of value to customers and develop a managerial overview of how marketing interacts with the other functional areas of the organization. Issues are placed in a context of competition and in a political, economic, socio-cultural and technological framework that is constantly evolving.

All organizations have customers – whatever they are called – and understanding their needs and how the organization can best meet them is the key to delivering a valued service or product that enhances the reputation of the organization. This module views marketing from a value-driven perspective and considers how the assets of the organization can be used to create and deliver value to customers and other stakeholders. It discusses the role of strategic marketing and how high level strategy can be implemented in practice by marketing planning in a range of organizations in the public and private sector. We will also explore the nature of markets as the basis for the creation and delivery of value to customers and develop a managerial overview of how marketing interacts with the other functional areas of the organization. Issues are placed in a context of competition and in a political, economic, socio-cultural and technological framework that is constantly evolving.

Leadership is often the main difference between success and failure for organisations but it is not only the senior management who needs to lead. Indeed, good leaders are vital at all levels in the organisation to act as the link between planning and implementation. But while everyone recognises the need for leadership, prescriptions for leadership success are as many as theories. This unit recognises the theoretical underpinnings of leadership but engages with leadership development in a more practical way through a sequence of group and individual activities that build into a portfolio that will form the basis for future executive development.

Organizations increasingly need to be creative in how they approach the challenges they face, both at an individual and at an organizational level, and they need to push through innovation in a systematic purposeful way. This module will help develop your personal creativity skills at the same time as demonstrating how they can be developed across the organization. It will give you an understanding of the nature of innovation, the people issues associated with it and the key tools and techniques that can help you in managing innovation.

Leadership is often the main difference between success and failure for organisations but it is not only the senior management who needs to lead. Indeed, good leaders are vital at all levels in the organisation to act as the link between planning and implementation. But while everyone recognises the need for leadership, prescriptions for leadership success are as many as theories. This unit recognises the theoretical underpinnings of leadership but engages with leadership development in a more practical way through a sequence of group and individual activities that build into a portfolio that will form the basis for future executive development.

Strategic management is concerned with the direction and scope of the organization - determining its purpose, establishing objectives and formulating strategies to achieve them. Managers need to understand and react to changes in the organization's environment to survive and deliver stakeholder value. In the private sector this is about developing sustainable competitive advantage. This module deals with issues at the top level of any organization. It addresses how strategies can be implemented and how they can fail. It looks at the role of ethics and social responsibility.

All organizations need to manage their day-to-day operations efficiently and effectively so as to deliver customer and stakeholder value. Global sourcing and relocation are now commonplace for manufacturing and service organisations; public sector organisations are also now contracting on a global scale This module will help you understand how to develop operating capabilities within the organization and develop your own project management skills. It is concerned with managing the process that converts inputs (in the forms of materials, labour and energy) into outputs (in the form of goods and services). In other words it focuses on how products or services are produced and distributed.

This module aims to encourage and develop entrepreneurial skills in a systematic way. It looks at the character traits of entrepreneurs and covers start-up, growth and exit as well as entrepreneurial management, strategy, planning, economics and finance. Students who want to start up their own venture can do so as part of the learning process. The unit is an innovative academic response to the growing importance of entrepreneurship in both its corporate and SME forms to economic development across the world.

Today’s global business environment is characterised by increasing interdependencies, evolving trends in technology and emergence of new economic or trading blocs, all of which are posing severe challenges on the knowledge and skills of international managers and operators. All organizations are becoming increasingly international, in terms of their customer base and the employees and suppliers they need to deal with. And yet every country has a different culture that influences social interaction. Such challenges require careful analysis, integrative action and appropriate monitoring. This unit will look at these issues and how they affect management. It also looks at the role of government and how they affect the role of management across national boundaries. Founded in economics, this unit broadens out into areas such as globalisation and its impacts, global governance, business operations and strategies, ethics, and sustainability.

The integrated management project is the culmination of the MBA programme. It is designed to simulate a realistic management situation, giving you the opportunity to demonstrate his/her ability to use the knowledge and skills acquired through the taught elements of the course. Its purpose is to bring together for you all the taught elements of the programme to reinforce their interrelationship and to provide an experience which enables you to move forward from the understanding of a discrete knowledge base to synthesising and exploring new areas in more detail. In this it simulates the working environment where individuals are constantly required to combine knowledge in different ways and increase their understanding in different areas. It is intended to provide you with an ability to apply your learning to an aspect (normally) from your own or an equivalent workplace.

Personal and Professional Development is an integrated coherent and coordinated suite of workshops tailored to suit your needs, help you develop your full potential and manage your career in an international business environment. This unit focuses on aspects of your professional development and personal qualities such as self awareness and transferable academic and career management skills. It is underpinned by the latest research into good practice from UK/Worldwide programmes and business protocol. This unit has been mapped to the University of Bedfordshire SOAR (Self-awareness, Opportunity, Aspirations, Results) framework. You will be required to apply these concepts and skills through experiential learning gained through workshop activities, group interaction and presentations.