Managing 2: marketing and finance
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| 2 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| End-of-course assessment | No residential school |
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This course is available for study in the countries shown. Fees may vary by country.
Summary
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.
This course is offered with a combination of face-to-face and online tuition. If you would prefer entirely online tuition please use the course code BZX629.
Course content
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 not only understand work situations from a manager’s perspective, but also to help you 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 hang together. The idea is not to teach you accountancy, but rather to improve your understanding of finance so that you can improve your managerial decision making. 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.
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 you will need to take the companion course B628, or its online version BZX628, and the award-based course 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 a Level 3 course. However, for students without prior higher education experience pre-course preparatory work is provided (see Preparatory work).
Further information about the award to which this course contributes can be found in the Professional Certificate in Management Information and sample course material booklet.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Preparatory work
Managing 2: marketing and finance may be studied as part of the open access route to Part 1 of the Masters in Business Administration (MBA). It may also be taken as a Level 3 option by undergraduates. As students may not have encountered the problem-based approach to learning before, the Course Guide and The Manager’s Good Study Guide are provided for use a few weeks before the start of the course. The Course 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.
Qualifications
B629 is a compulsory course in our
B629 is an optional course in our:
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is equally appropriate to a BA or BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
Excluded combinations
Sometimes you will not be able to count a course towards a qualification if you have already taken another course with similar content. To check any excluded combinations relating to this course, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
Printed course material is available as Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files. Some Adobe PDF components may not be available of fully accessible using a screen reader. Large print versions of the course material can be provided on request. Transcripts of audio materials will be provided. Audio-visual materials are optional and their use is not essential to effective study of the course. Other alternative formats of the course 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 courses 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 booklet Meeting Your Needs which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course 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.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials and, via the course website, additional resources in digital formats.
You will need
All set books will be provided as part of the course 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 2002 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 course 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 for this course 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 ECA 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:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in November 2009. We expect it to be available twice a year.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Business and Management.
Study explained
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