This module aims to provide students with theoretical and practical guidance on empirical research and consulting related to business analytics challenges in an organisational setting. The emphasis is placed on enabling students to develop analytical thinking, qualitative and quantitative research skills and consulting practice such that they are equipped to undertake their consulting project. The module covers a range of topics from research approaches suitable for business analytics, quantitative and qualitative methods in collecting/harvesting and analysing data, innovations in digital research methods, consulting skills and ethical considerations in conducting research related to business analytics.

The product development process is time consuming and costly, and many new products fail either to make it onto the market or only last for a few weeks. A clear knowledge of the effective processes for conceiving, developing, and launching new products or services is critical to becoming competitive in most industries. This course is designed to introduce learners to the key concepts related to New Product Development such as new product development strategy, types, strategies, and steps for product development, and so on.

This course teaches modern tools, techniques and methods for product design and development. The capstone is a project in which individuals conceive, design, and develop a product. You will emerse in the new product development process with the objective of learning these key tools, techniques, and methods.

This module seeks to answer the call from employers to bridge the gap between higher education and practice.

Using action learning (learning from experience), students will engage in authentic projects to understand the real world of digital marketing. The module will facilitate the development of key employability skills such as critical thinking, problem solving, team work, communiation skills and client service skills.

Students will develop a sound understanding of the role of the consultant and the process of consultancy in the digital marketing space. The development of consultancy skills, particularly problem-solving skills lend themselves well to student-centred learning and as such the module will be strongly participative. The module will include a project where students will be required to carry out work required to achieve a particular outcome as prescribed by the client, students will be required to present their findings back to the client. Problem-solving techniques will be applied within the same constraints to which real life consultants are subject. The emphasis will be on compiling a workable solution to a problem and selling it to the client. The consultancy assignment itself will take one of many forms in accordance with the client’s requirements, this may be (but not limited to) providing information, providing a solution, conducting a diagnosis, providing recommendations or assisting implementation.

This module aims to provide students with an understanding of the strategic role of business intelligence and data assets in organizations, for enhancing business decision-making and operational effectiveness. Students will be aware of the principles and practices of processing data from heterogeneous sources and using it to visualise business intelligence solutions in a strategic and/or operational context. Students will learn the process of integrating data from heterogeneous sources, creating and presenting data visualisations solutions for organisational use, and exploring how data insights can support better decision making. Students will learn the processes of identifying patterns and trends for decision making as well as modelling future activities for prediction. To enhance student employability, students will be able to apply commonly used business analytics tools, and effectively communicate data insights to stakeholders for making well-informed business decisions.

Module leader: Dr Yuanyuan Lai

Module assist: Professor Mark Lycett 

Email: yuanyuan.lai@rhul.ac.uk

Yuanyuan's Office: MX007

Yuanyuan's Weekly Office Hours: Tuesdays 2-3 pm (Please email me to make an appointment)

Module Learning Outcomes

    1.  Explain the fundamentals of, compare and contrast emerging technologies.

This module aims to develop advanced practical skills for managers in the use of machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics for the analysis of large datasets and exposes students to the potential biases that machine learning can introduce and/or reinforce in doing so. The module is primarily focused on the needs of managers in the workplace and not computer programmers. Students will be taught using industry main-stream data science and machine learning platforms/languages and be using different publicly available industry datasets and data sources.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Critically discuss the challenges and nuances of data interpretation drawing on data from published sources
2. Demonstrate data interpretation skills by employing them in the context of a realistic business/societal problem
3. Appraise different solutions to business problems by exploring the effects that different data interpretations may have on them
4. Communicate the outcomes of data analysis by presenting solutions in a manner accessible to a lay audience

This module explores the foundations of responsible business. In doing so the globally recognised framework of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is drawn upon. The SDGs feature 17 goals that aim to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainability. In this module we will explore a number of these goals, including climate action, reduced inequalities, responsible consumption and production and decent work and economic growth. We explore their relevance to business, and how organisations can help achieve, or undermine, these goals. Using case studies, practical examples and new theories on responsible business, this module will help prepare future business leaders for a world where the agenda is no longer ‘business as usual’. 

MN1305 Markets and Consumption

Module Summary

The rationale of Markets and Consumption (MN1305) is to integrate the research expertise of the Marketing faculty at Royal Holloway for your benefit as a first year student in the School of Business and Management.

The Department of Marketing at Royal Holloway http://pure.rhul.ac.uk/portal/en/organisations/marketing(e3a07645-4887-4cb3-9d79-608903739adb).html is one of the largest ones within the University of London.  

MN1305 Markets and Consumption, as a course, introduces first year students who are reading management as part of their degree – that is you – to marketing, as both an academic discipline and a business practice. How and why marketing has developed, and continues to develop, as an academic discipline underpins our approach. Treating marketing as a management practice includes assessing the application of marketing in various marketplaces. By various marketplaces, we mean that the discourse of marketing has penetrated all sectors of the economy (i.e., private, public, and voluntary or not-for-profit). In addition, as a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME), which is based on the United Nations’ Global Compact, attention is devoted to the sustainability of marketing practices in an increasingly globalized consumer society.

The use of ‘markets’ and ‘consumption’ is, in the title of a module on marketing, part of our answer to what is taught and why it is taught. The module asks you to consider the various relationships between markets and consumption. The consumer is a key stakeholder for organizational success so marketing is fundamental to understanding how the economy operates. What we purchase as consumers – the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the places we travel to on vacation – define us and our world. Marketing is everywhere. A core concept of marketing is ‘exchange of value’. Such exchanges often take place in markets, which are marked by firms in competition. Firms are competing for consumers. This is to say the consumer is a key stakeholder. Satisfying consumers is crucial to the success of organizations. As such we seek to understand consumers and their consumption behaviours and decisions in making choices amongst competing firms.   

Marketing occupies a significant space within the study of management. Marketing is also interdisciplinary: it intersects other disciplines including economics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, public policy, politics, and visual culture.

Course Summary

Google, Twitter, Microsoft, and Facebook are all popular companies on the cutting edge of technology, and their innovations and competitive battles make front page news. But even organisations that don’t seem very high tech—from a family-owned restaurant to the local gym—are going digital. Digital enterprise is fundamental to modern business life and will be a major part of your future career. Digital technologies are the backbone of every business and pervade almost every aspect of our lives. They are one of the major tools available to business managers for achieving operational excellence, developing new products and services, improving decision making, and achieving competitive advantage. A continuing stream of digital technologies and innovations is transforming the traditional business world, enabling entrepreneurs and innovative traditional firms to create new products and services, develop new business models, and transform the day-to-day conduct of business. This continuous change in technology, management and business processes is what makes digital technologies one of the most interesting and rapidly developing fields of management studies.

This course provides a non-technical introduction to the use of digital technologies as tools for the innovative manager who wants to redesign the organisation and business landscape. Digital technologies are treated in this course within the context of the social sciences, offering students a management and organisational perspective on the role of digital technologies in business enterprises and how they are managed. Overall, the aim of the unit is to equip students with sufficient knowledge and conceptual tools to understand and analyse organisational issues related to the usage and management of digital technologies within the business context. Emphasis is given to the innovative potentials of digital technologies and the impacts of these on business enterprises. A particular features of this course is the incorporation of masterclasses with speakers from Google, Salesforce, IBM, GlassWall and Cisco who will discuss and illustrate the importance of a variety of digital technologies in the digital enterprise.

The course guide is attached. Please read this carefully - it contains vital information necessary for the completion of this course. 

MN1915 Management First

Year 1 of your undergraduate studies reading Management at Royal Holloway ‘provides a foundation for advanced and independent study through establishing a common platform of essential knowledge and skills’ (current School of Business and Management programme specification). A structured approach to reading Management at Royal Holloway is a key aim of MN1915 in order to support students in making the transition from school to university. This recognizes the diverse backgrounds of Royal Holloway’s largest module reading Business and Management as part of their degree title. MN1915 Management First highlights that enhancing employability prospects is a portfolio of skills each student develops over the duration of an undergraduate degree; likewise, there are key academic skills each student must develop in Year 1 in order to succeed in subsequent years of the degree programme.

By the end of MN1915 students should be able to:

1. Identify and demonstrate academic skills that are both transferable and of value to employers;
2. Explain and discuss how employability skills are developed over the duration of several years of undergraduate study;
3. Demonstrate individual preparation of employability skills at the first stage of undergraduate study (including experiences beyond the classroom);
4. Describe and discuss contemporary issues in management; and
5. Reflect on what it means to be a more effective learner.

MN1915 is organized into four subject areas of content: 

• Business and Management with the Financial Times; 

• Careers and Employability Skills; 

• Learning Resources and the Library; and

• The Enhancement of Academic Skills. 

Dr Derrick Chong 
Office: McCrea 2-63
Email: d.chong@rhul.ac.uk
Advice and Feedback Hours in McCrea 2-63: Monday 13.30-14.30 and Tuesday 13.30-14.30 (no appointment is required); for other days/times email d.chong@rhul.ac.uk to arrange your appointment