Module 401: Marketing in Practice (The Mindful Marketer)
The 401 module is designed and deployed as the core thread of learning throughout the AMM programme around which all other modules revolve. The module begins with a crash re-immersion course in the language of marketing [the particular dialect spoken at LUMS that is]. This is to ensure the entire cohort have at least the same marketing management vocabulary/grammar in certain key areas at the outset of the AMM programme. A series of workshops and lectures then commence focussing on critical perspectives on marketing management. This content is integrated with the content of MKTG 402[1] – Philosophy of Social Science which runs in parallel at this point in the course.
From the outset students are allocated into teams to work on a competitive business/marketing simulation. The cohort works in this simulation for 10 weeks.
Additionally during term 1 students participate in a series of intensive workshops focussed on the rapid development of their critical-analytic reasoning skills. This is complemented by their engagement with a complementary online critical thinking training programme that concludes early in term 2.
The capstone of the module is a series of lectures, case works and workshops that deal with the highly practical and well theorised conception of business models and with business model innovation. This component of the module builds on the students’ developing critical thinking skills and their understanding of marketing management decision making and drives students to ‘think integratively’ about business, and to contend with the crucial issue of innovation
Deliberation & collaborative working rest at the heart of marketing managerial work and the development of the individual skills that underpin effective dialoguing and team-working are an area of focus from the very start and throughout the module. Students take part in two intensive team-working training courses, one in Week 0, and a refresher/reinforcement in week 11. Following the first training session students then engage with leading edge training material focussed on effective working practices, decision making and inter-personal skills. During term 1 they also engage in a series of staff-led workshops on effective collaborative working. Throughout the whole module they work in the same team on the business simulation. Although students work in many different teams, on different forms of project, this particular team where they engage in a simulated marketing management decision context, acts as the focal practice ground for collaborative-deliberative skill development.
The central aim of this module is to give you the opportunity to develop the crucial skills of criticality and reflexivity, together with your capability to work collaboratively and to pro-actively reflect; personal capabilities that are crucial whether you are an aspiring marketing manager or marketing academic. The learnings from this module will therefore not only support the development of the capabilities/skills vital in the world of practice but the capabilities/skills that you require for successful engagement with the MSc programme itself.
Credit weighting: 20
Tutor: Dr Peter Lenney
