MBA brochure 2015

Connect & Discover

Business School

Executive

MBA

www.ait.ie/mba

REAL WORLD FOCUS The Executive MBA from the Business School at Athlone Institute of Technology is a prestigious Master’s degree designed for middle managers, senior executives and consultants.

The MBA has been specifically designed to meet the needs of both practising or aspiring middle and senior managers. Whilst there is a strong emphasis on academic content, much of the assessment has been designed to ensure that this is applied to a variety of organisational contexts.

You will therefore be required to engage with real-life problems and dilemmas faced by organisations. The strong conceptual basis which this course provides will significantly enhance executive-level skills of organisational analysis and management.

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THE AIT MBA EDUCATING FOR CAREER SUCCESS The Executive MBA programme at Athlone Institute of Technology is characterised by applying the latest thinking in management and leadership to solve real-world business problems. You’ll be challenged by faculty who have extensive experience of industry, and whose teaching connects ground-breaking theory with the business stories making the news.

The culture of the AIT MBA is one of teamwork; where you’ll work together with classmates to solve complex business problems. A residential weekend at the start of the programme provides the perfect opportunity for getting to know your classmates, while obtaining an overview of this challenging degree. With students

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drawn from the private and public sectors, start-ups and multinationals, you will develop the analytical skills and acumen to appreciate business forces and decisionmaking scenarios from a wealth of different perspectives.

On the AIT MBA, you will encounter a variety of teaching and learning approaches.

For example, you will spend a significant proportion of your time participating in case exercises and working on assignments in small groups. This will provide an opportunity for understanding different viewpoints, as well as sharing experiences and ideas. Group work will also allow you to practise skills of analysis and, through discussion, to argue for and negotiate solutions to problems.

After being an entrepreneur for the last 20 years, it is easy to think that you know it all. I had put off doing the MBA for several years precisely because of that reason. Looking back on the MBA programme, from both a practical and intellectual stance, my only regret was that I had not done it much sooner. No matter what life experiences you bring to the MBA programme, there are a multitude of new experiences waiting there for you.

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Vincent English, MBA 2011, managing director, Vernier Europe

THE GRADUATE PERSPECTIVE

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Undertaking the Executive MBA at Athlone Institute of Technology has been literally life-changing for me. Having engaged in many other postgraduate educational training programmes in my quest for lifelong learning, the AIT MBA surpassed my expectations by providing me with a very holistic set of lateral and critical thinking skills.

I am now empowered to approach many of our socio-economic grand challenges, and ideate creative solutions, but with a fresh perspective – and with a different lens.

The highlight of the AIT MBA programme for me was most definitely the collaborative and multidisciplinary teamwork with my fellow MBA colleagues, and associated leadership skills acquired, judiciously facilitated by the MBA coordinators and faculty contributors.

Working and studying part-time wasn’t easy. We were pushed to our limits, consistently challenged and critically appraised, but always to some positive end. The programme curriculum and experiential learning process, transformed ‘how we think’ and ‘how we act’ both as individuals and within teams, by pushing us out of our comfort zone. However, as a cohort, we were all bestowed with a unique and trustful environment to take risks and learn from mistakes, gracefully, which for me has certainly shaped my approach to working within high-performance teams and problem-based learning.

If you want to meet life-long professional colleagues, from cross disciplines, be treated as an individual within a small MBA cohort and acquire life-changing skills, this is the MBA programme for you.

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Louise Andrews is currently responsible for the research, creative design and delivery of innovative pedagogies in entrepreneurship education to doctoral students with the Innovation

Academy at Trinity College Dublin. More recently, she has been involved with the TCD Innovation Academy in extending creative innovation and entrepreneurship education techniques within all tiers of higher level education – undergraduate, postgraduate and postdoctoral. Louise graduated with a first-class honours MBA from AIT in 2011.

PROGRAMME DELIVERY

DELIVERY

The taught elements are delivered over two academic years on Friday afternoons and evenings (2-9pm) and occasional Saturdays (10am-5pm). The next programme is scheduled to commence on Friday 4 September 2015.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

ENTRY

DEADLINE

FEES

CONTACT

Entry to the Executive MBA requires you to have at least five years’ work experience, with three years in a management-related role. In addition, you should hold a recognised degree, or a postgraduate diploma in management; or a relevant professional qualification. All qualified applicants are required to attend for interview. Interviews are scheduled to take place in late June 2015 at AIT.

CLOSING DATE The closing date for applications is Monday 1 June 2015.

Late applications may be considered.

PROGRAMME FEE The programme fee is €7,850 per annum. This is subject to change.

CONTACT Dr Jason Palframan, MBA Programme Coordinator Tel 090 647 1814 Email jpalframan@ait.ie

Strategic Management

Financial Statement Analysis

This module will provide you with an understanding of the contribution and limitations of the major schools of thought within the dominant strategy literature. It will also enable you to reflect on strategy issues within organisations, using case studies and other publications.

This module will provide you with knowledge and skills in financial literacy that will enable you to interpret both published financial information and internal management information for the purposes of decision-making and control. The syllabus also introduces you to a range of analytical tools that underpin financial appraisal techniques.

Economics and the Business Environment The focus of this module is on the environment within which organisational decision-making takes place. The syllabus content builds on the essentials of economic theory that underlie production and employment decisions within business organisations.

Applied Strategic Marketing This module aims to provide a critical understanding of the nature of marketing and marketing management.

It distinguishes between marketing theory and practice, and focuses on the key activities of market analysis and marketing communications. There are also opportunities to apply theory to live case studies.

Supply Chain Management Supply chain management is the ‘engine’ of business as it encompasses the tasks and knowledge required to source, produce and deliver products and services.

This module will introduce students to the range of tools and techniques available to business managers working in a complex, ‘open/global’ environment and the business ‘system’.

Research Methods The objective of this module is to introduce you to the key concepts involved in business/social science research and to enable you to develop an understanding of the uses and relevance of the major methodologies employed. There is a particular focus on developing a research proposal that links with the dissertation in year two.

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Organisational Development, Leadership & Change The aim of this module is to develop and assess the functioning of an organisation in order to diagnose, manage and lead change. The module aims to build understanding of how to accurately diagnose organisational issues using different methods and phases of organisational diagnosis. It will also use an evidence-based change perspective to effectively map and model the implementation of successful change initiatives. It will also explore how to operate as a change consultant and build relationships with key stakeholders.

Management Consulting Project The purpose of this module is to use the skills acquired to date on the MBA programme and undertake, in small teams, a real-life consultancy project with an organisation.

Dissertation The dissertation is the capstone component of the MBA and integrates the curriculum content and the learning.

The dissertation also provides you with an opportunity to develop your interests in a particular area and to demonstrate an ability to undertake individual research.

AIT MBA

Strategic Human Resource Management This module takes an analytical look at the appropriateness of various approaches to human resource management for different organisational settings and compares HRM with the traditional personnel management. It also considers the functional aspect of HRM in line with business strategy towards achieving and maintaining competitive advantage.

Innovation and Project Management The key focus of the module is on innovation and project management and the tools and techniques underpinning the selection, planning, implementation, monitoring and control of projects within an organisation that support both product and service projects at operational and strategic levels.

Corporate Finance This module will provide you with a firm theoretical and practical basis for understanding corporate finance in the modern business organisation. The module will develop your ability to apply modern theory to finance issues and problems.

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Business School Athlone Institute of Technology Dublin Road, Athlone, Co Westmeath www.ait.ie/mba @BusatAIT /athloneinstituteoftechnology 090 646 8000