Business development covers ideas, initiatives and activities aimed towards making a business better. This includes increasing revenues, growth in terms of business expansion, increasing profitability by building strategic partnerships, and making strategic business decisions. The module highlights key growth and development challenges facing contemporary firms. After completing the course, the student should be able to:

• build and evaluate real business strategies
• form marketing strategies and apply their tools
• build efficient operations
• manage changes
• optimize company organizations
• successfully align the main tools of people management with organization´s strategy

 

The course is given in English.

 

Contents of the module

Main topics of the course cover

 - building and analysing business strategies and strategic perspectives. The main issues cover company aims and objectives, corporate mission, business expansion, risk, swot analysis, specific strategies in sectors of industry and types of business organization, business planning, business start-ups, corporate culture, external environment analysis including international business, business cycle, government influence, consumer protection, corporate responsibility and ethics, the role of corporate stakeholders, globalization, etc. 

- practically applying the marketing theory and its instruments, i.e. building of competitive advantage, branding, customer focus, market research, marketing mix, marketing strategies, place, price, product and product launch, product life cycle, product portfolio, promotion, customer service, clients segmentation, etc.

- using the theory behind business operations development and management, i.e. the range of processes organisations use, how companies determine where they site their businesses to meet production requirements or customer demand, which method of production (batch, job, flow) is relevant to different types of product/industry, lean production and efficiency, reducing waste, improving productivity and saving costs, the role of quality management, the different approaches to managing quality and efficiency

- critical issues of business organization, i.e. types of business organization, their strengths and weaknesses, which organisational structure will best deliver an organisation's objectives (hierarchy, flat, matrix) and the benefits/constraints of each, relationships between organization and strategy, building organization, definition of company business units, departments, positions, roles and competencies, issues of span of control, company processes and their streamlining, aligning strategy with departments and managers´ goals, teams and their roles, etc.

- core issues of people and change management, i.e. evaluating the current and future human resource needs both in terms of numbers of people and skills and competencies (workforce planning), organizing people, organizational roles and responsibilities, management tools, motivation, skills and competencies, types of training (on- and off-the-job), coaching, mentoring, secondments, and use of appraisals as a means of identifying skills gaps and measuring performance, achieving company goals through developing and training people, managing change, the process of communication, the role of trade unions in the workplace etc.

 

Module goal

The course is a follow-up to the course Business Development.

As such, it deals with business activities that are intended to increase the profit, production, or service potential of an enterprise, using the method of case studies as the main teaching and students´ work vehicle. This vehicle presents students with real and critical management issues and serves as a springboard to lively classroom debate in which participants present and defend their analyses and prescriptions. 

Purpose of the course is to - by using information and issues from successful companies - help students learn Business development by giving the opportunity to study, analyse and evaluate Business development in a relevant, real life context. The case studies analysed in the course comprise real business cases covering issues of strategy, marketing, operations, organization and people management.

 

Module structure

Student grades are based upon individually-written papers that analyse and evaluate a real life business case in areas of strategy, operations, marketing, organization, change management and external environment analysis. Specific cases will be agreed on individually in class.

Topics Areas in Strategy:

Importance of a mission, vision, aims and objectives to a business

Strategies and tactics that deliver company´ aims and objectives

Managing change

Growing the business

Managing stakeholder relationships

Topics Areas in Marketing:       

The role of market research in analysing customer requirements

SWOT analysis to map strengths, take advantage of opportunities or counter

threats

Setting marketing objectives - product- versus market-orientation

Achieving balance in the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) to help 

achieve competitive advantage

Which marketing strategies (Ansoff's matrix - market penetration, market

development, product development, diversification) should a business choose to fit  

different needs

The strategies for marketing products at different stages of the product lifecycle.

 

Topics areas in Operations:

 

How companies determine where they site their businesses to meet production requirements or customer demand

Which method of production (batch, job, flow) is relevant to different types of product/industry

Looking at lean production and efficiency with a view to reducing waste, improving productivity and saving costs

The role of quality assurance and the difference between this and quality management

The different approaches to managing quality and efficiency (e.g. Continuous Improvement, Just-in-time, Total Quality Management). How empowerment and team-working are essential to delivering this in the organisation

Managing stock efficiently to contribute to efficiency

How research and development is central to innovation.

 

Topics Areas in Organization, People and Change management:

 

Identifying which organisational structure will best deliver an organisation's objectives (hierarchy, flat, matrix) and the benefits/constraints of each

The process of evaluating the current and future human resource needs both in terms of numbers of people and skills and competencies (workforce planning)

What functions managers and leaders carry out and the difference between them, as well as how the varying leadership styles are applicable in different circumstance

The range of processes organisations use (internal and external) to attract the most appropriate candidates (recruitment and selection), including use of job descriptions and person specifications

The role of training (specific skills for a job) and development (improving an individual's potential for growth) in an organisation, looking at types of training (on- and off-the-job), coaching, mentoring, secondments, and use of appraisals as a means of identifying skills gaps and measuring performance

 

Selected reading 

Urban, Jan, Business development, class presentation

Top 40 Most Popular Case Studies of 2017, https://som.yale.edu/news/2017/12/top-40-most-popular-case-studies-of-2017

Hans Eibe Sørensen, Business Development: A Market-Oriented Perspective, Wiley; 2012

Urban, Jan, Strategický management, ÚPPV a EBS, 2018

Urban, Jan, 40 manažerských mýtů, které škodí vašemu byznysu, Grada, 2017, ISBN: 978-80-271-0571-7

Ian Cooper, Financial Times Guide to Business Development: How to Win Profitable Customers and Clients (The FT Guides), 2012

Marc Randolph, That Will Never Work: The Birth of Netflix and the Amazing Life of an Idea,  Little, Brown and Company, 2019

Ansoff, H. Igor (1965), Corporate Strategy, New York: McGraw-Hill

Barney, J.B. & Ketchen, D.J. & Wright, M. (2011). The Future of Resource-Based theory: Revitalization or Decline? Journal of Management, 37 (5), 1299-1315.

Covin, J.G., Slevin, D.P., & Heeley, M.B. (2000). Pioneers and followers: Competitive tactics, environment, and firm growth, Journal of Business Venturing, 15 (2), 175-210.

Drucker, P. (1985). The Discipline of Innovation, Harvard Business Review, May/June, 67-72.

Gerber, Michael E.  (1995). The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It, Harper Business

James C. Collins (2001). Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, HarperBusiness

Johnson, Gerry and Kevan Scholes (1999), Exploring Corporate Strategy, 5th ed., Essex: Prentice Hall