Business Administration (Top-up) - BA (Hons)

From droughts to floods, wildfires, complex security challenges also linked to AI, displacement crisis, gang violence, poverty, health crisis, terror threats, businesses and populations have become more vulnerable. Managing and mitigating risks and various threats is a skill that is valued globally.

Embedded within the United Nations Sustainable Goals and the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, the module will equip learners with the tools to help them to cope with uncertainty, adverse situations, analyse a crisis, prepare a crisis response and help them to develop best practice reflecting on past events. The OECD also highlights the importance of building resilience as a leader whilst responding to novel or classic crisis.

This module will provide you with a critical understanding of the concepts, frameworks and approaches for the effective management of strategic change and its leadership.

Consideration will also be given to the complexity of business operations, the rapid pace of technological innovation, and globalisation of businesses. You will explore drivers and challenges of strategic change in an organisational context as well as approaches for successful implementation of various change interventions.

During the module you will analyse the leadership actions and capabilities that are required in the process of transforming organisations in a turbulent environment. You will evaluate the various leadership theories most appropriate for a given situation. You will appreciate strategic change management in contemporary organisations and equip them with the skills and knowledge required of leaders in complex, unpredictable and fast-changing international business environment. In addition, the module will invite guest lecturers to share their experiences.

This module will provide an introduction to the role of Strategic Development in an organisation. Strategic Development is a vital activity in all organisations. The importance of this activity is recognised by all the Professional Accountancy Bodies who have the subject in their syllabi. Accountants in organisations play a key role in the Strategic Development of organisations.

The module will cover the key areas of Strategic Development: Strategic Analysis, Strategic Choice and Strategic Implementation. The module will show how different organisational strategies need to be integrated together to produce overall effective Strategic Management.

This module builds on the previous modules (Introduction to Data Analytics and AI and Data Analytics and AI in Practice). The module offers hands-on experience of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solution development for addressing a particular business challenge. The module is designed for those of you willing to understand the process of AI solution development with detail analysis of its cost-benefit analysis and impact on the organisation. The module is ideal for those of you pursuing careers in data science, business analytics, or AI development, and it equips you with essential skills that are highly in demand in today’s as well as the future employment market.

This module will expose you to the process of AI solution development using AI development framework and ecosystem that include Microsoft Azure AI, Google AI and others. You will learn AI problem formulation and solution development through real-life business-related problems. The process of ML model development, training and fine-tuning will be experimented by you through a semester long individual project. The module will also expose you to the cost benefit analysis of AI adoption in a business including the impact analysis of implementing AI solution in an organisation.

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” ~ Sun Tzu (5th Century BC).

Whilst the great strategist was discussing military strategy in his influential treatise, The Art of War, the quotation is perfectly valid for organisations today - without a well-defined marketing strategy, organisations run the very real risk of losing market share to competitors and potentially going out of business.

As such, an understanding of the strategic marketing planning process is essential for marketing professionals, as it enables them to make informed strategic decisions that support achievement of the organisation’s overall mission and objectives. The Marketing Strategy and Planning module aims to give you an in-depth understanding of this process and how to create robust strategic marketing plans.

The module is designed to equip you with the essential skills and knowledge to effectively navigate complex negotiations and resolve conflicts in various settings. Practical experiences through simulations and case studies will allow you to gain transferable skills, useful not only in your personal lives, but also when negotiating with different stakeholder groups and various employability settings.

Through practical application, you will learn how to build trust and communicate effectively while exploring the challenges and opportunities of different negotiation strategies in different business contexts. The module will enable you to create better outcomes based on ethical decision-making, help to navigate around difficult conversations, and develop your ability to influence and persuade. Additionally, you will work on creating impact over time, refining your persuasive techniques, and sharpening your listening skills.

This module focuses on the strategic management issues and decision-making approaches in the context of International Supply Chain and Operations Strategy. You will study different types and levels of strategies and understand the relationship among them. You will also study strategic supply chain decision-making, focusing on areas such as corporate strategy, globalisation, procurement and outsourcing, production and inventory management, international management, and strategic alliances. You will be able to use a range of models, tools and/or techniques to analyse business and operations status and further support strategy development as well as daily operations optimization.

The module content also emphasises the ethics and sustainability of supply chain and operations, which is a key theme among modern businesses. Additionally, some new trends and concepts e.g. digital production, e-supply chain, block chain, supply chain resilience will be discussed to open your horizon and prepare you for future challenges.

With the knowledge and training from this module, you will have a good understanding of strategies, strategic management and decision making, and build up a holistic view of supply chain. Meanwhile, you will build upon your personal skills of conducting academic research, critical thinking and discussion, written communication, strategic decision-making, and self-reflection. These will enhance your capabilities towards a range of managerial roles within companies or developing your own businesses. In addition this module will invite guest speakers to share their experiences.

Following from the discovery (L4) and practice (L5) phases of your journey into developing enterprise skills, this module focuses of the application phase (L6), where you are encouraged to learn and apply different techniques to launch a technology start up.

You will learn to recognise interesting opportunities and convert the opportunities to attractive business propositions. You will validate and test the digital business ideas and transform it into a viable business model. You will develop a business plan for a tech-start up and will pitch your working business propositions to academics with a final pitch being delivered to the university’s STEAMHOUSE investor panel.

The module will encourage you to network, learn and make use of the incubation support offered by the university.