EXECUTIVE CERTIFICATE IN ENTREPRENEURSHIP, MARKETING AND INNOVATION
This executive certificate targets SME and large-scale business owners / future business owners and people holding senior and influential marketing positions who have a vision to thrive against all odds in the business world. This program provides unparalleled insight and inspiration. Rapidly changing technologies, dwindling natural resources and increasingly fierce global competition are combining to disrupt entire industries. Only the innovative and the entrepreneurial will continue to thrive. This programme will build your individual and organisational capacity to implement product, service and process innovations. You will sharpen entrepreneurial skills that you and your company will need for the challenges ahead. This is your chance to be the disruptor, not the disrupted.
Learning Outcomes:
By the end of the course students will be able to:
Think in the terms of a professional entrepreneur and marketer
Read and evaluate specialist marketing literature / cases
Apply strategic marketing concepts to the local and global digital economy
Be innovative and assertive in business to ensure success
Be ethically conscious in the application of business
Target Student Profile
Organisation directors, business executives and entrepreneurs looking to broaden their strategic toolkits, develop new customer relationship initiatives and discover fresh ideas to grow customer value, loyalty and improve profitability.
Knowledge:
Key marketing concepts and definitions
Key business strategy concepts
Delivering competitive advantage through strategic marketing
Marketing management in a global context
The changing role of digital technologies in marketing
Skills:
Critical reasoning and appraisal of marketing strategies and programmes
A local and global perspective of contemporary marketing practice
Ability to operate within a changing global marketing environment
Enhanced skills in written and verbal communication, teamwork, analytical thinking, decision-making and project management
MODULES
1) ENTREPRENERSHIP – FROM IDEA TO INNOVATION
The course aims to provide students with an understanding of the nature of enterprise and entrepreneurship and introduces the role of the entrepreneur, innovation and technology in the entrepreneurial process. Entrepreneurship is both a way of thinking and of doing. It involves “building something from nothing” and successful entrepreneurs know how to manage and mitigate uncertainty and risk. This course introduces students to the theory and practice of entrepreneurship. It focuses specifically on how and why some innovations are successfully commercialized, with particular emphasis on the role of the innovator-entrepreneur. The course teaches some of the generic and transferable skills required to become an entrepreneur, and raises the student’s awareness of the legal, business, managerial, creative, analytical and interpersonal skills relevant to setting up and running an innovative organization.
Entrepreneurial motivation and Entrepreneurial characteristics
Personality characteristics of successful entrepreneurs, Individual assessment of interests, skills, and personality traits
Business Ideas and Opportunities, Sources of ideas for new ventures, Opportunity recognition Opportunity assessment
Acquiring resources, Sources of funding Sources of support and resources
Evaluation of Business Models
Import/Export and Licensing opportunities, and their implementation requirements
Entrepreneurial activities, Business Activities Entrepreneurs Should Always Be Doing
Leadership and social entrepreneurship
The investment in networking for entrepreneurial success
Critical Success Factors in Entrepreneurship
Developing the Business Plan
2) MARKETING FUNDAMENTALS – MARKETIN IN A DIGITAL WORLD
The module introduces basics of marketing and entrepreneurship. Further, the module looks at marketing in a digital world. This immersive course is designed to rewire everything you do; your time to refocus marketing strategy and lead your company into a bold digital future. This programme harnesses technology to explore the latest insights into digital marketing. This module will get you started in your transformation into a next generation marketing leader by connecting the digital dots, sparking fresh new ideas to boost effectiveness.
Marketing Fundamentals
Strategic Marketing Fundamentals
Reputation & Branding
Creating Competitive Advantage through Services Marketing
Marketing Analytics
Fundamentals of Digital Marketing
Introducing fundamental concepts, trends and ideas in digital marketing
Digital Tools and Content Marketing
Digital Channels and Communications
Digital Growth Marketing Exploring marketing strategies and tactics related to targeted revenue, user acquisition, engagement and retention
3) INNOVATION – CREATING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH
An excellent course to broaden your thinking, while gaining insight into yourself, your business and the struggles of bringing innovation to life within an organisation. Innovation can be unstructured. This course puts into context ways to manage a free flow of ideas into something actionable.
Principles of Innovation
Reviews the main challenges in the management of technological innovation and examines a short innovation strategy case. Explores the types and extent of innovation, contrasting incremental & radical innovation. We also discuss different factors affecting the diffusion of innovations & the different forms of intellectual property rights.
Innovation and Industry
Business Opportunities, Business Models and Firm Growth
Innovation and Corporate Venturing
Innovation and People Networks
Making Decisions for Innovation
Innovation Projects
Commercialization Strategies for Innovative Ideas
4) MANAGING CUSTOMERS FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
The profitability of a firm depends on its ability to identify grow and retain customers. In this module we will focus on how best to manage customer acquisition and retention for maximum performance. We’ll also explore innovative approaches to building a loyal customer base. This will include ways of nurturing trust and commitment, strategies to enhance your customer relations and how to communicate more effectively with your customers.
High Performance Customer Management
Keeping Customers
Service quality and customer loyalty.
Key drivers of retention, customer satisfaction management and customer metrics.
Customer Management
Marketing Communications
Common Mistakes with Customers
5) BUSINESS FINANCE & ECONOMIC PRINCIPLES
Profit and Loss Basic business accounting – record keeping, trial balance, profit & loss accounts and balance sheets. Identify differences between gross and net profit. Understand value, loss, and startup costs. Identify ways to increase a company’s net profit.
Profit Motive and Competition – Define profit motive and identify its impact on business. Identify differences between direct and indirect competition. Identify differences between price and non-price competition. Identify how a company can improve its competitive position.
Supply and Demand – Define supply, demand, and scarcity. Identify causes of scarcity. Identify how the Law of Supply and Demand works.
Factors of Production – Identify how land, labour, capital, and entrepreneurship combine as factors of production. Identify differences between industrial and consumer goods.
6) ETHICS FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
A company’s ethics will determine its reputation. Good business ethics are essential for the long-term success of an organization. Implementing an ethical program will foster a successful company culture and increase profitability. A company’s ethics will have an influence on all levels of business. It will influence all who interact with the company including customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc. All of these groups will have an effect on the way a company’s ethics are developed. The course content will cover the following:
Introduction to ethics and their impact on global business – Define and understand ethics. An overview of types of ethics, giving a context for business ethics.
The importance of business ethics – Understand the benefits of ethics.
Emerging business ethics issues – Recognize social and business responsibility.
The institutionalization of business ethics – Create strategies to implement ethics at work.
Ethical decision making and leadership – Identify ethical and unethical behaviour. Learn how to make ethical decisions and lead with integrity.
The future of business ethics in a local and global economy.
The business communication Process.
Effective Written Business Communication.
Characteristics of Effective group Communication.
The importance of Visual Aids in Business Communication
7) A MARKETING TERM PAPER AND PRRESENTATION ON A BUSINESS IDEA
COURSE WORK
Coursework will comprise of 2 individual assignments for module 1 to 5.
Course work = 30% of total marks for each module
Exams = 1 paper for each module making up 70% of total marks of each module.