Module 36: Management

How organisations work, how decisions get made, and what the MBA actually teaches

Part A · what management is — the discipline and its history

What is management? — coordination, decision-making, and getting things done through others

Definition & scopeManagement vs leadershipWhy it matters

A brief history of management thought — from Taylor to Drucker to today

Scientific management (Taylor)Human relations schoolDrucker & modern managementKnowledge workers

What the MBA is — and what it's not

Origin of the MBACore curriculumCase methodROI & debates

Part B · strategy — how companies decide where to compete

What strategy is — and the difference between strategy and planning

Strategy definitionMintzberg's emergent strategyDeliberate vs emergent

Porter's Five Forces — the classic competitive analysis framework

Buyer powerSupplier powerNew entrantsSubstitutesRivalryInteractive diagram

Competitive advantage — cost leadership vs differentiation vs focus

Porter's generic strategiesBlue ocean strategyMoats & defensibility

SWOT, PESTLE, and the strategy toolkit — when to use each

SWOT gridPESTLE factorsValue chainBCG matrix

Disruptive innovation — Christensen's theory and its limits

Low-end disruptionNew-market disruptionExamples & counter-examples

Part C · finance for managers — the numbers side of the MBA

The three financial statements — what each tells you

Income statementBalance sheetCash flow statementHow they connect

Key financial ratios — the ones every manager should know

Profitability ratiosLiquidity ratiosLeverage ratiosCalculator widget

Valuation basics — how businesses are valued

DCFComparable companiesEBITDA multiplesP/E ratio

Unit economics — the building blocks of a business model

CAC & LTVContribution marginPayback periodBreak-even analysis

Part D · marketing — understanding customers and creating demand

What marketing is — and the difference from sales and advertising

Marketing definitionThe 4 PsSTP framework

Market segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP)

Segmentation typesTarget selectionPositioning maps

Brand building — what a brand is and how it creates value

Brand equityBrand vs productBrand architecture

The customer journey and funnel — from awareness to loyalty

AIDA modelTouchpointsRetention vs acquisition

Part E · operations — how things actually get made and delivered

Operations management — the discipline of making things efficiently

Process designCapacity planningBottlenecks (Theory of Constraints)

Supply chains — from raw materials to the customer

Supply chain anatomyJust-in-timeBullwhip effectResilience vs efficiency

Quality management — TQM, Six Sigma, and Lean

Six Sigma basicsLean principlesKaizenAgile

Part F · organisational behaviour — the people side

Motivation theory — what actually makes people work harder

Maslow's hierarchyHerzberg's two-factorSelf-determination theoryIntrinsic vs extrinsic

Leadership styles — authoritarian to servant leadership

Transformational vs transactionalSituational leadershipAuthentic leadershipComparison scale

Team dynamics — why some teams outperform and others fail

Tuckman's stagesPsychological safetyGoogle's Project Aristotle

Organisational culture — what it is and why it's hard to change

Culture definitionSchein's modelCulture typesThe "culture eats strategy" debate

Decision-making and cognitive biases — how managers actually decide

Kahneman System 1/2Key biasesDecision frameworksBias explorer

Part G · entrepreneurship and startups — management without the rulebook

How startups differ from companies — the management challenges of zero to one

Startup vs SME vs corporateProduct-market fitPivot logic

Venture capital and startup financing — how startups get funded

Funding stagesEquity dilutionTerm sheetsVC economics

Business model design — how companies create and capture value

Business Model CanvasRevenue model typesPlatform vs pipeline