DAS in General Management

Operations & Supply Chain Management is at the core of any organization when it comes to designing, producing and delivering products and services that satisfy external and internal customer needs. Throughout the course, you will develop an understanding of the complex and crucial interactions between operations and other functions, particularly marketing and finance. You will identify effective measures to improve operational performance and show how this in turn improves the organization’s financial results.

Data has become an essential asset for companies to be able to operate and compete effectively. In fact, four of the six top companies in market valuation – Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, and Alibaba – base their business models exclusively on the use of data to optimize advertising. Moreover, SMEs are starting to benefit substantially from analyzing data about their operations, finances, clients, and employees. It is therefore essential that business managers understand data as a production factor and know how to extract the value it contains. Therefore, this course introduces data as a production factor, explains its unique attributes (what makes this factor of production different from others), and examines how data can transform existing organizations and give rise to new business models. Once students understand data as a production factor, this course shows them how to generate insights and gain value from it by means of various analytical and graphic tools.

This course will help you to understand yourself better through your own assessments and reflections and will encourage you to engage with your peers to self-reflect and exchange feedback. The ultimate aim of the course is for you to build on strengths and compensate for weaknesses so that you can lead your peers, teams, and organizations to your full potential. We will focus on the following:

• Self-awareness
• Personality and leadership skills
• Managing the dynamics of power
• Using power for leadership
• Interpersonal influence
• Difficult conversations
• Feedback giving
• Leading cross culturally
• Leading virtually
• Leading digital transformation

More than ever before, technological innovation and disruption affect the way business is conducted and new wealth is created. How to master technological change and profit from innovation are therefore key questions for business leaders. They are essential for developing a competitive advantage and boosting performance in all company types – new and old, large and small – across all industries. In this course, you will not only be exposed to the latest thinking about entrepreneurship, technological change and innovation but also apply new business tools that allow you to master technological disruption. Furthermore, you will develop an individual strategic innovation project for your company.

This course is designed with the objective of understanding distribution channels and how organizations can leverage them to create value, differentiate themselves in their markets, and gain a competitive advantage. Product proliferation, media fragmentation, intermediary power, e-commerce, omnichannel strategy, among other things, have converged to place a premium on effective channel design and management. The success of Apple, Alibaba, Amazon, Coupang, Mercado Libre, Rakuten, Reliance, Walmart, BlaBlaCar, Uber, Grab, Airbnb, Expedia, etc., indicates that careful attention to distribution can be tremendously rewarding. The course covers channel issues that are internal (salesforce management, account management, sales-marketing-organization interface) and external (retailing, wholesaling, trade relationships, channel conflict, channel coordination) to a firm. The contexts used to explore these issues are a mix of B2B and B2C settings. At the end of the course, you will be able to appreciate the complexity and central role of the sales and distribution functions and the vital part they play in implementing the marketing strategy.

Strategic management takes the perspective of the general manager involved with managing a business unit in its totality. The course focuses on the underlying conditions that permit a firm to develop, sustain, and capture the value of a superior strategic position. At the end of the course, you will have gained an actionable understanding of the strategy concept, enabling you to participate confidently in the strategic dialogue within your organization.

Most industries are currently exposed to the galvanizing forces of globalization. Global operations are no longer confined to mining, petroleum, or manufacturing firms but include also a growing number of small firms, even start-ups including born globals, that are looking for global opportunities. This course is designed to provide theoretical and practical frameworks that enable managers to formulate and implement an effective global strategy, specifically in the context of emerging Asian economies.

We will examine how multinational corporations can create and manage competitive advantages in response to the opportunities and challenges they encounter in global competition. The major objectives of this course can be categorized as follows:

• Understand the fundamental issues in globalization and multinational enterprises
• Understand and analyze recent trends in the international business environment
• Review the main theories and best practices of international business
• Acquire analytical and strategic skills for competing in the global marketplace