Explore our portfolio of approximately 50 electives spanning everything from fintech to supply chain.
Offered in flexible formats on weekdays, evenings and block weeks, electives support invaluable cross-generational learning as you join other Graduate Masters, MBA, MiF and Executive 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 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 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 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.
Understand how incentive regimes affect employee productivity and organisational effectiveness through both psychology and economics. Learn how and why individuals deviate from their usual rational responses to incentives. Examine subjects such as compensation, social exchanges, coordination, intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, free-riding, principal-agent models and the implications of asymmetric information and the incompleteness of contracts. The course uses models developed in micro-economics and psychology.
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.
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.
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
Develop an in-depth understanding of credit risk and credit derivatives, with a focus on modelling and valuation. Understand the balance between developing a conceptual framework and market understanding and insight. Learn about topics including: historical default experience and recovery rates, applications of structural models and default-intensity models of credit risk and credit spread options
The Equity Investment Management course covers Strategic and Tactical asset allocation, Portfolio Optimization, Risk Measurement, Factor models of returns, Active-Passive management, Long-Short investing, Behavioural Finance, Style Analysis and Performance Measurement. It highlights some recent developments and how they are having an impact on all aspects of investment management
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 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
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
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 quantitative models to make financial decisions that have a profound impact on the performance of their organizations. Often business analysts produce the quantitative models that top management use to support their decision making, but top management must also understand the strengths and weaknesses of the models 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 quantitative models 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 general modelling 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.
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 characterized 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:
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.
This course addresses the biggest barrier to creativity in business - the myth that being creative is the rightful preserve of the creatively gifted. It's not. Creativity is a way to solve problems and to think differently about business challenges.
The Digital Marketing course is built on the premise that value creation via 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 the unit of analysis for marketing in the digital age is the network. The courses pedagogical style spans both thinking and doing. To that end, lectures and case discussions will be supplemented with in-class exercises and demonstrations as well as a simulation and online learning.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We stand in the midst of one of the greatest revolutions in organisations and work the world has ever seen. The forces that are shaping our work, our organisations and institutions are becoming ever more apparent as their velocity increases. The trajectory of these forces is unknowable - with future scenarios ranging from the most optimistic to the downright bleak. In this elective we explore these key themes. First, how the context of work and organisations will be shaped by the forces of globalisation, technology, demography, societal changes and resource constraints over the coming decades and the opportunities and challenges this creates. Then we consider the impact this will have on organisations and ecosystems of knowledge and talent, and the role of the company in the community and in society. Finally, we take a closer look at what this means for leadership and for you as you develop your own ideas about how best to prepare for the future.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Strategy execution capability is critical for organisations. As they grow and become more complex, the pressure to execute successfully increases. This course focuses on how organisations can more reliably achieve their strategic objectives by 'doing the right things right.' The elective builds on the core strategy course and creates a bridge between strategy and operations. It draws on leading research and adopts a highly practical approach, incorporating much direct application by students to real organisational challenges.
Graduates with the capability to not only develop but also execute strategy will be attractive to many organisations faced with strategy execution challenges and to consulting firms. For those pursuing a career in entrepreneurship, this course will also be invaluable.
You must successfully complete an additional three electives if you undertake the additional term. They run in a range of formats, and as with electives during the programme- are taken with students from all programmes.
You can take a maximum of three electives during the programme, however if you undertake the additional term, you complete an additional three electives.
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