Executive MBA General Management

Preparation:

• Readings for module 1
• Essay

Module 1 – Foundation and Group Dynamics

The results of any educational program strongly depend on the learning atmosphere in a class. Our strong opinion is that effective teaching may occur only when the classmates are positively engaged in the process. A part of this engagement is related to conforming to the values of a school. Another part is self-discipline and mindful understanding of own goals to be reached during and thanks to the program.

In the module, you will be introduced to learning styles, teamwork, and group dynamics. You will train your critical thinking through the case method and in the process learn about decision making. The case method will be used as a vehicle for your learning in different modules of the program. You will be able to get to know yourself and find your place in the EMBA team and create a personal development plan. This creates the first steps towards your self-development and growth of personal potential.

Module 2 - Financial Performance and Management Control

As managers, you need to understand the language of business and feel comfortable with tools that help you to evaluate business performance. After the module, you will be able to understand financial reports and evaluate the profitability, financial position, liquidity, and growth potential of any company. You will learn how to use key performance indicators in your business and you will touch upon the use of management accounting systems enhancing business excellence and supporting strategic decisions.

Module 3 – Corporate Finance

Corporate Finance is an important part of the strategic management of a company. As managers you need to make investment and financing decisions, you need to design risk management systems and you have to communicate with financial markets. During the module, you will learn fundamental concepts of value and risk both of which are necessary for project valuation and investment decisions. You will examine how companies are financed and discuss optimal financing options given the company´s size, age, industry, and other firm characteristics. You will also study global asset markets and learn how stocks and bonds are priced, evaluate general financial risks, and specific risks related to capital borrowing.

Module 4 – Building Sustainable Effective Organizations (Sweden)

The goal of the module is to understand organizations and the fact that there is not one way of how to manage them through a Swedish lens. You will become familiar with the notion that organizations can be seen through different perspectives and that to effectively lead and manage organizations all lenses are required. Visits to Swedish organizations will highlight the importance of sustainability, values, and ethics in organizing. You will be exposed to different models of change with the purpose of introducing you to the change process. After the module, you will be able to analyze organizational challenges in a more multiplex way. The module provides the base of the SSE Live Project, which focuses on an organizational change in that multiple lenses are required to analyze and lead change.

Module 5 – Value Creation and Delivery

During this module, you learn how to create value for your customers and to grow value for your organization and stakeholders. Operations lie at the bottom of the production process both for industry and service companies. Many companies lose their pace due to insufficient control of operations activities, increasing leaks, and thus become less competitive. In this course, you’ll focus on how to build a comprehensive eco-system and extend your knowledge about delivery concepts, models, and tools and their managerial implications. You will further link operation strategy with marketing strategies and master the ability to align the internal resources of a company with the demands of the market. You also develop a vision and understanding of customer value management concepts and methods of value design and value proposition.

Module 6 – Competitive Strategy

You will get acquainted with perspectives on strategy formulation and execution and become equipped with skills and tools to turn strategic ideas into actions. The module will address questions as How does a leader define an integrated set of choices for an organization that results in a competitive advantage over the long run? How do strategic choices of an organization position it in its industry/environment? How does one define the scope of the firm and which industries and geographic markets should the organization participate in? After the module, you will be able to create strategies for your businesses and improve business performance.

Module 7 – Strategic Leadership and Negotiations

The purpose of this module is to help you become a more effective leader. Based on concepts, frameworks, and theoretical principles about interdependent decision-making and leadership, we focus on the skills and perspectives that may enable individuals to influence a collective to get the "right" things done. First, negotiation promotes an understanding of transactive aspects of social interaction. Second, reflective practices allow us to draw on imagination and artistry as possible resources for the aspiring leader. This approach will expose you to a series of important situations that can strengthen your leadership repertoire. During the module, you will apply relevant research-based theory in cases, simulations, and exercises. After the module, you will be familiar with the main perspectives of leadership, fundamental principles of negotiations, as well as greater confidence in your ability to analyze, understand, and plan courses of action for groups of people. The pedagogical approach is predicated on the belief that negotiation and leadership are malleable abilities that may be nurtured and developed; the benefit for participants will grow with their willingness to experiment and venture out of their comfort zone.

Module 8 Business Law and Economics

Organizations operate in a global economy and society and are embedded in a context of laws, rules, regulations, standards, cultures, traditions, and ideologies. They are affected by and contribute to macroeconomic development. In this module, we present tools and frameworks for understanding macroeconomic developments and their effect on business. Good knowledge of economic frameworks will help you to better predict the performance of world economies, mitigate risks, develop sustainable growth plans and make investment decisions both locally and abroad. We will analyze the importance of a well-functioning institutional background that creates an “enabling environment” for the creation of wealth. The Business Law course is an application-oriented class that provides the business professional with an understanding of certain critical legal concepts that are an integral part of the decision-making process for a business enterprise to operate effectively. The course Business Law for the International Manager is intended to give the non-lawyer participants an orientation into the components of business law and to provide a legal lens and foundation to enable the identification and analysis of legal issues that will arise in the day-to-day operations of any business operation.

Module 9 – Design Thinking and Business Analytics

Companies nowadays have an extensive amount of data around their businesses and their customers. We will start the module by investigating the benefits of data analytics, data science, and artificial intelligence and its strategies such as machine learning. In search of delivering customer value, many companies leverage the data by designing innovative customer experiences. Business success is increasingly dependent on the ability to meet and exceed customers' expectations. Therefore we combine the data with design thinking that can help businesses to find ways to match customers' needs in a way that is technologically feasible and viable enough to create value.

Module 10 – Strategic Mindset and Innovation (Tel Aviv)

The module focuses on innovation as an essential factor of business formation, survival, and growth. Innovation is treated in a broad sense referring to innovation in products and services as well as to innovation in business processes. The module is provided by the Coller School of Management, Tel Aviv University, and includes lectures by academics as well as serial entrepreneurs, workshops, and company visits. You will get acquainted with an economic mindset that has turned the country into a world leader in many high-tech areas. You will be provided with methodologies of innovation and entre/intrapreneurship that can help you to transform good ideas into actual products and services that will create value for your company and society as a whole.

Module 11 and 12 – Electives

The elective courses of the program give you the opportunity to personalize your learning journey to your specific interests. For modules 11 and 12 you can make a choice of your own from the following electives (2023):

• Advanced Negotiations (English) Russia/Riga
• Service Design (English) Riga
• Advanced Accounting (English) Stockholm (topics of the elective to be announced later)
• Advanced Finance (English) Stockholm (topics of the elective to be announced later)
• Growth Marketing (English/Russian) Russia
• Digital Transformation (English/Russian) Russia
• Project Management (Russian) Russia
• Global Network for Advanced Management (GNAM) (June 2022, for GM22 only, choose from more than 50 business schools around the world)

You are supposed to choose two electives from the list above during your program.

Note: GNAM electives can be limited by the availability of free spots in the respective schools. We also offer participants the possibility to take an additional third elective free of charge the first year after their graduation (not GNAM).

Module 13 – Capstone module. Integrated learning experience

The first objective of the module is to reflect on the learning journey in the program and to develop the concept of long-life learning for the future. You will be given the opportunity to reflect on your personal development during the program and your future. The second objective of the module is to integrate the program components in workshops related to strategy implementation, innovations, and business modeling. Finally, we return to the SSE Live Change project and follow up the implementation phase.

SSE Live Project

We believe in the concept of learning while doing. Therefore, our EMBA program is built around SSE Live project. The SSE Live project is divided into two phases. The first phase, SSE Live Change Project (Change Project), aims at implementing a change in a real organization. In phase two, SSE Live Executive Master Thesis (SSE Live EMT), you will generalize the knowledge acquired during the change project and put it into a broader research perspective.

• In the SSE Live change project, you will integrate and apply theoretical management concepts and frameworks to live management issues with a focus on organizational issues in real companies. You will run the project in an organization of your own choice in groups of two. It is important the change adds measurable value to the organization, constitutes a real improvement, and can be done within the time scope of the change project. The change project starts in module 3 and runs until final presentations in module 9. During the project period, you will get help from a project supervisor as well as the faculty during the modules. You should be prepared for several intermediate deliveries and in-class sessions and discussions of your change project. The timing allows for follow-up of the implementation in module 13.
• The change project serves as a case for a further general understanding of a business problem or challenge. Thus, in the SSE Live Executive Master Thesis, you will develop a research question related to your change project and answer the question based on previous research and your findings. In this way, you will contribute to creating new knowledge within a specific area and make your change project generalizable for other companies. The Executive Master Thesis starts in module 7 and runs until final presentations and defenses after module 13. You will get help from a project supervisor during your work. The SSE Live EMT is defended after the end of the program during a separate EMT Defense day.

Business Research Methods

Business research methods will provide you with the tools and techniques necessary for the successful completion of the SSE Live Projects. We will discuss the most common approaches to acquiring good quality evidence with the ultimate aim to make better managerial decisions. We will look at both qualitative and quantitative methods as well as the art of writing a good business report and a good research report. The method series will be conducted during module 7.

Leadership Intelligence

Our objective is to support the holistic personal development of the participants as Leaders. By the end of the program, each participant should have a better understanding of their own strong and weak features as a Leader. This means that further development of leadership skills goes based on reflection and acceptance of the idea of consistent and deliberate learning. As leadership includes network creation and management, the participants should learn that personal effective performance is only one side of a Leader. The Leaders need in addition to possess various skills than just those directly related to their profession. During the Leadership Intelligence track, we provide a diversity of skill seminars and workshops, group coaching, and individual coaching.

Cultural track

Though not a separate course, we add during the program cultural events/walks related to the locations of the modules.

List of courses

Core Courses

Other Courses (Parallel Processes)

• SSE Live Change Project
• SSE Live Executive Master Thesis
• Business Research Methods
• Leadership Intelligence

SSE remains a leader among business schools in the world. According to the Financial Times (FT) 2021 rankings, the School was ranked 22nd (out of 95) in the European Business Schools ranking, 64th (out of 100) in the Executive MBA ranking and, for the 18th consecutive year, 1st in Scandinavia.