Undergraduate

Managing 2: marketing and finance

On this page

• What you will study
• Entry
• If you have a disability or additional requirement
• Study materials
• Teaching and assessment
• Students also studied
• Future availability

This practical course is the second of three leading to the Professional Certificate in Management. It responds to the practical needs of aspiring and first line managers, team leaders and supervisors, many of whom may not be directly involved in marketing or finance. It uses activities and problem-solving to investigate topics such as the external environment; consumer relationships; market research; product/service analysis; price, promotion and delivery; quality; consumer expectations and satisfaction; financial planning and monitoring through budgets; cashflow; profit and loss. You will focus on scenarios, case studies and your own role, whether in the commercial, public or voluntary sector.

Course facts

Register for the course

This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees and financial support may vary by country.

What you will study

The course poses such questions as: What is marketing exactly? How is it done in different contexts, including the public sector? What’s internal marketing? Who are your customers and stakeholders? How can you avoid marketing mistakes? Precisely what is your organisation exchanging with consumers and clients? How does your organisation deliver your goods and services and how does it add value? How do you price, promote and deliver your goods or services? How do you keep your consumers and clients happy? Why is finance important? What are budgets for and how can they be used? What are costs and how can you break them down to understand them better? What is cash flow and why is it important? What’s a profit and loss account and is it relevant to non-commercial sectors?

At appropriate points throughout the course, questions of business ethics and sustainability are addressed and you are encouraged to consider these aspects carefully in the course activities you undertake.

Through activities related to your own work and practices and related reading you will critically reflect on and analyse workplace situations and your own ways of managing clients and finance. The course is ‘solution oriented’ to help you to understand work situations from a manager’s perspective, and to work out what to do, given that you are not likely to be in charge of the organisation you work for. As you work through activities, problems and solutions, you will question the idea that there are single solutions to problems or that there is ‘one best way’. You will come to understand the constraints, choices and demands that managers need to take into account when making decisions.

As many first line managers are not directly responsible for marketing or finance, the course includes problem scenarios and cases for you to work on. A single problem scenario runs through the finance content to help you make sense of how the different elements of financial management fit together. The idea is to improve your understanding of finance so that you can improve your managerial decision making, rather than to teach you accountancy. The same is true of marketing: every manager needs to understand who the organisation is serving, and why, in order to manage employees in the organisation more effectively.

 Further information about the certificate to which this course contributes can be found in the Professional Certificate in Management Information and sample study material.

Vocational relevance

The teaching and learning strategy of Managing 2: marketing and finance is problem-based. Through this approach, the course aims to develop the skills an effective manager needs: such as analysis, constructing sound arguments, critical and reflective thinking, problem identification and solving, active listening and communication, sourcing and presenting information, and report writing. Many of these are the same learning skills that any university-level learner requires and will help to equip you for study at postgraduate level.

Residential school

There is no residential school in this course, but to achieve the Professional Certificate in Management (C31), you will need to take the companion course B628, or its online version BZX628, and B690. B690 comprises a preparatory period, a residential school and, after a revision period, a three hour examination.

Entry

The course has been designed for working managers, aspiring managers, team leaders or supervisors. It is possible to study the course if you work in an informal capacity, for example in a voluntary organisation, or if you have had previous work experience. It is not possible to study the course without any work experience. This is because activities that include problem solving assume you have current or prior work situations to which you can apply what you are learning.

Managing 2: marketing and finance is an undergraduate Level 3 course. 

It can also be studied as part of the open access route to stage 1 of the MBA (F61). If you have no  prior higher education experience pre-course preparatory work is provided (see Preparatory work). Further information about studying this module as part of the Professional Certificate in Management (C31) can be found in the Professional Certificate in Management Information and sample module material.

If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.

Preparatory work

If you have not encountered a problem-based approach to learning before, the Module Guide and The Manager’s Good Study Guide are provided and these will be particularly useful at the start of the course. The Module Guide explains the approach and describes the skills required so that you can remedy any gaps in your knowledge. It will also provide an orientation to the course. The Manager’s Good Study Guide enables you to refresh study skills such as reading and note-taking, using logic and building arguments, written communication and report writing, and using numbers.

If you have a disability or additional requirement

Written transcripts of any audio components and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) versions of printed material are available. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available of fully accessible using a screen reader. Alternative formats of the study materials may be available in the future. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.

If you are a new student, or new to study using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our publication Meeting Your Needs.

You can also find information about accessible study materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.

Study materials

What's included

Course books, other printed materials and, via the B629 website, additional resources in digital formats.

You will need

All set books will be provided as part of the study materials pack. However, non-native English speakers, particularly those studying outside the UK, may wish to purchase the following book:

The Oxford Dictionary of Business English for learners of English.

Computing requirements

This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave.

You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new computer since 2005 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual.

Teaching and assessment

Support from your tutor

You will have a tutor who will help you with the study material and study activities. You can ask the tutor for help and advice. The tutor will also mark and comment on your assignments. If you are new to the OU, you will find that your tutor will be particularly concerned to help you with your study methods.

Other tutor support will be delivered primarily online as you study. In addition, day schools or online tutorials will be offered depending on the version of the course for which you register. Day schools and tutorials are not compulsory but you are strongly encouraged to attend.

Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with the OU before you register.

Assessment

The assessment details can be found in the facts box above.

You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.

The eTMAs consist of activities carried out as part of your study of the course. The end-of-module assessment (EMA) is wholly problem-based and will be focused on a workplace situation of your own.

Students also studied

Students who studied this course also studied at some time:

• Managing 1: organisations and people (B628)
• Managing 3: the integration challenge (B690)
• An introduction to business studies (B120)
• Business organisations and their environments (B201)
• Making sense of strategy (B301)

Future availability

The details given here are for the course that starts in May and November 2012. We expect it to be available twice a year.

Fees 2012

See fees and funding options for study from September 2012.

Study explained

Financial support

- find out if you qualify for support with your fees with our eligibility checker.

Study explained

- all you need to know about distance learning with the OU.

A taste of OU study

Your questions

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Or contact an adviser in our Student Registration & Enquiry Service Email or call +44(0) 845 300 60 90+44(0) 845 366 60 35

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