Integration and Implementation

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2014:

For the purposes of considering request for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Cwth 2005), and Student Support and Engagement Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this subject are encouraged to discuss this matter with a Faculty Student Adviser and Student Equity and Disability Support: http://services.unimelb.edu.au/disability

Brand Management:

Brand equity accounts for a significant portion of the total value of most contemporary organizations. As a result, brand management has become a core concern for senior executives, investors and financial market participants. While effective management of the brand has the potential to radically alter firm performance, many find brand management uniquely challenging. Therefore we will explore how brand led firms design and implement effective brand management strategies. In particular, we will examine how leading firms build, maintain and leverage brand equity and how the role of the brand is evolving in response to changes impacting the wider economy.

Corporate Governance:

Corporate Governance addresses the system by which companies are directed and controlled. Structures relating to rights and responsibilities, and rules and procedures for decision-making, are covered. Governance involves the alignment of interests amongst stakeholders. This component includes the following topics:

• The governance model
• Duties and obligations – the law and practice
• Corporate sustainability
• Governance in the Asian context
• Boards and executive teams

Financial Management:

This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of finance. The unifying theme of this subject is value:

• How to value financial assets such as bonds and shares;
• How to value (today) the (future) cash flows from the investment projects that firms undertake;
• How to choose projects that increase the value of the firm to shareholders; and
• How to finance those projects so that shareholder value is maximised.

Lectures and cases will introduce discounting and interest rate mathematics, principles of valuation, the weighted average cost of capital, and capital structure of firms. Along the way we will develop knowledge and intuition about the purpose of the different components of the financial systems (financial markets, financial intermediaries and financial instruments) and how those components create value.

Implementation of Strategy:

In his book, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy, Richard Rumelt states:

Many people assume that a strategy is a big-picture overall direction, divorced from any specific action. But defining strategy as broad concepts, thereby leaving out action, creates a wide chasm between ―strategy and ―implementation.

If you accept this chasm, most strategy work becomes wheel spinning. Indeed, this is the most common complaint about ―strategy

Echoing many others, one top executive told me, ―We have a sophisticated strategy process, but there is a huge problem of execution. We almost always fall short of the goals we set for ourselves. If you have followed my argument, you can see the reason for this complaint. A good strategy includes a set of coherent actions. They are not ―implementation details; they are the punch in the strategy. A strategy that fails to define a variety of plausible and feasible immediate actions is a critical component.

Executives who complain about ―execution problems have usually confused strategy with goal setting. When the ―strategy process is basically a game of setting performance goals—so much market share and so much profit, so many students graduating high school, so many visitors to the museum—then there remains a yawning gap between these ambitions and action. Strategy is about how an organization will move forward. Doing strategy is figuring out how to advance the organization’s interests. Of course, a leader can set goals and delegate to others the job of figuring out what to do. But that is not strategy. If that is how the organization runs, let’s skip the spin and be honest—call it goal setting.

In this course, we will explore and examine issues that are central in the action phase of strategy.

Leading at the Top in Transformation Times:

This component is structured around the critical question: When a company is going through a transformational situation, what is Top Management‘s (TM) role in the transformation and how important are they? In addition, the subject considers both theoretical and methodological issues in addressing three major issues related to leadership of transformational situations:

• In recent years, transformation has moved to the core of the TM agenda, but what does TM really do in transformational times?
• What are the conditions of effectiveness and the practices of leadership at TM level? To investigate this question the course revisits the classical notions of legitimacy, authority and power and their new forms of enactment in contexts of transformation.
• How to organise governance systems and processes in situations of transformation?

Managerial Accounting:

Managerial accounting provides managers within an organization with financial and non-financial information that will help them make between managerial decisions. More specifically, managerial accounting provides financial and non-financial information useful for planning and control purposes.

This subject is intended to help you learn to use managerial accounting information appropriately so that you make better managerial decisions.

Managing Human Capital:

This course extends participants’ existing background and awareness of the problems involved in managing people by providing structured exercises, cases, and discussion of human capital issues. The course is based on the assumption that as working professionals, participants already have some fundamental awareness of issues related to managing human capital. The course will build on that background to extend participants’ theoretical knowledge and applied skills

Mergers & Acquisitions:

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is part of a much wider topic that might best be described as business restructuring. Restructuring involves major change in the way a business is organized and operated. This can range from the restructuring necessary to rescue businesses from bankruptcy through management buyouts, leveraged buyouts, spin-offs, carve-outs, etc. to undertaking major acquisitions of other businesses, in order to achieve rapid growth in size and profitability. Such restructurings require a wide range of business skills including “strategic and operations management; project administration; organizational dynamics; accounting; economics; finance; business, tax and securities law; and negotiation”. In short, all the skills you have learnt in your core studies, and more. It is this breadth that makes the study of restructuring exciting. However, we must recognize that it is impossible to deal with all types of restructuring in a single course. For that reason we will concentrate on M&A.

Brand Management:

• To consider the relationship between brand equity and firm value
• To consider the main concepts, tools and techniques of contemporary brand management
• To develop an appreciation of the important processes and managerial
• Frameworks for successfully managing

Corporate Governance:

On completion of this component students will be able:

• To review the literature on corporate governance theories, consider their application to corporate structures and define the key players
• To understand the legal obligations of directors and officers under the Australian Corporations Act and to consider the interplay of these with ASX governance principles
• To apply the principles of Corporate Governance
• To consider the topics of corporate social responsibility and sustainability and to assess their relevance to, and impact on, the law and practice around officers’ and directors’ duties in Australia
• To consider whether the governance principles and approaches discussed are transportable to different regulatory regimes and cross culturally
• To understand board structure and process
• To consider issues relating to the board and executive teams as elite decision making groups

Financial Management:

At the conclusion of the subject, students should understand the following concepts:

• Time value of money and discounted cash flow approach to valuing projects, shares, bonds, and enterprises;
• The basic functioning and purpose of capital markets (markets for stocks, bonds and other securities);
• The effects of information asymmetry in the financial system;
• Diversification and transfer of risk;
• The capital structure problem and cash payout choices faced by corporations; and
• How firms use weighted average cost of capital in choosing projects.

Implementation of Strategy:

• A better understanding of the major issues impacting strategy and its implementation
• Knowledge of concepts, frameworks and methods used in executing strategies
• Enhanced ability to drive change that leads to organizational renewal and transformation
• A deeper appreciation for the demands of strategic leadership in organizations

Leading at the Top in Transformation Times:

The principal objective of this component is to provide students with concepts and tools that help them understand and apply theories of leadership in transformation situations. As part of this process they will develop competencies in the analysis, planning and execution of leadership practice in transformational contexts. On completion of this component students will:

• Possess a body of knowledge related to the impact of top management on organisational transformation;
• Possess the necessary competencies to assess the nature of transformational change and its implications for organizations;
• Be able to analyse, plan and execute leadership practice in transformation contexts

Managerial Accounting:

By the end of the module, you should:

• Appreciate the difficulties of costing products and services
• Understand which costs should be considered for particular managerial decisions
• Be able to assess how certain changes in a company’s operations would affect the company’s overall profitability
• Appreciate different approaches to performance measurement

Managing Human Capital:

After successfully completing this course, you will be able to:

• Diagnose people related problems and issues in organizations
• Determine which human capital management tools you should apply to address varying organizational problems and opportunities

Mergers & Acquisitions:

This subject is for people who see active involvement in mergers & acquisitions as part of their future management career. At the end of this subject you should:

• Understand the reasons behind the continuing levels of M&A activity.
• Appreciate the impact of regulatory considerations on M&A deals.
• Understand the interactive elements that make up successful mergers and acquisitions.
• Gain a working knowledge of how to go about managing a merger or acquisition.

Brand Management:

• Class participation (30%)
  • Throughout module
• Individual assignment (20%)
  • 1,200 words
  • Mid-way through module
• Syndicate project (50%)
  • Presentation & Report (2,000 words)
  • End of module

Corporate Governance:

• Final exam (100%)
  • 2,000 words
  • End of module

Financial Management:

• Syndicate case write-up (20%)
  • 400 words
  • Throughout the module
• Problem Set 1 & 2 (30%)
  • 400 words each
  • Start of module
• Final Exam (50%)
  • 1,500 words
  • End of module

Implementation of Strategy:

• Class participation/contribution to class (20%)
  • Throughout module
• Syndicate assignment (30%)
  • 1,200 words
  • End of module
• End-of-term assignment (50%)
  • 1,500 words
  • End of module

Leading at the Top in Transformation Times:

• Syndicate assignment (50%)
  • 1,500 words
  • Mid-way through module
• Syndicate assignment (50%)
  • 1,500 words
  • End of module

Managerial Accounting:

• Class participation (10%)
  • Throughout module
• 3 Syndicate excercises (15%)
  • 300 words each
  • Mid-way through module
• Exam (75%)
  • 1,500 words
  • End of module

Managing Human Capital:

• Final examination (100%)
  • 1,500 words
  • End of module

Mergers & Acquisitions:

• Class participation (10%)
  • Attendance at lectures, peer and instructor evaluation of contribution to class learning
  • Throughout module
• Syndicate assignment (40%)
  • Equivalent to individual 1,000 words assessment
  • Mid-way through module
• Exam (50%)
  • Hurdle requirement
  • 90 minutes
  • End of module

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.