Description

Profit and loss accounts and balance sheets give insights into the financial strength of competitors but you have to know what you are looking for. Many managers do not even know the financial position of their own organisation. To decide how much to charge for your products you have to know how much they cost, notoriously difficult to determine. Effective decisions require an understanding of financial and management accounting techniques plus their strengths and weaknesses.
Topics covered
•    An introduction to accounting and the accounting equation.
•    The profit and loss account.
•    The balance sheet.
•    The cash flow statement.
•    Framework for financial reporting.
•    Interpretation of financial statements.
•    Emerging issues and managerial options in reporting.
•    An introduction to cost and management accounting.
•    Cost characteristics and behaviour.
•    Allocating costs to jobs and processes.
•    Costs for decision making.
•    Budgeting.
•    Standard costing.
•    Accounting for divisions.
•    Investment decisions.
•    New developments in management accounting

Description

It is often wrongly concluded that economics is irrelevant to running a business. In fact, economic factors affect businesses and decision making at three levels. At the macro level, factors such as the business cycle, interest rates and exchange rates directly affect product demand and cost of production. At the market level, the type of competition determines profitability and business strategy. At the company level, efficiency principles have a direct bearing on business success, principles such as marginal analysis, opportunity cost and profit maximisation. If you ignore economic principles, you will be unable to figure out likely changes in market conditions, you will be unable to understand competitive forces and you will have little idea of how to allocate resources efficiently.
Topics covered
•    Economic concepts, issues and tools.
•    An overview of economics, demand and supply.
•    The market, economic efficiency, organisation of industries.
•    Public goods, externalities, income distribution.
•    International sector, macroeconomics.
•    Income distribution, potential output, circular flow of income.
•    A simple model of income determination.
•    An expanded model of income determination.
•    Fiscal policy, money, the central bank and monetary policy.
•    The quantity theory and the Keynesian theory of money.
•    Integration of the real and monetary sectors of the economy.
•    Inflation and unemployment, the world economy.

Description

Different investment projects generate different cash flows and different levels of risk. The problem is that choices have to be made among competing uses for funds because businesses typically face constraints on the availability of capital. Financial tools make it possible to reduce a bewildering array of cash flows spread over a variety of time periods to more easily comparable net present values. These tools enable the efficiency principles of economics to be applied in a rigorous manner. Financial concepts also provide the link between company operations and capital markets. It is impossible to understand the behaviour of the stock market without a grasp of the principles of financial analysis.
Topics covered
•    Basic ideas, scope and tools of finance.
•    Fundamentals of company investment decisions.
•    Earnings, profit and cash flow.
•    Investment decisions using weighted average cost of capital.
•    Estimating cash flows for investment projects.
•    Applications of company investment analysis.
•    Risk and company investment decisions.
•    Company dividend policy.
•    Company capital structure.
•    Working capital management.
•    International financial management.
•    Options, agency, derivatives and financial engineering.

Description

This course introduces the subject of financial accounting for non-accounting master's students.  It is specific to financial accounting, rather than accounting, in general, in that its focus is to provide a basis for the successful student to enter into management decision making processes which involve the final accounts of an organisation, particularly within the extractive industries.  For example, the published accounts that here are analysed are all from the oil, gas and mining sectors.

As part of your Distance Learning degree you can choose to either complete this module purely by distance learning, or you can choose to attend the module on-campus, attending the classes at the Centre within the University of Dundee.

The principle differences between the 2 modes of attendance are shown below:

Distance Learning:

• you will receive a package composed of the Study Guides for the module and the core reading material
• you will be provided with access to the distance learning module on the VLE (Blackboard) in which you will find electronic copies of the course material and access to the e-resources at the University
• you will have access to the Distance Learning Tutor for the module for the duration of your studies on that module
• you will sit the exam remotely in an approved location indicated by you  

On-Campus:

• you will attend up to 24 hours of face-to-face lecturers/seminars on-campus
• you will be provided with access to the full-time module on the VLE and all materials held there
• you will have access to all academic and administrative facilities/services available to other full-time on-campus students for the duration of the module
• you will sit the exam for the module on-campus with the other full-time on-campus students
• As part of your Distance Learning degree you can choose to either complete this module purely by distance learning, or you can choose to attend the module on-campus, attending the classes at the Centre within the University of Dundee.

Description

This module will introduce the students to the complexities of business finance and aim to give them an understanding of the issues business managers in the energy and extractive industries are required to consider in the decision-making process.  All managers, in all types of organisations, have to be constantly aware of the financial implications of decisions being made, including sources and cost of finance, return on investment, management of working capital requirements and of associated business and financial risk.  The module is designed to give students an appreciation of the financial management issues they will encounter as managers and to give them the confidence in the understanding of finance to be able to ensure the correct financial information is available to them to allow for well informed decision making.

As part of your Distance Learning degree you can choose to either complete this module purely by distance learning, or you can choose to attend the module on-campus, attending the classes at the Centre within the University of Dundee.

The principle differences between the 2 modes of attendance are shown below:

Distance Learning:

• you will receive a package composed of the Study Guides for the module and the core reading material
• you will be provided with access to the distance learning module on the VLE (Blackboard) in which you will find electronic copies of the course material and access to the e-resources at the University
• you will have access to the Distance Learning Tutor for the module for the duration of your studies on that module
• you will sit the exam remotely in an approved location indicated by you  

On-Campus:

• you will attend up to 15 hours of face-to-face lecturers/seminars on-campus
• you will be provided with access to the full-time module on the VLE and all materials held there
• you will have access to all academic and administrative facilities/services available to other full-time on-campus students for the duration of the module
• you will sit the exam for the module on-campus with the other full-time on-campus students
• As part of your Distance Learning degree you can choose to either complete this module purely by distance learning, or you can choose to attend the module on-campus, attending the classes at the Centre within the University of Dundee.

Description

In highly competitive markets the success or failure of a product or service may be determined by the marketing decisions you take. This course will help you make the right ones.
The course will enable you to analyse and critically evaluate marketing problems and opportunities. It will also help you develop and implement marketing strategies and programmes which take best advantage of your firm's situation.
Topics covered
•    The marketing management process.
•    Corporate strategies and their marketing implications.
•    Business strategies and their marketing implications.
•    Environmental analysis: tools to identify attractive markets.
•    Industry analysis and competitive advantage.
•    Understanding consumer buying behaviour.
•    Understanding organisational markets and buying behaviour.
•    Measuring market opportunities: forecasting and market research.
•    Market segmentation and target marketing.
•    Positioning.
•    Product decisions.
•    Pricing decisions.
•    Distribution channel decisions.
•    Integrated promotion decisions.
•    Marketing strategies for new market entries.
•    Marketing strategies for growth markets.
•    Marketing strategies for mature and declining markets.
•    Organising and planning for effective implementation.
•    Measuring and delivering marketing performance.

Description

If you work in an organisation, you probably think you know a lot about them. But do you? An organisation continually has to adapt to changes in the competitive environment. Its effectiveness depends on the motivation and behaviour of the workforce. To capitalise on the capabilities of the workforce, it must have appropriate incentives, develop effective teams, design an attractive job environment and manage the dynamics of organisational change. By understanding the principles of organisational behaviour you acquire a deeper knowledge of how you relate to other members of the organisation.
Topics covered
•    Basics of organisational behaviour related to management.
•    Stress and well-being at work.
•    Contemporary theories of motivation.
•    Organisational control and reward systems.
•    Job design and employee reactions to work.
•    Workgroup dynamics and group-based problem solving.
•    Influence processes in organisations: power, politics, leadership.
•    Organisational design and new service-driven organisations.
•    Managing transitions: organisational culture and change.

Description

The major problem facing chief executives is to make sense of a spectrum of information and apply appropriate tools and techniques in driving an organisation through a complex and continually changing competitive environment. The complexity of real life can be structured as a process involving objective setting, analysing competitive positioning, choosing a strategy, implementing it and adapting to feedback over time.
All these steps are crucial and organisations succeed or fail depending on the robustness of their strategic processes. This means there are no easy answers to strategic problems and the solutions offered by business gurus can be seen for what they are: popular appeals to intuition, largely devoid of any conceptual or empirical basis. Strategic planning is above all about thinking effectively, and using the strategic process approach requires a sound understanding of the other core disciplines.
Topics covered
•    Introduction to strategy, planning and structure.
•    Modelling the strategic planning process.
•    Company objectives.
•    The company and the economy.
•    The company and the market.
•    Internal analysis of the company.
•    Making choices among strategies.
•    Implementing and evaluating strategy.