September – March

Creating a future for all

Our students are unified by their desire to tackle global challenges, which is a core value of The Exeter MBA. You will study global challenges, and work with academic staff from our Centre for Circular Economy to explore and apply Circular Economy techniques. You will be assessed by written assignments, and the Design Challenge where you will work in a group to solve a real problem for an external organisation.

Modules:

• Tackling Global Challenges
• Circular Economy Design Challenge
• Community Project

Understanding our world

You will learn the basics of data analysis, accounting, finance and economics, which will help you understand our world and how you can create change wherever you choose to take your MBA. You will build a set of professional skills, and understand exactly when and where you can use these skills in your future career. You will be assessed by written assignments and MCQ test.

Modules:

• Economics
• Accounting and Finance
• Data Analytics

Achieving enduring success

You will learn about the practical marketing, operational management and strategic decision making tools that good managers use to drive success. These tools for success are used in large and small organisations, and will be valuable wherever you choose to take your MBA. You will be assessed by a simulation and written assignments.

Modules:

• Marketing
• Operations
• Strategy

Leading with Purpose

Delivered by academic staff from the Exeter Centre for Leadership (EXcL), you will learn what it takes to be a good leader. By focusing on the skills required to operate at a strategic level, you become a more effective leader in your future leadership role. You will be assessed by written assignments.

Modules:

• Leading self and Organisations
• Corporate Governance

Creating the new

Academic staff from our Centre for Entrepreneurship, and Initiative in the Digital Economy at Exeter (INDEX), will introduce you to current thinking and approaches to creating and realising new ideas. Here you will gain experience of new business models, and immerse yourself in technology, innovation and entrepreneurship. You will be assessed by written assignments.

Modules:

• Agile Innovation in a Digital Era
• Entrepreneurship

April – June

• MBA Project

Elective modules (choose two)

• The Entrepreneurial and Intrapreneurial Process: Starting Successful New Ventures
• Sustainable Finance
• Leading Resilient Organisations
• Behavioural Economics in Practise
• Digital Marketing and Communications
• Strategic Sales Management

The modules we outline here provide examples of what you can expect to learn on this degree course based on recent academic teaching. The precise modules available to you in future years may vary depending on staff availability and research interests, new topics of study, timetabling and student demand.

Induction

Specially designed for participants taking a career break after a period of time away from the world of study, our induction supports your return to education through workshops and team building activities. It will equip you with practical study skills, presenting with impacting, campus orientation and team exercises required to make the most of your MBA.

From idea generation through to implementation, The Exeter MBA will help you lead with an entrepreneurial mindset and identify the key strategies for sparking ideas and opportunity exploitation.

Apply your ideas to the entrepreneurial process to create a tangible new venture and gain pragmatic insight into the processes required to conceive, research, write and pitch a credible plan in order to acquire the necessary resources to launch a new enterprise. Workshops include significant input from entrepreneurs and small business specialists.

Entrepreneurs can shape their innovative ideas into business realities over the course of just three days with Google’s Techstars Startup Weekend Exeter, hosted at the University of Exeter Business School with expert facilitators and mentors.

‘Think, Try, Do’

Gain further support through Exeter’s ‘Think, Try, Do’ Programme in cooperation with the University of Exeter Innovation Centre.

• Start-up workshops to gain valuable feedback
• 1:1 meetings with advisors to keep you on track
• Bespoke business support from industry professionals
• Funding and resources to make the most of your start-up
• The opportunity to pitch your startups head to head with others at global competitions

Dragons' Den

Our ‘Dragons’ Den’ exercise, which forms part of our optional entrepreneurship module in Term 3, allows you to present your business plan to a team of experienced entrepreneurs to gain expert feedback.

Leadership Development Opportunities

Here at Exeter we are committed to the personal and professional development of our MBA students, using a wide variety of creative teaching approaches.

We place personal effectiveness at the heart of the MBA experience and ensure that all students have access to a portfolio of workshops, masterclasses and experiential learning opportunities.

In today’s era of globalisation, you will graduate with the knowledge and skills to lead anywhere in the world.

Develop your global intelligence through:

• Experiential and practical case studies
• Projects and workshops
• Study trips
• Engagement with international business leaders

You can also widen your global perspective of the latest business models and leadership developments by choosing to study a specialist module at one of our international partner schools. This module forms part of a study visit which will allow you to create a lasting bond with your cohort, and build connections that will stay with you throughout your career.

Responsible Business in Context

In May 2019 MBA students will take part in a week long module working in partnership with the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO). This module will take place in Lima, Peru and students will be working with local WFTO members on a short piece of consultancy.

Through engagement with micro social enterprises in context, students will work as a consulting team to understand the challenge that is presented and propose creative ideas to solve it. Bringing together the learning from across the MBA, students will work to identify new market opportunities, shape new business models and help the clients identify ways in which to achieve more sustainable operations.

This module gives students an immersive experience in an international context, challenging students to adapt and thrive in a new business environment while establishing a positive client relationship. It affords students the opportunity to make use of the tools, critical thinking and consulting process to bring positive impact to members of the local WFTO network.

Leaderships Skills Expedition

In 2019, students took part in the Leadership Skills Expedition in Norway. Module objectives centred on Personalised Leadership Trajectory (where every student is unique). This module aims to give you:

• Awareness of your leadership challenges: Students start the module with a 360 assessment on the five main components (confidence, competence, compassion, courage and character) and start the trajectory with a clear plan on how you intend to develop each of these. Throughout the trajectory there are ample opportunities for peer feedback and personal coaching for you to hone in on those areas you want to work on.
• Skill development to improve your leadership styles: Understanding your challenges, you and instructors go on to create natural outdoor challenges that you need to development most. These challenges are all related to your capacity to lead effectively inside and outside of the outdoor setting.
• Build a strong leadership identity and corresponding narrative: Having understood, worked through your personal challenges and updated your leadership toolbox, the modules places strong emphasis on your existing strengths that you bring to the table. We see these strengths as the rough diamond (the unique, authentic way in which all of us have the capacity to lead) that this course intends to help sharpen (by polishing the rough, challenging edges). 

We connect on a regular basis with our wide range of Corporate Partners through our Exeter based modules and beyond.  Our 2017/18 cohort visited:

• Powderham Castle and completed module workshops on-location in historic surroundings for our Innovation module
• Buckfast Abbey for a workshop 'Exploring the Rise of the Meaningful Economy' with Mark Drewell of Insight for our Personal Transformation module
• Cobell Ltd, CGON, Milkalyser in Exeter and Exeter Science Park, for The Entrepreneurial Mindset module
• IBM Research Centre in Hursely UK for our Leading in the 4th Industrial Revolution module.

Two-day 'Leading in a Global Context' trip to London

As part of our Personal Transformations module, MBA participants are given the opportunity to spend time in a stimulating environment in the capital city, London, at the Wellcome Collection. The speakers and activities planned for the two days are focussed on developing a better understanding of the priorities, perspectives, challenges and opportunities of working in a global context. Gain insights from speakers from the arts, sport, non-profit, conservation and commercial ventures as we look at things from a variety of perspectives, thinking about how others see the world and how we as leaders must understand the multiplicity of perspectives.

The Exeter MBA Consultancy Project

The culmination of your programme is your MBA Consultancy Project which is a unique opportunity to develop and apply your innovative business thinking by leveraging the knowledge, skills and mindset gained throughout the duration of your MBA at Exeter. By undertaking your MBA Consultancy project you will add value to a client organisation while solving the needs of a real organisation facing real business challenges.

What differentiates your Consultancy Project from any other project is its ability to ignite, lead, manage or promote change – for good. Therefore, a key aspect of your project lies in its ability to add value to the client organisation. Your project can relate to any aspect or theme covered by the programme, including leadership, new business models, product/process/business innovation, change management, business sustainability and resilience, economic, social, environmental and technological drivers of change.

As an Exeter MBA participant you will benefit from a hugely supportive environment. Our links with leading organisations and the MBA's corporate partnerships will enable you to learn from the very best. 

Every year, multi-national organisations such as IBM, SAP, Thomson Reuters, Marks & Spencer, but also SMEs, NGOs, BCorps and social enterprises offer MBA participants the opportunity to undertake their project with them.

The following examples will give you a flavour of the nature and scope of typical MBA projects:

• ‘Crossing the chasm’ – from innovators to early adopters – an exploratory case study of the critical success factors of a fintech start-up
• Multi-function devices (MFDs) in a circular economy
• Innovation in the legal services sector
• Embedding environmental responsibility within a supply chain
• Using social technologies as a means to streamline communications and increase employee engagement in the digital workplace
• How value is created through systems oriented innovation
• Beyond the Bottom of the Pyramid
• Machine learning and the Internet of Things (IoT)
• Study of emerging technology to support a more sustainable water industry

We have developed an extensive process for sourcing consultancy projects and, through project pitching sessions, you will be exposed to projects and business challenges from a wide range of organisations, based in the region or elsewhere in the UK and further afield.

We also run a series of workshops to help you prepare for your project which will help you prepare for the demands of the role and help you manage the client relationship in the most effective way. You will be introduced to the processes and the cycle of consultancy, the key competencies for effective consulting as well as explore the characteristics and character of management and strategy consulting. The workshops will also provide an opportunity to explore how to manage client expectations and stakeholder relationships and develop negotiation and problem-solving skills.  These workshops will also help you to deconstruct and negotiate a project task, apply a range of frameworks to structure analytical thinking, apply techniques to complete the required research and generate insights, and demonstrate effective communication skills in delivering the final results to the client.