Complete three electives in London, then three more in Shanghai
Benefit from the quality, depth and breadth of world-class faculty research and gain invaluable insight from experienced career professionals.
Offered in flexible formats on weekdays, evenings and block weeks, electives provide a deep dive into specialist subjects and cross-generational learning with MBA, MiF and experienced leadership programme students.
Our elective options are updated annually. Faculty and programme material are subject to change.
Accounting
Accounting risk, regulation of standards and corporate governance.
This course is about evaluating the quality of financial information and using the information to reveal the economics of firms. A significant element in the course is analyzing the financial statements of a major bank. These are core skills for equity and credit analysis, in investments, and investment banking and advisory work. The course is designed for anyone planning a career in which they will have to evaluate or make decisions based on financial data. The course is particularly suitable for financial analysts, bankers, investment bankers, security analysts, institutional investors, and consultants. Students from all programs are welcome as long as they have some accounting background (in addition to the core course).
This course will provide a framework for identifying digital companies and assessing their potential values. It will highlight why digital companies are fundamentally different both operationally as well as financially. Students will analyse opportunities for digital companies as well as discuss the significant risks facing such companies. The course will illustrate the key financial reporting considerations of digital investing, and students will learn where to find key financial reporting disclosures for digital companies and how they vary between types of digital companies. Leading executives and analysts will provide their insights into where the digital space is going.
The course will cover the financial reporting implications of consolidations, joint ventures, leveraged buyouts and recapitalizations, spin-offs, carve-outs, and special purpose entities. The complexity of these issues has resulted in companies pushing the reporting envelope in order to achieve desired financial reporting objectives. We will focus on understanding the link between underlying economic events and the information in financial statements, and on how this link affects our assessment of the firm.
The purpose of this course is to provide users with critical skills to analyse public companies' financial statements from the investor's perspective. The course is designed to be extremely practical and current in nature, and is aimed at getting you well on your way to becoming an informed and sceptical user of financial reporting information and in turn, laying the framework for you to become a competent and confident investor. The course will primarily consist of the following three components : i) pre-lecture notes that should be read prior to the class, ii) the lecture slides that will be available at the beginning of the course; and iii) current cases written, also available at the beginning of the course. Most of the cases will be in real-time so that we can simulate making investment decisions without the benefit of hindsight bias, and you can decide whether after our analyses you want to include the stock in your mock portfolio.
The course stresses fundamental analysis to isolate value drivers and focuses on a disciplined approach to security analysis and valuation. It does this through the use of financial statements and the development of an analytical framework for understanding business performance and financial structure. The course shows how to use accounting information to produce a full financial model of the firm and how investors and analysts employ the financial model to appraise and value companies. The course covers several alternative methods of valuation and appraisal.
The focus will be on the valuation of securities that embed credit risk. This includes, but is not limited to, corporate bonds, credit default swaps, credit indices, asset backed securities, emerging hard currency bonds, and capital structure. By the end of the course the students should have a sound understanding of (i) the trading conventions of these securities, (ii) determinants of the returns of the these securities, (iii) the role of fundamental analysis and structural models in identifying mispriced credit securities, and (iv) how risk and transaction costs affect your ability to build a portfolio of credit instruments. In addition to understanding the drivers of returns, risk and trading costs of credit related securities, the students will via 'hands-on' exercises develop investment skills via experiential learning. This course is aimed at individuals looking for a career in active asset management.
The objective of this course is to expose business students to applications of machine learning tools in business and finance. The course covers some of the most commonly used machine learning algorithms ranging from ridge and lasso and deep neural network for regression and classification problem to clustering and principal component dimensionality reduction. The course will end with a look at more advanced techniques commonly employed for specific tasks in economics and finance. The approach of the course is profoundly practical. For each algorithm we provide the essential theoretical intuition, most of the focus is on the practical implementation of these learning techniques. We will be using Python. No knowledge of Python is required. Students will work on the Python implementation of the various machine learning techniques to real-world data and applications in the second part of each class.
The aim of the course is to give a balanced evaluation of the opportunities and pitfalls for businesses in the main emerging markets of Russia, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, South and East Asia, Middle East, and Africa. A detailed framework will be provided within which to evaluate the risks and gains from doing business in a wide variety of emerging markets, particularly the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) economies.
This course deals with the international financial environment in a globalised economy. It will provide tools for assessing the impact of economic policy shocks and financial disturbances on financial markets, exchange rates, and capital flows. The course is suitable for anyone seeking further understanding of the international macroeconomy, whose importance the recent crisis has revealed. It will be especially relevant for careers in investment analysis, asset management, hedge funds, capital markets, corporate finance, and the finance/treasury function of corporates. GCMC gives the global macroeconomic context for international financing decisions.
Every country around the world is ageing. Currently 1 in 11 people in the world are over 65, by 2050 it will be 1 in 6. In China, Europe and North America it will be 1 in 4. Further around the world life expectancy is increasing making longer lives a reality raising major issues for how to maintain health, finances and employment. These trends define one of the fastest growing markets of the future. However, it is trend little understood right now by firms and very little studied in business schools.
Digital networks shape our society and businesses by determining:o the information we access, o the people we interact with, o the products and services we access. But: o How do networks form, and what are their properties? o What is the impact of network homophily on how information diffuses and opinion forms? o How can we ``manipulate" digital connections to make our product or idea go viral? o How should we measure financial contagion, or more generally, systemic risk in an interconnected system? o How can we measure segregation in society and what is the effect of segregation on social mobility and inequality? This elective will equip you with the tools to better navigate in the real world where digital networks are more and more pervasive. Content and delivery: Made-to-measure teaching notes, scenario-based simulations & Class experiments.
This is a course in game theory and its application to business strategy. It offers an introduction to a selection of the methods and results of modern game theory. Special emphasis is placed on the practical applications of these tools. Many (if not all) business decisions depend upon the actions taken by others in the marketplace, either at the same time or in the future. Such decisions include optimal pricing rules, supply decisions, innovating, and capacity choices. When making a choice in these settings, a business faces a classic interactive decision-making problem: its best move depends on the likely moves of others. To anticipate these moves it must empathetically "walk in the shoes of others" so that it can assess what they might do.
The aim of this course is to provide you with the knowledge of what the major issues affecting the global economy and financial markets are likely to be in the next five years and beyond. Therefore, as well as providing a deeper insight into policy and market issues, the course aims to give you greater experience in applying analytical tools developed during Understanding the International Macroeconomy (or a similar basic macroeconomics course) as well as extending your existing theoretical toolkit. We analyse developments of countries and regions of the world as examples on the basis of which we build the understanding of broad economic issues.
Through in-depth cases and discussion of topical issues, discover the multitude of ways that corporate finance theory can be applied to practical problems, with all the complexities that the real world entails. Cover advanced topics in valuation and financing
Over the last 15 years markets experienced exponential growth in sub-investment grade (credit) investing with funds replace banks as a major source of capital. Leveraged Loans, High Yield Bonds, Private credit / Direct Lending, Distressed and Special Situations have come to dominate credit markets supporting the overall growth of the Alternative Investments space.The course will teach investment principles across the different strategies, best practices in the field, practical examples as well as market developments. The course will draw from the experience of industry professionals and in particular, from Alon Avner who has been managing Bain Capital Credit's European business for c.15 years. In the current turbulent market environment, and with the continuous growth in the alternative investments markets, the course is more relevant than ever for students looking for roles at investment funds and banks (Buyside and Sell side).
In the past, the field of finance developed a successful paradigm based on the assumption that investors and managers are rational and that the market is efficient. Anecdotal evidence and research means we now know that this paradigm is insufficient to describe real financial markets. This course adds institutional, social, cognitive, and emotional biases into an analysis of financial market phenomena
Together with the Finance Core Course, a two-course sequence covering corporate finance and investments. While not a core course, CFCM covers key areas of finance with which all graduates should be familiar.
Multiple new technologies are finding their way into financial services, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, distributed ledger technology, cryptography, digital identity, SaaS platforms, chatbots, robotic process automation, and augmented reality. This has triggered the opportunity to fundamentally morph the business model of practically every financial services vertical - including payments, deposits & retail banking, lending, capital raising, wealth management, insurance, financial infrastructure, and regulation.
The climate change crisis and its effect on the environment, households, and capital markets are spurring a worldwide coordinated response by governments, which has the potential to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon inclusive economy.Against this backdrop, this course introduces sustainability challenges from different perspectives and discusses the role of finance in impacting and addressing them.It is designed around a combination of cases and financial tools to reach course objectives and will end with an individual exam. We will ground our discussions in rigorous state-of-the-art academic research and apply evidence from research to real-world problems through case discussions and recent developments. We will cover diverse aspects such as ESG measurement, investment management, socially responsible and impact investing, role of shareholder engagement, integrated reporting, risk management, and the use of capital markets to create market-based emissions trading systems.
Examine corporate re-organisations, including mergers and acquisitions, re-organisation through workouts and bankruptcy, divisional spin-offs and divestitures, and leveraged buyouts
The Project and Infrastructure Finance course focuses on the application of techniques and principles to structure, value and finance large-scale infrastructure and industrial projects. The course describes the many ways in which project finance techniques can be used to redistribute and mitigate the risks typically found in these complex projects. Students will work through a series of case studies to apply project finance techniques to real-life projects such as Public-Private Partnership (PPP) infrastructure concessions and commodity development opportunities
Students will learn Python coding and will apply the skills in a variety of financial problems, such as devising and evaluating trading strategies, portfolio construction, and risk assessment, among others. Students are expected to have basic level of coding experience in any other language and a good technical background (namely should be familiar with linear regression and basic linear algebra).
Gain the concepts and tools you need to understand real estate markets and manage real estate assets with a focus on value creation. Most of the course will focus on commercial real estate. Topics covered include valuation and investment analysis, financing, economic, legal, political and taxation issues and recent trends and challenges
There are some $90 trillion dollars of professionally managed assets globally. Where does the money come from? Where does it go? What factors shape how it is managed? Together we take a tour of the world of investment management. We look at the investment challenge through the eyes of the principal actors on the global money management stage - and the current trends shaping the industry in which they work. After 5 days you will be better prepared for a career in investment or one in which investors are your clients. Please note: this course is not a masterclass in how to invest; it is a unique look at how and why investors invest the way they do and the investment industry in which they operate. The block week runs dawn to dusk. It features a parade of practitioners. The level of assignments is not particularly difficult - but the pace and continuous participation required is demanding. Do not take this course unless you can devote the entire week to it
Value Investing course is intended to teach students the principle of value investing as developed by Graham and Dodd and as practiced by prominent buy-side investment professionals. Students would be taught fundamentals of long/short equity investing. This would be done through a combination of formal lectures, speaker sessions and in-class discussion on real world ideas. The emphasis would be on real world Investing decisions with a goal to provide students theory and practice of investing and help students develop business acumen and industry experience
Data science enables the extraction of useful knowledge and business value from complex data collections. This will be a coding-focused course in R, with equivalent code in Python. The main goal is not to teach the technical aspects of algorithms but to focus on the application of useful tools and the issues that arise using real-world examples. These tools should be useful for students who want to build careers in data-intensive industries. On completing the elective, participants will master data manipulation and visualization and explore a spectrum of machine learning methodologies. In addition, we will learn how to scrape the web to harvest data, how to connect to and work with databases (SQL, Apache Arrow) with massive (1.7 billion rows) data sets, and how to work with geospatial data to create maps and perform GIS operations.
The business world is burgeoning with novel digital technologies, from Artificial Intelligence to Blockchain and Web 3. It is imperative for business leaders to keep pace with this constantly evolving digital technologies landscape, though the task is undeniably formidable. With a combination of lectures, case discussions, workshops, and guest speeches, this course aims to provide you a deep dive into the digital space. Upon completing this course, it will help you answer the following questions. How do these most discussed digital technologies work? What are the basic elements and value-generating mechanisms of these technologies? How can these technologies help to streamline my business processes and transform my value chains? How could I adopt and manage a technology for my organization and industry to harness its full potential?
This course provides an introduction to an industrial sector of worldwide importance, and one in which there are now many business challenges through market restructuring and the development of low carbon technologies.
In today's information age, managers increasingly rely on analytics to make financial decisions that have a profound impact on the performance of their organizations. Often business analysts produce the analytics that top management use to support their decision making, but top management must also understand the strengths and weaknesses of analytics if they are to use them effectively to support their decisions. The objective of this course is to equip you with the frameworks, tools, and methodologies necessary to build and/or be an educated user of analytics for financial decision making. The course is suitable for students seeking a career in finance, but also for students with broader interests who wish to strengthen their analytic skills, and it does not require any quantitative background other than what is covered in the MBA core courses
This elective focusses on the business of sport and entertainment. The aim is to develop understanding and skills in the strategic, operational and marketing management of these two related and converging sectors. It is designed to foster strategic and operational thinking in a rapidly professionalizing area and one that is key to future economic growth.
In this course students delve deep into the world of data analytics without writing a single line of code. Through compelling case studies and real-world datasets, participants will master advanced visualization techniques and explore a spectrum of machine learning methodologies, from supervised and unsupervised learning to text classification and predictive analytics. With hands-on sessions using powerful tools like Tableau and Alteryx, students will emerge with a robust analytical toolkit, ready to tackle large datasets with confidence.
To meet the challenges of the globalised and rapidly changing business environment, companies are increasingly adopting flat, flexible and matrix-oriented organisation structures in which work is structured around cross-functional business processes and projects. The success of such companies crucially depends on effective project management. The key dimensions of projects are people, time, costs, and resources. This course introduces methodologies and practical tools that facilitate and support the management of these dimensions, throughout the project design, planning and implementation phases.
The modern economy is characterised by reduced legal and technological obstacles to global trading. As a result, the success of modern enterprises is increasingly driven not only by their products, people and internal processes, but also by the performance of their supply chain as a whole. In this context, the goal of this course is twofold: Present the best practices and most relevant theory for designing and managing supply chains; Provide a laboratory that is as realistic as possible for students to practice managing supply-chains and obtain insightful feedback on their decisions. Using a combination of case studies, simulations, practitioner guest lectures and readings, the specific topics covered include: physical infrastructure (logistics and warehousing); product flows (forecasting and planning); supply chain design (strategic sourcing and contracting); supply chain risks (resilience to disruptions) and sustainability.
Innovating Business Models, Products & Services is a fast-paced,hands-on, experiential and interdisciplinary class where students will identify and develop new business models, products and services, in a multi-tiered innovation tournament context.
This is a practical course developed to extend statistical capabilities and critical understanding in the analysis of time series data. The main emphasis will be upon analysing financial and commodity data, mostly high frequency. Although various advanced regression-based methods are reviewed, the course will not be mathematically demanding and students who were comfortable with the pre-programme, or first term, statistics course will be able to move on to this material without difficulty. Students should, however, have an interest in model-based analysis. The course material will be developed intuitively, rather than theoretically, through the exploration of many examples and practical workshops. The course will start with the fundamental basics of time series analysis and lead to a look at recent techniques for algorithmic forecasting and value-at-risk. Two of the later sessions will be led by Dr Peter Bolland, who was formerly head of electronic market making at Morgan Stanley.
Advanced Marketing Strategy is concerned with how firms target, acquire, retain, and grow customers to achieve sustainable growth and profits. With our focus on marketing at the strategic level, less attention is given to the specific tactical decisions made by marketers to implement particular strategies. Each session covers a topic that is of importance to marketers and senior management. The first part of the course focuses on a customer-centric approach to marketing strategy. We examine how to identify, create, sustain, and leverage customer value to create value for the firm. In other words, we place the organisation's capabilities at the service of customers and not the other way around. We then discuss the Marketing function within the broader context of the firm, particularly as it relates to globalisation and to the interface with Sales. Finally, we focus on marketing analytics, emphasizing the manager's role and perspective (rather than that of the analyst).
Behavioural economics is an emerging field that shows most decision makers are not fully rational, and that their behaviour deviates from normative standards in systematic ways. Biases in judgment can lead to decision errors by managers and consumers alike. This also presents an opportunity, however, for managers, consumers and public policy makers because it is possible to change and improve decisions through behavioural interventions. The course will cover the main behavioural theories and develop students' skills to test and implement behavioural interventions through experimentation. Students will work on projects in collaboration with an external organization. Guest speakers applying behavioural concepts in different settings will feature. Because behavioural principles are applied in diverse settings, the course is suitable to a broad audience. The emphasis on biases and how decisions depart from rationality distinguishes this course from other courses on decision making.
Brands articulate a company's strategy, drive its execution, and are often the most valuable asset on (or off) the balance sheet. This course highlights the strategic implications of branding for organizations and delivers a framework and a set of tools for effective brand management. The course offers you the chance to combine theory and practice to understand the most important concepts in building strong brands, maximizing the value of existing brands, and managing a brand portfolio. From a theoretical perspective, the course aims to introduce you to the issues faced by brand stewards and to provide an overall framework and a set of more specific tools to manage these issues, paying special attention to emerging topics in branding. From a practical perspective, the course objective is to show how the principles learned in class apply to real-world problems by making extensive use of examples, cases, and guest speakers.
Digital technologies have disrupted the way firms interact with consumers and their distribution strategies. Established manufacturers and retailers are threatened by firms such as Amazon that exclusively use online channels. As the number of channels explodes, the need for coordination becomes vital. At the same time, digital technologies facilitate new business models and distribution strategies. This course focuses on how firms should manage the strategic dimension of distribution channel choice and their channels and sales force. Students learn how to successfully design, manage and evaluate a company's channel and sales force strategy and tactics in B2C and B2B markets. The course discusses the fundamental strategy choices and economics of distribution channel choice, looks at challenges related to digital channels, integration of broader channel strategies and the interaction of decisions with other marketing variables such as branding, pricing or the product lifecycle.
Marketing professionals and consultants are charged with a wide variety of responsibilities that require them to have a good understanding of the workings of the market (at both the micro- and macro-level), evaluate the impact of (and therefore demonstrate the value of) past marketing activities, and use these insights in the development of new marketing programmes. The objective of this course is to familiarize you with some of the main descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics methods that have now become fundamental to marketing decision making as well as to high-level marketing and strategy consulting engagements. The course guides you through the development and use of these tools without getting "bogged down" in the technical details. Fundamental to this course is the view that the way to truly appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of the various tools - so that you can be an "intelligent consumer" of them - is to gain first-hand experience as an end-user modeller.
The Digital Marketing course is based on the premise that creating value through marketing in the digital age is fundamentally different. The main difference from the conventional view of marketing, where the unit of analysis is a firm or a consumer, is that in digital marketing, the unit of analysis is the network. These networks include advertising, social, and buyer-seller networks. The course's pedagogical style spans both "thinking" and "doing." On the thinking front, we will use lectures, guest speakers, and case discussions. And on the doing front, we will conduct in-class exercises and online simulations to give you hands-on experience to grow your business. This course is valuable for students interested in Marketing, Technology, Consulting, Finance (tech industry), VC/PE, and Entrepreneurship. It aims to equip you with the knowledge and skills you need to succeed in the digital era.
This course addresses the management and marketing of innovation. Design themes underlying the course are: cutting-edge research, decision focus, process-orientation, strategic emphasis, adaptive and dynamic.
This course is designed for those who want to make the world a better place. Our goal is to uncover the most impactful interventions for changing behavior necessary to improve the world. In taking a Marketing perspective, this class will focus on how to tailor interventions for a target audience in a way that is both meaningful and motivating
When is making a change to a webpage, an algorithm, prices or products worthwhile? Is my advertising effective? Businesses increasingly use experiments to answer these questions. However, implementing experiments is not always straightforward. This class teaches causal methods with a special focus on field experiments, when they work and how to apply them. We will discuss how to measure impact in business situations and how to evaluate claims of impact made by others. Topics include field experiments (also: randomized controlled trials) and other methods that can be used when experiments are not feasible. The methods can be used in a variety of business contexts, but they have become especially important for digital businesses that are able to easily implement experiments. Methods are illustrated with examples from businesses such as Ebay and Uber and in areas such as advertising, pricing, product design or distribution channel decisions.
Pricing presents managers with one of their most powerful levers for maximizing profits and shareholder value. This value often lies untapped within many organizations, because managers lack a clear understanding of how to improve on historical pricing practices within their companies and industries.
In most modern companies, the Product Manager (PM) plays a central role in bringing products successfully to market and also to manage their on-going life-cycle. S/he is the glue that binds the various functions within the company - including Engineering, Sales, Design, Marketing and more. The overall goal for this course, Product Management, is to help students understand all the various skillsets that are needed for the PM role, and to develop a good sense for what it takes to be a successful product manager - typically in a high tech company. By course end students will have learned various product management and product development frameworks. Also, they will have built some hands-on skills in product design based on customer requirements and product prototyping. Plus they will have a deeper understanding of product roadmaps, product-mix planning, overall product lifecycle and product portfolio management, go-to-market strategies, and product-related eco-system development.
There are many books, articles & courses on managing crises. Most focus on the structures, processes that companies can instil within their corporate framework to mitigate the risk & aftermath of a potential crisis. We believe these are important aspects organizations should take into account. However, we also believe it is critical to understand how crises change the dynamic of human decision-making & communication, & the resulting behaviour of individuals who face crises. It is the human factor, on which we focus in this course, that is the single greatest variable & often hardest to manage and control during a crisis. Integrating evidence-based knowledge from marketing, organizational behaviour, & public-policy, this course will focus on three inter-related critical areas of crisis management: decision-making, communication & learning. The course will be interactive, immersing students in a crisis simulation involving actors, real time decisions, & communication to the media.
Understanding diversity and being able to address issues of bias in organizations is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ leadership skill – it is a need-to-have. Why do so many leaders get it wrong, failing to create inclusive environments for racial minorities, women, LGBTQ+ individuals, and other underrepresented backgrounds? And why don’t organizations make more progress on diversity given how much they talk about it?
Poll after poll has confirmed that an astonishing number of workers are disengaged from their work. But more than ever before, organizations need employee engagement and creativity to win. Why is this happening? And how can we fix the problem?
Why this elective? As described in the school's Elective Portfolio Review (2012), "recruiters are increasingly demanding that students are equipped with a broader set of 'softer' skills which will allow them to be more effective in the workplace. Currently, such skills are not formally delivered as part of the elective portfolio." Building and maintaining effective relationships is at the core of career and business success. This elective has been developed to give you an opportunity to refine your relationship building and management skills and to ensure that you are well equipped to meet the inter-personal challenges that often become increasingly complex and demanding the more senior you get. The objective of this course is thus to help you develop your ability to build more effective professional relationships. This involves a set of skills that are evidence-based and can be learnt through practice. Given that this course is about building relationships, being a passive observer wi
The purpose of this course is to help you develop skills and knowledge critical for leading groups of people effectively in organisations. Through assessment tools, exercises, films, cases, role-plays, and other assignments, you will gain a stronger understanding of what it takes to excel in leadership positions. This course builds from the premise that leadership skills complement the technical and diagnostic skills learned in other London Business School courses. Because most candidates seek or encounter leadership responsibilities, this course is relevant for every student pursuing a managerial career.
This is a class on helping you change things. How can you stop procrastinating on important tasks? How can you convince your technical salespeople to sell business solutions not hardware? How do you get people to start buying their meat from local and humane farms? On the one hand, these are very different changes on different levels of analysis: individual, organizational, and societal. On the other hand, all change efforts boil down to the same mission: Can you get people to start behaving in a new way?
We negotiate every day. We negotiate with potential employers, co-workers, roommates, landlords, parents, bosses, merchants, service providers, spouses, and even our children. Although people negotiate all the time, most know very little about the strategy and psychology behind effective negotiations. The course will highlight the components of an effective negotiation and teach students to analyze their own behavior in negotiations. The course will be largely experiential, providing students the opportunity to develop their skills by participating in negotiations and integrating their experiences with the principles presented in the readings and course discussions.
The course is aimed at students who want to reflect on how to live more fulfilling personal and professional lives. . Wisdom is an expertise in dealing with difficult questions of life and adaptation to its complex requirements. Wisdom takes a long-term perspective and underpins individual and societal happiness. Wisdom and happiness are founded on a healthy relationship with reality, with oneself, and with other people. This course will address how to grow in wisdom and happiness, drawing on diverse disciplines and traditions, including psychology, systems theory, philosophy, and the humanities.
In a world of increasing change and uncertainty, successful companies can seldom rely on their past sources of advantage for long. They need to adapt rapidly, but for a future that is not at all clear. They need to become more 'agile' in the way they develop and execute emerging strategies. This elective explores different contexts of change and uncertainty, and provides tools and concepts to help companies become more agile in various respects. The impact of the pandemic has only heightened awareness of how important and pervasive is this need for flexibility and agility as much in large organizations as in small ones.
Gain insight into the nature of corporate – as opposed to business – strategy. Many companies are not single businesses but 'groups', comprising a portfolio of more or less separate business units and one or more levels of 'corporate' management.
This course is an experiential learning initiative designed to be a mixture of in-person and virtual experiences. Students in the course will consult remotely and in teams with small and medium enterprise (SME) clients in East Africa to deliver tangible business recommendations around the theme of "Digital for Impact". Over the course of 10 weeks students will be supported by faculty and regional on-the-ground contacts-with plenary lectures and skills sessions to complement the client work.
While traditional strategy tools (five forces framework, generic strategies, who/what/how, etc.) can still provide valuable insight, they are not sufficient to understand the complexities of some of the most popular business models around us today. In this course, we introduce new frameworks and techniques to better understand these business models. In particular, we look at four related topics: 1) the emergence of new platform-based business models and the key decisions for designing a successful platform, 2) the change in the competitive positioning of firms as they adopt platform-based business models; 3) the emergence of ecosystems where new platform-based business models interact with traditional models; 4) and the shifts in the fundamental institutions that shape businesses due to new technological trends such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.
It is not the intention of this course to analyse precisely what an entrepreneurial mindset is. It is intended to give you one. An entrepreneurial mindset, namely, is not just about being passionate and having a risk appetite, but also about an ability to appropriately analyse situations and understand them at a higher cognitive level than others. It is about judging and seizing opportunities, but also about building a coherent strategic logic to take advantage of them. That is what this course is about: it is intended to shape your thinking.
Equip yourself to deal effectively with the issues you are likely to face in entrepreneurial ventures in emerging markets. Subjects covered include managing in times of rapid demographic and socio-economic change, innovating in emerging markets, managing in ethically corrupt environments, dealing with multinationals, building winning businesses in resource constrained environments, understanding consumers in emerging markets and what to do when the family calls and asks you to come home and save the family business.
Family firms make up around 70% of businesses worldwide and account for a substantial proportion of GDP. Many of the world's leading corporations originated as family firms, and retain cultural distinctiveness as a result. In some parts of the world, such as South Asia and the Far East, family firms occupy the commanding heights of the economy. Yet they are neglected in the management literature, and often treated as if they were a relic of the past. However, as the current financial crisis is illustrating, with their long time scales, adaptive cultures, and vision-led leadership many are much better fitted to survive the downturn in good shape than many PLCs.
Explore the issues and practices of financing entrepreneurial businesses, including start-ups, emerging growth companies, management buy-outs and buy-ins.
National borders matter for how firms develop and conduct their strategy. The point of departure for Global Strategy is that differences exist between countries and that these differences have implications for how firms strategize when they operate across borders.
Learn to identify these differences, how to measure them, and what they mean for fundamental decisions such as entering new markets and designing the global footprint of a firm's operations. Gain familiarity with some major public databases (e.g. POLYCON, Economic Freedom of the World Index, CAGE).
This course is relevant for anyone who intends to pursue a managerial career in a multinational corporation as well as anyone who will have to assess the strategies of multinational corporations in consulting and finance.
The course sets out to explore what is unique about social enterprises. This new organizational form holds the promise of tackling some of society's thorniest problems that traditional businesses have ignored in more efficient ways than traditional charities. For investors, it represents an evolution in corporate philanthropy as the original intent to contribute to society is fused with an investment approach to capital allocation. As a result, substantial amounts are directed toward the nascent market in social impact investing. Are the conditions present for this market to grow systematically or is this a passing fad? Are the entrepreneurial and management skills necessary to start and manage social enterprises different from those required for either traditional businesses or charities? What options are available to social businesses when their self-interest conflicts with their pursuit of social impact? This course aims to provide students with the analytical frameworks and tools f
This course explores how technology and innovation shape strategic decisions. The emphasis is on learning conceptual models to help navigate the complexity of technology-driven industries. We will explore the basis of competition in tech industries through insights from academic research and the strategic issues of how a firm should manage technology. These include understanding the technological and competitive nature of tech industries, ways to compete in the high-tech marketplace, resource allocation and R&D investment decisions, alternative commercialization paths, and managing factors that hinder or promote the adoption and diffusion of a new technology.
Focusing on some of the most compelling strategy questions facing the luxury sector, and yet highly applicable in other competitive and increasingly commoditised sectors.
Seven of the top ten companies in the world by market capitalisation, and the vast majority of unlisted ‘unicorn’ companies, are players in the digital economy: they sell primarily digital products (or hardware for accessing digital products), they operate with platform-based business models that give them increasing returns to scale, they have few tangible assets and they employ relatively small numbers of people.
These features make digital organisations fundamentally different to “industrial” organisations such as food manufacturers, oil & gas companies or automobile companies, who make physical products and operate in the world of decreasing returns to scale on which traditional economic theories were built.
The purpose of this course is to help students understand the differences between industrial and digital organisations, and to provide them with frameworks and practical advice for how to manage and work in digital organisations.
MIRB explores whether and how the adoption of Responsible Business practices by companies, in association with the integration of ESG factors by investors, can be an effective way to address these global challenges. MIRB thus aims to fundamentally transform the way students think about the role of business and finance in society by empowering them to understand, develop and implement a model of broader stakeholder value maximisation in conjunction with positive societal impact. Despite highlighting the importance of creating value for society, the course also stresses the criticality of companies generating profits. Indeed, one of the punchlines is that an approach to business based on responsibility can be more profitable than one focused on shareholder value.
Examine a range of entrepreneurial businesses and gain the ability to recognise the patterns in business models and management processes. Learn how to manage the risks and convert opportunities on this integrative course that concentrates on the general management challenges facing founders or managers in entrepreneurial businesses
Get an overview of the process and challenges associated with starting an entirely new business, the skills required to prepare a persuasive business plan, approach prospective investors and launch your venture. Gain a clear understanding of how to assess an entrepreneurial opportunity, the resources needed to start a new business and the costs and challenges involved. Give an entrepreneurial bias to your career using this course as a springboard. A number of graduates who have taken the New Venture Development course and gone on to set up their own business or pursued careers in venture capital.
If you have fancied yourself as an entrepreneur or intend to work in the venture capital industry or in professional businesses supporting entrepreneurial firms this is the perfect entry level entrepreneurship course for you. You explore the many dimensions of entrepreneurship and new venture creation and growth, including: conceptualising, developing and managing successful new ventures. The emphasis in this course is on applying and synthesising concepts and techniques from the functional areas of accounting, finance, managerial economics, marketing, operations management, and organisation behaviour in the context of new venture development.
Firms are accelerating the use of analytics to translate human capital into competitive advantage. This trend has increased the demand for leaders who are informed users and consumers of analytical tools to manage and develop talent. This course meets such demand, by drawing on the latest evidence-based research on people analytics and educating students on how to use these tools in a thoughtful, effective, and responsible manner.
Students will be expected to use and analyse data, hence you need a basic knowledge of statistics. However, previous experience with statistical or programming packages is not required. We will provide you with some basic code and tools in class. The goal is to help you understand what kind of data and analytical techniques are more appropriate for each problem, as well as to train you in a thoughtful evaluation of the evidence required to make sound decisions.
The meteoric growth of a small, highly profitable and extremely powerful set of technology-based firms has redefined sectors from media to news, commerce to healthcare, in an ever expanding footprint. The power that these firms have amassed has raised fears of increasing and endemic economic inequity, with those who inescapably operate in the shadow of Big Tech needing to accept whatever terms they are offered. This course aims to address these issues head-on, drawing on the most recent thinking, bringing some of the key stakeholders from policy, advocacy and regulation to debate with the class. It draws on areas of topical interest such as AI, the metaverse and the gig economy, focusing on the opportunity to debate questions of success as they are inextricably linked to power abuse and dominance.
Get answers to the question that keeps most top executives awake at night: "where should tomorrow's growth come from?" Learn how to create the growing firm, and how growth strategies are not always 'designed' by managers but emerge from within an organisation. Analyse how effective managers organise their companies to achieve continuous, organic growth. Examine the firm's formal strategic choices, its internal organisational environment, the process of growth, and the role of historical accident and the background and personality of the managers involved. You will learn how, as a manager, you can shape your organisation to deliberately manage and control the growth process of the firm.
Enhance your strategic decision-making with Strategy Analytics. In today's data-driven world, big data and computational tools are crucial: Dive into their application for strategic choices. Building upon core strategy principles, explore the integration of big data and AI in strategic decision-making. This hands-on course emphasizes practical applications, letting you engage with real-world data. Marrying business and corporate strategy with appropriate analytical tools, you will understand how to apply analytical solutions reliant on big data for strategic decision-making. By the end of this course, you will have developed an understanding on the types of data and computational techniques that you can leverage to solve different classes of strategic problems, enabling you to make informed strategic decisions that drive success in today's complex business landscape.
The "Sustainable Leadership: Lessons from LBS Alumni" course stands at the intersection of academic study and real-world practicality, offering a unique opportunity to explore the realm of sustainable leadership through the lens of our notable alumni's experiences. This course transcends conventional pedagogical boundaries by linking LBS's academic legacy with its alumni's substantial contributions in the world of sustainable business.
Data analysis and result interpretation are two primary ways to understand marketing phenomena and solve marketing problems. This course will focus on improving your ability to understand and make sense of marketing data collected at various levels. Special emphasis will be given to training in the use of Qualtrics, to design and implement survey and experimental studies for quantitative data collection. Students will learn data analysis methods, including R - one of the fastest growing software programs in marketing analytics - and have hands-on experience of data analysis by applying these methods to real cases.
This course aims to introduce the students to an integrated enterprise approach of the flow of goods and services, information and financial flows from suppliers to customers. In this course, we will view the supply chain from the point of view of a general manager. Understand how goods and services are produced and distributed in integrated supply chain environments within and between enterprises. We will explore how this helps to reduce and/or eliminate duplication of processes, streamline processes and ultimately improve the overall performance of the organisation (profitability).
China presents both opportunities and challenges to multinational enterprises. Over a short course of three decades, China has become one of the world’s leading economies. Yet China remains an economy with imperfect institutional environments. “What is the appropriate strategy for China?” is a question that many multinationals are confronted with. This course will cover some of the key economic and business strategy issues that multinationals will face when operating in China. It aims to provide students with analytical frameworks of how managers navigate in the Chinese business environment and address the challenges and threats.
This course introduces the main businesses; namely, asset management, investment banking and capital markets, and organisational structure of investment banks. A focus will be on investment banking and relevant valuation methods widely applied by finance professionals in practical cases such as IPOs and M&As. Build a comprehensive understanding of the whole spectrum of investment banking businesses, and hardcore skills of investment analysis and valuation.
This course will introduce and explain the evidence of anomalous return behavior found in US equities markets; you will be presented with paradigms of stock price movements that are rooted in studies from psychology, to seek to explain trading activity in equity markets. You will explore evidence that contradicts the standard risk-return paradigm. We will then introduce some of the psychological biases that researchers suspect are inherent to investors. By the end of this elective, you will understand why it is that investors trade and how individual investors build their portfolio.
This course covers the economic, statistical, and mathematical foundations of derivatives markets. The course presents the basic discrete-time and continuous-time paradigms used in derivatives finance including an introduction to stochastic processes, stochastic differential equations, Ito’s Lemma, and key elements of stochastic calculus. The economic foundations of the Black-Scholes no-arbitrage paradigm are also covered; including an introduction to Girsanov’s theorem and changes of measure, equivalent martingale measures, risk-neutral valuation, fundamental partial differential equation representations of derivatives prices, market prices of risk, and Feynman-Kac representations of solutions to derivatives prices. The role of market completeness and its implications for the hedging and replication of derivatives will be covered in depth.
Risk management is an effective tool employed by hedge funds to enable high-level returns for their investors, through identifying, assessing and prioritising risks in a financial market. The high leverage strategy is extremely risky and requires a careful implementation of operational risk-management systems in place. This module will cover these topics rigorously, showing both the promise of a well-designed risk management practice as well as the perils associated with poorly conceived strategies.
Driven by common industrial cases, this course examines the specialties of network economy, featured platform theory as well as competitive strategies applied in the internet economy; including platform design strategies, pricing strategies, competition strategies and governance strategies. This course applies theory-based reasoning to analyse and explain different strategies adopted by platform companies under various situations in the network economy. Students will further explore new business opportunities and corresponding competitive strategies whilst encouraged to implement various competitive strategies under real business circumstances to build competitive advantages.
The objective of this course is to introduce you to the economic reform and development of China - especially those topics closely related with China's current economic conditions. You will explore key areas including fiscal decentralisation, the local government’s responses within the Chinese economy and the institutions responsible for China’s reform.
Emotions influence all aspects of organisational life. Emotions may be constructive or destructive, depending on many factors, including the context and the goals. Effective leaders must be able to manage emotions in themselves as well as in others in order to reach organisational and personal goals. In this course, you will examine the functions of a leader and how emotions are likely to enhance or diminish a leader’s effectiveness.
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Electives currently on offer include: entrepreneurship and innovation, advanced marketing, managing the digital firm: information systems, big data and e-commerce, supply chain and logistic management, fashion and luxury brand management.
Please note that electives may be subject to change.
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