Bachelor Program in Business and Management

Business management B

Business management B

Academic year 2018/2019

Sommario del corso

• Learning assessment methods
• Program
• Suggested textbooks and readings
• Teaching tools

Learning assessment methods

Lessons by prof. DeAndreis for Business Managment with the support of seminars, business plan exercises and role plays. Prof. Vrontis for marketing part

Program

The course will cover three parts.

The first one is focused on the importance of the overall macroeconomic scenario in the strategic choices of business. Too often, managers and entrepreneurs focus exclusively on the size of their company and evaluate business opportunities only in microeconomic terms.

This attitude is negative and is often the cause of errors and failures. Globalization requires a comprehensive view of problems and solutions with a strong ability to combine global and local scenarios. From CEOs of multinationals to ones of a very small company, managers should have both the ability to analyze the macroeconomic trend and the impact this may have on a specific business decision. This is the reason why we have focused on monetary policy and the relation between interest rate and investments. Interest rate level and the internal rate of return of a specific investment are fundamental elements in the business decision and in the preparation of the business plan. A specific part on the importance of a structured and flexible business plan as a guideline for investment strategies has been developed in chapter three.

In the second part of the course we will explore "Strategies and tactics in international business management" discussing the various management techniques and approaches to penetrate new markets, with a strong focus on the different deal types and market entry strategies. Exporting, licensing and franchising, FDI, Strategic Alliances and Joint Ventures have a different market penetration efficacy and cost/time relation trade-off. This part explores the different business opportunities, the role of finance via leverage and the strategic role of risk management.

A very important section is dedicated to exploring the optimal size of business, economies and diseconomies of scale and the emerging co-dependency between SMEs and big firms.

A specific set of lessons will be dedicated to marketing management as one of the major components of business management. Different theories and marketing focus on products, customers and organizations show how marketing is strategic for each business model and management technique.

The third and final part of the course is devoted to the relationship between management and entrepreneurship with a specific focus on leadership.

Leadership and management are two notions that are often mistakenly used interchangeably. In fact, leadership is one of the essential assets a successful manager or entrepreneur should possess. We will briefly see the different leadership theories and their impact on management. Than we will explore entrepreneurship. There are similarities but also fundamental differences between a manager and an entrepreneur. It is important to spread, particularly to university students, a culture of entrepreneurship which enables them to understand the economic and social value of doing business and creating start-ups. Being a start-up entrepreneur can be a challenging experience and opportunity for a young person to start their professional and working career and it is a good way to start a professional management experience.

An entrepreneur has a different relationship with risk; he shoulders different responsibilities from the manager, but to grow successfully a start-up firm requires a proper mix of the aspects that characterize both entrepreneurs and managers.

The 2008-2009 economic world crises showed that we need to think differently about entrepreneurship and management. Management theories and practices have to incorporate some entrepreneurial traits inside all business and a more entrepreneurial ethic in management conduct.

All together these three parts of the course contain the key elements for a basic understanding of business management and its essential components.

More in detail the course will explore:

What is a business?  A general introduction to business management     

• The company as an open and global system
• Different forms and types of business
• The most common form of business: Corporations
• Organizational and legal aspects of business
• Legal implications of the role of capital
• Budget and financial reports

Business Management and the macroeconomic scenario

• History of economic globalization
• The financial crisis of 2007-2009. A new collapse in globalization?
• The impact of the macroeconomic scenario in business management
• Monetary policy and the relationship between interest rates
• and investment.
• Questions related to the current impact of the macroeconomic
• scenario in business models

How to incorporate the global scenario in business management:

the importance of a structured and flexible Business Plan

• Evaluation with a strategic vision
• Key elements for the business plan
• The audience of the business plan
• Presentation form of the business
• Executive Summary
• Background Information
• The Marketing Plan
• An Operational Plan
• The Financial Plan

Strategies and Tactics in international business management

Different Deal types and Market Entry Strategies

• Different modes of entry into a market
• Exporting, Licensing and Franchising
• Foreign Direct Investment FDI
• Strategic Alliances
• Other forms of international or national deals: merger and acquisition
• Strategic investment via leverage Buyout

Basic elements of Risk Management

Basic elements of Circular Economy in Business Management

Basic elements of Business Tecnology Management

Big or Small, which is better? New trends in international business organization

• The optimal business size
• Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) definition
• SME aggregation: industrial district
• Big is back, but size is not really what matter

Key Elements of Marketing Management

Marketing definition and history

Marketing strategies: the different focus

• The product-market growth matrix
• Marketing mix
• Customer focus
• Organizational focus
• Product focus

Marketing segmentation

Marketing research

Green Marketing

Management and Entrepreneurship

Leadership and Business Management 

Leadership versus management

Brief overview on different leadership theories

Leadership versus entrepreneurship

Managers or Entrepreneurs?

The need for a more entrepreneurial ethic

Slides, exercices and documentation used by prof. DeAndreis during lessons will be provided via web to all students.

Books:

M. De Andreis - Key Elements of Business Management, Celid 2015

D. J. Teece - Dynamic capabilities & Strategic manamgement, Oxford Press last ed.

Williamson, Jenkins, Cooke, Moreton - Strategic Management and Business Analysis, Bullerworth-Heinemann last ed.

For Italian Students:

Giuseppe Tardivo e altri autori - Economia e Gestione delle Imprese, Giampichelli Editore, ultima edizione

• Teaching materials
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