Master Electives

After the core courses, students must follow two master electives. at least one of these must be related to the MSc in Strategic Management.

Organisational Identity: Managing Strategic Change & Company Image

Organisational identity has emerged as a powerful, exciting concept to understand and manage organizational behavior and outcomes in companies as diverse as Apple, Green Peace and Heineken. This inter-disciplinary course draws on sociological, economic and political thought to discuss the nature of organizational identity. Case studies, role plays and practical illustrations are used to highlight the different implications for managing organizational identity when it is viewed from a modern perspective (identity as a reflection of culture) as compared to a post-modern perspective (identity as an illusion stemming from market images). Students learn how to manage organizational identity to enable strategic change as well as influence corporate image and reputation. While the knowledge and analytical skills provided by this elective have wide applicability, the course should be especially interesting for students seeking a successful career in strategy, marketing and corporate communications.

Strategic Management Consulting: Becoming a Top Strategy Consultant

The world’s top strategy consulting firms have proven, successful methods and techniques for solving strategic issues of profit and not-for-profit organisations in all types of industries worldwide. This course draws on effective analytical methods and techniques for strategy formulation in leading consultancies to further develop students’ knowledge and skills in the area. Participants are made familiar with the tools, techniques and processes of management consulting so that they are ready to handle all aspects of a consultancy assignment, including the proper identification and framing of strategic issues, data-gathering, analysis, and communication of the solution to the stakeholders. 

Mastering Strategic Renewal: Corporate Entrepreneurship

Established companies such as Microsoft, Royal Dutch Shell and Unilever must continuously renew themselves in order to maintain their competitive edge and to secure future sources of growth and profitability. Strategic renewal, however, is anything but easy to accomplish, even for resource-rich companies. This elective furnishes students with a comprehensive repertoire of insights necessary for fostering and managing strategic renewal through enabling corporate entrepreneurship and strategic innovation in the organisation.

Corporate Venturing  

How do large firms continuously succeed in creating new businesses? Over the past decades, corporations such as Nokia, SiemensNovartis and DSMXerox have invested heavily in the set up of dedicated corporate venturing units, to identify and further develop new business opportunities. Corporate venturing can be achieved in different ways, including: taking a minority position in outside businesses (corporate venture capital), building a new business as a stand-alone unit, or building a new business inside the existing firm with a structure allowing for managerial autonomy and independence. This course will discuss strategies, organizational structures and implementation challenges of new ventures within an established corporation as well as options to leverage external partners outside the boundaries of the corporation within the process of new business development.

Offshoring and Outsourcing of IT and Business Services 

This elective is not only attractive for Strategic Management students but also students pursuing an MSc degree in Finance, Marketing or Supply Chain Management. A prominent defining feature of the first decade of the 21st century is that companies in developed countries such as the USA and the Netherlands have started outsourcing the execution of parts of their value chains to companies located in developing nations such as Brazil, China and India. This phenomenon has been labelled ‘offshoring’. As companies increasingly engage in offshoring in virtually all industries and across all business functions, there is a concomitant increasing demand for skilled strategic management specialists who are well-versed with the essentials of offshoring successfully. The objective of this master elective is to develop such managers.

International Management 

International management is a field of study that addresses challenges and formulates strategies for corporations operated in multiple countries. Students will be introduced to advanced theories in strategic and international management through case studies. Much of the focus will be given to the identification of problems, the formulation of strategies, the evaluation of alternatives, and the development of resolutions in international management. The course covers three inter-related topics, namely (1) why and how firms start internationalization, (2) how to manage multinational corporations, and (3) how to develop and leverage subsidiary’s capabilities.

CONSULTING ON CORPORATE GROWTH Strategies

Induced by the recent worldwide economic crisis, consulting on how to foster corporate growth is in great executive demand. With traditional growth areas under pressure, consultancy clients often seek advice to solve divestiture-, acquisition-, alliance-, or restructuring-related problems. This Elective will prepare you for just that: you will engage with and learn the specific processes, concepts, and tools that successful consulting firms deploy to help their clients realize corporate growth. Interacting with (internal and external) consultants from e.g., CapGemini, Deloitte, McKinsey, Philips and PwC, you are challenged to resolve the business problems on corporate growth that global firms face today, e.g., divesting, acquiring, and allying to realize growth, implementing corporate change processes, and generating sales synergies in global acquisitions.

Though management consultancy is often seen as one of the ‘sexiest’ of jobs, the benefits of this course accrue not only to those seeking (external or internal) consultancy jobs but also to those seeking corporate strategy and general management positions.

Corporate Governance and Top Management Teams

The shaping of today’s corporate governance landscape and the functioning of top management teams within it have become a major topic of discussion in the last decade. This interest has been intensified by recent corporate failures among both American and European companies. We have all heard of Enron, World Com and Ahold. This course reviews the problems that lay behind such management failures. It focuses on the behavior of the board of directors and of the top management team and on their role in the governance and strategic decision-making processes of large publicly-traded firms. It takes a closer look to actual governance practices of large corporations, their effects on corporate strategy and performance, and it analyses the strengths and weaknesses of prevalent corporate governance mechanisms that are increasingly used world-wide.