Management Skills for Executives and Managers (HEC Liège)

Module 1 - Business marketing and customer approach

Objectives:
At the end of the module, participants will be able to :

• Understand the company's marketing language and marketing strategy in its various components
  

• Ask relevant questions to the marketing and sales department in order to match one's department actions with those of the company
  

• Integrate customer orientation into one's own behaviour and values
  

• Incorporate the customer centric dimension into one's leadership style
  
  

Course outline: 

• The context and challenges of marketing (B2B and B2C)
  

• The attractiveness-competitiveness analysis approach
  

• Strategic decision-making processes and tools (targeting, positioning)
  

• The main tools of operational marketing
  

• Web 2.0
  
  

Module 2 - Diagnosis and strategic management

Objectives:

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

• Understand the fundamentals of business strategy and in particular the strategic architecture to be implemented in an uncertain environment
  

• Understand the meaning of the main strategy concepts, business models and organisational cultures consistent with the strategies implemented
  

• Apply these concepts to the particular case of their company
  
  

Course outline:

• The strategic issues in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous)
  

• What is corporate strategy? The main components of the strategic approach (vision, competitive advantage, resources, economic value etc.)
  

• From diagnosis to strategic scenarios: how to start a strategic approach
  

• Business models: value proposition, value chain, cash flow
  

• Strategic cultures: product-, sales-, customer-, company-, wiki-oriented cultures
  

• Conclusion: the strategic challenges of your company
  
  

Module 3 - Financial Analysis

Objectives:

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

• master the theoretical foundations in financial analysis
  
  

Course outline:

• The basic principles of accounting
  

• Learning a common language
  

• Understanding the importance of accounting and financial management
  

• Reasoning in accounting terms to get a deeper understanding of certain technical aspects
  

• Financial analysis techniques and financing methods
  
  

Module 4 - Leadership and managerial techniques

Objectives:

At the end of the module, participants will be able to:

• identify the two main responsibilities of a manager
  

• situate themselves in relation to the roles of the manager
  

• use the appropriate leadership style
  

• conduct a delegation interview
  

• know one's own and one's employees' functioning mode and adapt one's behaviour accordingly
  

• provide positive and constructive negative feedback
  

Course outline:

• Exploring the roles and responsibilities of a manager
  

• Exploring the various roles of a team leader: manager - leader - change manager - coach
  

• Personal questioning: what is my current positioning? Do I cover everything or not?
  

• What is my vision of my role tomorrow?
  

• Finding out about situational leadership and role-playing
  

• Learning the steps of a delegation interview
  

• Delegation role-playing game
  

• Intervision: group reflection on possible solutions in relation to concrete management situations proposed by the participants
  

• Intuitive discovery game of one's own functioning
  

• Practical situations in which one's behaviour adapts to the other's
  

• Role-playing: giving positive feedback and giving constructive negative feedback
  

Module 5 - Business Game

Objectives:

Aims of the simulation:

• to understand the different activities and functions of the company
  

• to acquire through practice the meaning of effective management
  

• to learn to define policies, deduce objectives and compare achievements with objectives
  

• to practise deciding according to imperatives (namely, commercial, financial, production and personnel requirements)
  

• to understand the interdependence of the different variables
  

• to adopt a holistic approach, solve problems and exercise responsibilities
  

• to develop capacities to implement, cooperate and integrate
  

• to assess the relationship between a management committee's working methods and results
  

Programme :

Part 1 - Theoretical basis in Financial Analysis (2 days)

• The basic principles of accounting
  

• Learning a common language
  

• Understanding the importance of accounting and financial management
  

• Reasoning in accounting terms to get a deeper understanding of certain technical aspects
  

• Financial analysis techniques and financing methods
  

Part 2 - Business Game (3 days)

• Expressing a vision and a mission; deriving a ranking of measurable objectives from them
  

• Applying the profitability calculation of an investment (Pay-Back, NPV, TIR) in a realistic context to decide on the type of investment
  

• Building a reporting system with ratios, key figures
  

• Analyzing a large volume of information to derive a business model for the company
  

Process:

This business game is an educational tool whereby participants concretely get to manage a virtual business.
The company, its market and competitors are modelled on reality through simulation. A computer analyzes the decisions of all companies, integrating socio-economic indicators of the economic situation.
As a member of the management committee of one of the companies involved, your task will be to define policies (commercial, production, social, financial) and participate in decision-making.
The quality of your management will depend on the consistency of your decisions with your objectives and the results obtained, particularly as regards:

• the company's position on its market in relation to its competitors
  

• its financial situation
  

• its social environment
  

• its development opportunities
  

• etc.