MANAGEMENT

The aim of the Management course is to analyse the most relevant issues and challenges faced by general managers that are critical for the short- term survival and long-term development of the firm. For this purpose, the course attempts to provide participants with an exposure to the challenges of managing strategically and to the complexity associated with general management responsibilities.

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Knowledge and understanding: The course will offer key theoretical tools to compare profitable firms. This course provides advanced knowledge and analytical frameworks that will enable students to understand the theory of the firms and the reason why firms placed in the same industry gain different performances. Applying knowledge and understanding: The students will be able to: • to correctly apply the main management tools in order to analyze the problems that may affect the firms and to propose the most suitable solutions; •examine and recognize the main business strategies a firm adopts in order to be competitive; •examine and recognize the main functional departments and their activities within a firm. Making judgements: We expect students to be able to analyze, with a critical approach the problems that can arise and, above all, they must be able to determine whether the solutions they propose can really prove useful to the businesses. Communications Skills: This course will give the students the possibility to acquire and use major business terms and concepts in order to communicate their ideas, proposals, analysis and critical reasoning in the field of management. Learning skills: This course will contribute to empower learners giving them the tools to determine the best managerial options a firm has to choose to be competitive in the industry where it is placed.

The course is structured in three main sections along the strategic management process. In the first section, students will understand the strategic analysis through the definition of goals and objectives, the analysis of the external environment and the internal environment of the firm. In the second section, the business level strategic formulation (cost leadership, Focus, and differentiation) will be analysed. Finally, the course will deepen the understanding of how each managerial function (Organisation, Marketing, Innovation Management, Operations, and Finance) contributes to the implementation of the strategic management process. At the end of the course, students will acquire the ability to integrate different dimensions of a problem and to apply both logic and judgment in analyzing situations. Throughout the course, students develop the analysis of case studies relating to prominent companies facing the challenge of competitive markets.

Vicentini, F. Management. Create edition, McGrawHill Education Edition

Teaching will be delivered by means of lectures, short cases and class discussion. There is also a heavy emphasis on group work.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of: a) a team work accounting for 50% B) a final written exam accounting for the remaining 50%. Assessment Method Intermediate Works • Students will need to work in groups of 4 people (the composition is non-changeable over the course). If you can’t work in groups please contact the professor to be authorized to work alone. • Each student/group of students will need to choose a firm to work on. The firm is non-changeable over the course. All firms are suitable, as the topics of the assignment are very general and can easily be adapted to all cases. • Each assignment must be of min. 3 pages and max 5 pages, written in Times new roman 12pt.

In order to be accepted as student for the thesis, please prepare a two- three pages proposal, in which the following issues have to be addressed: -Aim of the thesis -Theoretical background -Context field -Main references Send it at fvicentini@luiss.it, 6-8 months before the discussion period selected.