MAN 5081 Market Oriented Management

MAN 5081 Market Oriented Management

Course code: 
MAN 5081
Department: 
Marketing
Credits: 
30
Course coordinator: 
Bendik Meling Samuelsen
Ragnhild Silkoset
Course name in Norwegian: 
Markedsorientert ledelse
Product category: 
Executive
Portfolio: 
Master of Management
Semester: 
2017 Autumn
Active status: 
Active
Teaching language: 
Norwegian
Course type: 
Associate course
Course codes for multi- or associated courses.
MAN 5082 - 1. semester
MAN 5083 - 2. semester
Introduction

To succeed in today's markets a manager needs the ability to explore updated analytical and theoretical market knowledge. This knowledge ensures the company's ability to exploit its market potential. Challenging and complex customer value demands, aggressive competition and turbulent markets, rapid technological and digital development and global expansion strategies characterize such markets. Central to this is marketers’ responsibility for making strategic marketing decisions that identifies and creates insight into market mechanisms and competition opportunities. Marketers are experts in understanding customer value perceptions, ability to act within ethical and social norms, promote innovation culture and processes, as well as establish and run organizational processes for value creation.

Marketing as a discipline has evolved to include a comprehensive and overall responsibility for corporate value creation. The main focus of this program in new perspectives on market leadership reflects this by concentrating on three decision areas. In the program participants will learn to ( 1 ) organize for market solutions by being trained in how to organize a company to produce customer value , (2 ) explore market opportunities in that they are trained to make decisions that capture and exploit changing markets and ( 3) meet market challenges in that they are trained on how to differentiate and protect products and brands in a market.

Organizing for market solutions: Throughout this program participants will learn how to make decisions that create companies whose purpose is to develop organizations that are supremely good at providing market-based solutions. The ability to consciously make the whole company as co-responsible for the value production is essential in this context.

Exploring market opportunities: In the second part of the program, participants will learn to make decisions with the purpose to exploit market opportunities. Both consumers and business customers expect seamless digital solutions that simplify the interaction with a company. Today's marketers are experiencing a major transformation that requires high level of expertise in marketing innovations, social media, mobile platforms, the ability to explain and assure the quality of market data, the spread of omni-channel distribution, to name a few. This part of the program will add value to marketing managers who want to learn how to ask the critical right questions in today's markets where the aim is to capture, interpret and act on trends and developments in the markets, manage digital communication strategies, and which can assure the quality of empirical, visual and graphical analysis of analysis to make market decisions.

Meet Market Challenges: In the third main part of this program, students learn to make decisions that contribute to a company ability to differentiate itself with the purpose to meet market challenges. Differentiation requires a thorough marketing strategy that specifies customer audiences, brand positioning and brand associations as well as make decisions about appropriate exposure in the market. These decisions are based on knowledge of the customers' perception of value. Based on the understanding that different customer groups have different needs to be covered, participants will learn how to develop a marketing plan that specifies the main selling points for the various customer segments, calculate the profitability analysis of the various segments, knowledge about the brand and its products can be built and strengthened, and knowledge of how a deliberate pricing strategy affects earnings.
The importance of strategic management for a market oriented company's profitability is illustrated by the fact that customer-driven organizations achieve success in a variety of markets and competition situations. Superior customer value, utilization of unique competitive advantage and understanding of the rate of market challenges are all demanding management tasks which require effective marketing strategies that exploit and develop the companies' strategic competitive advantage.

The target audience for this program is middle managers and/or marketing managers in companies that operate in both the corporate and product and service industry. The program will also be a good fit for those working in small and medium-sized businesses, the public sector and those working in the consulting industry.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge
  • Participants will learn to develop basic knowledge and be familiar with the latest research within market-oriented management.
  • Participants will learn to understand how the environment affects marketing in corporate and consumer markets.
  • Participants will learn about the latest theories and knowledge concerning corporate organization with the purpose to create customer value.
     
Learning outcomes - Skills
  • Participants will learn to develop the ability to make independent strategic decisions through use tool that detects and evaluates the market potential of a product or service.
  • Participants will develop the ability to make competitive choices to differentiate products and services in the market.
  • Participants will be able to use specific tools to organize for market leadership with the purpose of creating customer value.
  • Participants will be able to conduct a limited research or development project under the supervision and in accordance with ethical standards.
Learning Outcome - Reflection
  • Participants will be able to acquire the ability to critically reflect on existing theories, methods and interpretations in the field of marketing and optimization of customer values.
  • Participants should be able to communicate about issues, analyzes and conclusions in an appropriate discipline with both specialists and the general public.
Course content
  • Market oriented management
  • Decision making in business-to-business markets
  • Strategic decisions and use of market data
  • Visualization of market data analysis by using Excel
  • Analytical framework for branding
  • Brand positioning and choice of concepts
  • Growth strategies
  • Pricing strategy and value creation
  • Simulation for marked based decision and managing competition
Learning process and requirements to students

The programme is conducted through five course modules over two semesters, a total of approx. 150 lecturing hours.

Project tutorials differ in each Executive Master of Management programme. It will consist of personal tutorials and tutorials given in class. Generally the students may expect consulting tutorials, not evaluating tutorials. The total hours of tutorials offered is estimated to 4 hours per term paper.

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all programmes, it is the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/ itslearning or other course materials.

The students are evaluated through a term paper, counting 60% of the total grade and an individually portfolio assessment, counting 40%. The term paper may be written individually or in groups of maximum three persons. All evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the programme.

The final portfolio assessment must be handed in at the end of the programme. The portfolio assessment  is a collection of 4 elective cases selected from 5 cases that are used in the programme. Details about deadlines and the construction of the portfolio will be given at programme startup.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Qualifications

Bachelor degree, corresponding to 180 credits from an accredited university, university college or similar educational institution
The applicant must be at least 25 years of age
At least four years of work experience. For applicants who have already completed a master’s degree, three years of work experience are required.

Exam categoryWeightInvigilationDurationGroupingComment exam
Exam category:
Submission
Form of assessment:
Written submission
Exam code:
MAN 50811
Grading scale:
ECTS
Grading rules:
Internal and external examiner
Resit:
Examination when next scheduled course
60No2 Semester(s)Group/Individual (1 - 3)Term paper, counting 60% of the total grade.
Exam category:
Submission
Form of assessment:
Written submission
Exam code:
MAN 50812
Grading scale:
ECTS
Grading rules:
Internal examiner
Resit:
Examination when next scheduled course
40No2 Semester(s)Individual Portfolio assessment, counting 40% of the total grade.
Exams:
Exam category:Submission
Form of assessment:Written submission
Weight:60
Invigilation:No
Grouping (size):Group/Individual (1-3)
Duration:2 Semester(s)
Comment:Term paper, counting 60% of the total grade.
Exam code:MAN 50811
Grading scale:ECTS
Resit:Examination when next scheduled course
Exam category:Submission
Form of assessment:Written submission
Weight:40
Invigilation:No
Grouping (size):Individual
Duration:2 Semester(s)
Comment:Portfolio assessment, counting 40% of the total grade.
Exam code:MAN 50812
Grading scale:ECTS
Resit:Examination when next scheduled course
Exam organisation: 
Ordinary examination
Total weight: 
100
Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
150 Hour(s)
The programme is conducted through five course modules, each four days.
Submission(s)
100 Hour(s)
Work with individual written submissions of cases.
Submission(s)
160 Hour(s)
Work with term paper.
Prepare for teaching
390 Hour(s)
Sum workload: 
800

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 30 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 800 hours.