Summer synopsis 2009/2010

Summer semester A (November/December 2009) unit information

MBA5050 – Change Management

This unit is about how to manage change in organizations. It shows the importance of having the right balance between an ability to manage down – to have the skill to use communication, motivation and participation, to mobilise and lead a group of people in a certain direction – and an ability to manage up – to have the team building and political skills to build coalitions and supports to achieve a result. It also teaches the necessity of managing the transition (which is a human, internal and psychological process) to make the change (which is more often organisational, external and situational) work and succeed.

The block unit uses a mix of cases, discussions, exercises and a computer simulation to give the participants a clear understanding of the common reasons that organizational change efforts so often fail and to reinforce their change and transition management competences. We will discuss how to apply these findings and skills in different organizational contexts and to the personal situation of the participants.

This unit will emphasize the importance of emotional intelligence and stress management in a change process, and will allow each participant to know and work on his own communication profile and his/her personal vulnerabilities in situations of stress.

Robert Weisz
Professor Weisz is a former Dean of IAE Aix-en-Provence. He is currently Director of the MBA Change and Innovation. He holds a MBA from ESSEC, Paris. He received a Master of Research in Psychology and in Ethnology from the University of Provence. He was awarded his Ph.D. in Business Administration by the University of Aix-Marseille.
Robert Weisz is Professor of Organizational Behavior & Organizational Development, at the IAE Aix-en-Provence, University of Aix-Marseille. His areas of interest focus on Emotional Intelligence, Team Effectiveness, Change Leadership, Coaching.

He is the author or co-author of several books and has more than thirty published articles in the various fields of management, work organization, communication under stress, leadership and the cross-cultural dimensions of pedagogy. He has developed a model of analysis of communication processes and styles, as well as self assessment tools for managers, in order to define their personal communication profile and provide them with individual development plan.

Professor Weisz is adjunct professor at HEC (Paris) for the international programs. He also teach in other known business schools like Monash BS (Melbourne), WHU (Koblenz), Steinbeis (Berlin)….
Professor Weisz has been consulting in large international companies. They include Alcatel, Auchan, BASF, Bouygues, Cern, Club-Méditerranée, Deloitte & Touche , EDF, EADS, Eurocopter, GDF, ING, Renault Trucks, Schneider Electric, SHV, ST Microelectronics.

MBA9001 – Managerial and Leadership Skills

Please refer to the handbook for details on this unit:
http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2009handbooks/units/MBA9001.html

MBA5080 – Mergers and Acquisitions

This unit examines the concept of mergers and acquisitions from two perspectives-the relevant areas of finance and the basic taxation, accounting and legal issues. The aim is to provide students with a practical understanding of this major corporate strategy.

The finance issues will involve an examination of basic theory and empirical findings associated with mergers and acquisitions, the valuation of firms under a range of techniques, the structuring of bids from a financing perspective and defensive strategies.

The taxation, accounting and legal issues include a review of the taxation effects from the position of both the bidder and the target’s shareholders, the legal responsibilities of the Board and senior management of both target and bidder companies, the role of the Takeovers Panel in relation to both defensive and negotiating strategies, the use of independent experts, the application of the Trade Practices Act and the effect of the accounting asset impairment tests.

The use of case studies will be widely practised throughout the unit.

MBA9009 – Managing Information

Please refer to the handbook for details on this unit: http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2009handbooks/units/MBA9009.html
This will be the last time this unit is offered.

Summer semester B (January/February 2010)

MBA5070 – Strategic Value Management

The Richard Ivey School of Business is renowned internationally for its case teaching. Professor Murray Bryant will conduct this Strategic Value Management class based on the Ivey case-based teaching method.

Strategic Value Management is an integrative course linking selection of winning strategies, executing brilliantly and performance measurement. The intention is to provide students with both the understanding and the tools to:

Translate strategy into operational terms,
Align the organization to the strategy,
- Describe the strategy
Make strategy understandable to organizational participants,
Make strategy a continual process
- Measurement (you can’t measure what you don’t understand, you can’t manage what you can’t measure)
Mobilize organizational participants
- Leadership

The objective is to provide students with an appreciation of the challenges of creating and sustaining value in organizations.

The assessment will consist of a group case write-up and an in-class case examination, coupled with class contribution.

MBA5060 – Into the Marketspace: Marketing in the Era of Digital Innovation

Well known Internet firms such as Amazon.com (the world’s largest online book and other goods store, $20Bn revenues 2008), Betfair.com (the world’s largest online odds-maker), and Threadless.com (the first truly successful business built on a social network) have their analog equivalents in the “real” world. Borders and Barnes & Noble dominate the bookstore business, while Ladbrokes and William Hill betting shops, and odds-makers in Las Vegas offer venues for gamblers to test their luck, and fun t-shirts are sold just about everywhere. However, what really makes the online firms different is that they rely not so much on physical location and tangible assets to extract value as they do on intangible assets and a different set of management competences, for these firms implement what have been referred to as “object-oriented” strategies. The management of networked organizations requires a unique set of skills. The broad issues that this course will address therefore include the nature of the networked organization, and what makes managing it different; the unique assets of these firms which include the networks they create; the nature of digital innovation, and developing and implementing object oriented strategy. The course concludes by exploring aspects of technology trajectories, the open source movement, consumer generated content (including product diversions and consumer generated advertising), and the intriguing world of u-commerce, where networks are ubiquitous, unique, universal and in unison.

Leyland F Pitt MCom MBA PhD PhD (h.c.)

Leyland F Pitt is Professor of Marketing, Segal Graduate School of Business, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, and Senior Research Fellow, Leeds University Business School in the UK. He has also taught on executive and MBA programs at schools such as the Graham School of Continuing Studies (University of Chicago), Columbia University Graduate School of Business, Rotterdam School of Management, and London Business School.

The author of over 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals, his work has been accepted for publication in such journals, as Information Systems Research, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, Communications of the ACM, and MIS Quarterly (which he also served as Associate Editor). In 2000 he was the recipient of the Tamer Cavusgil Award of the American Marketing Association for best article in the Journal of International Marketing.

He has won many awards for teaching excellence, including the Dean’s Teaching Honor Roll Simon Fraser University, best MBA Teacher, Copenhagen Business School,; and Best Professor, Joint Executive MBA, University of Vienna, and Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. In 2002, he was awarded the Outstanding Marketing Teacher of the Academy of Marketing Science. In 2006 he was named TD Canada Trust award for outstanding teachers, and listed as one of Canada’s top MBA professors in Canadian Business, 2005. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy by the Lulea University of Technology, in Sweden, in 2009.

MBA5080 –Industry Foresight and Business Future Strategy

“If you think that you can run an organization in the next 10 years as you've run it in the past 10 years you're out of your mind.” – Roberto C. Goizueta, ex-CEO, Coca-Cola

As enterprises are forced to transform ever more rapidly and comprehensively in response to new technologies, shifting markets and societal pressures, the challenge of anticipating change, interpreting new opportunities and setting appropriate direction has become a key skill for business leaders. Competitive advantage goes to those who best deduce the forces acting on their industry and who most astutely adapt their businesses to profit from them.

But nobody can predict the future. A lot rests, therefore, on a manager's superior ability to judge the course and timing of new initiatives under uncertain conditions. As insight into complexity, uncertainty and change has itself become an area of business competition, the field of industry foresight has grown up to provide theoretical and practical tools to improve this ability. These tools exist to help managers interpret the business opportunities inherent in change, and innovate accordingly, while managing uncertainty and minimising risk.

The elective is a comprehensive introduction to this field. The course advances the skills learned in MBA core curriculum, particularly in strategy, marketing, and entrepreneurship classes. It integrates industry foresight tools with innovation and leadership best practice insights, to provide a full introduction to the qualitative techniques for managers seeking to make better business decisions under conditions of external uncertainty.

Adam Gordon, BA Hons (Witwatersrand); MSc (University of Houston); MBA (INSEAD-Wharton)

Adam Gordon is the director of The Future Studio, a consulting and executive education firm specializing in industry foresight, scenario planning and innovation for business and public-sector organisations. He has led numerous business foresight & strategy projects helping large enterprises – US and European multinational clients and government agencies – innovate to manage technology advancement, competitive threats and changing market trends. He is a regular speaker at industry conferences and planning retreats, and has led product-innovation, organisational planning, scenario-building and change-management workshops at executive level.

Adam was a Senior Associate at the Washington DC business foresight think-tank, Coates & Jarratt from 1996. He has been prominent in leadership of professional associations and leadership forums, including the World Future Society, Washington DC; the US State Department Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy (ACIEP); and Shaping Tomorrow, UK. He is on the Editorial Board of World Future Review, Washington DC. He has taught MBA and EMBA students in various prominent programs around the world, including INSEAD. Adam is the author of Future Savvy, Amacom press, 2009. He maintains an industry foresight blog at http://futuresavvy.net