Professional Development

The Cardiff LBA (Leadership and Business Administration)

Our Cardiff LBA (Leadership and Business Administration) course is designed to be a mini, work-based taster of the Executive MBA programme. It will help you gain essential business knowledge and enhance your professional performance to enable you to realise your career potential.

This course is also available as a bespoke programme, which we can tailor to your specific requirements. If you’d like to discuss this, please contact us.

This exciting programme will provide you with the knowledge and confidence needed to take a leading role within your organisation. It will help you to develop your strategic knowledge and give you the insight needed to influence and effect real change.

The Cardiff LBA is designed to fit around your work and home commitments as it is delivered in one-day sessions across 12 months. You'll be able to take ideas back to your organisation and apply them straight away.

Lecturers include Dr Sarah Hurlow, David Jones, Professor Maneesh Kumar, Stephen Thomas, Richard Strudwick, Professor Aoife McDermott and Rachel Williams, Dr Richard Baylis, and Professor Rob Morgan.

Who it’s for

This programme has been designed to meet the needs of experienced middle managers looking for ways to develop their understanding and knowledge of business to further their career.

It is suitable for those who wish to learn in short sessions, held once a month over a year - and who do not require accreditation or assessment.

What you’ll learn

The Cardiff LBA is in effect, a mini MBA, providing you with essential business knowledge and the confidence needed to take a leading role in your organisation - but without the headache of assessments and assignments.

All sessions will provide multiple opportunities for you to appreciate how business concepts relate to and/or affect your work.

Many examples will be provided from a range of different sectors in order to illustrate key learning points. After each session, you will be able to practically apply your learning straight away.

Active participation in the programme is required from participants and the completion of project work is essential.

Topics covered

Digital leadership

• Navigating a path for both public sector and private sector organisations from the analogue to digital world
• Examining the practical steps which leaders can make to being the process of change in their organisations
• Agile and the MVP
• Working with technology suppliers
• Digital leadership and boards
• The importance of cyber security.

Operations management

• Appreciation of key operations management techniques
• Utilisation of visualisation techniques as an aid to problem solving
• Continuous Improvement Tools application and how to embed
• Understanding the challenges inherent in the management of operations.

High performing teams

• Adaptive and distributed leadership
• Psychological safety
• Collaborative problem solving
• Developing a healthy team culture.

HR and performance management

• Develop knowledge and understanding of key Human Resources techniques and practices
• Exploration of the key issues that arise in Human Resource Management (HRM)
• Evaluate and assess the efficacy of different HRM activities from different organisational perspectives
• Appreciation of the impact of personnel policy in terms of business performance, compliance with employment law and adherence to accepted standards of ethical practice.

Finance for non-financial managers

• How to interpret accounts, profit and loss statements, balance sheets and financial ratios
• Control of working capital, stock, creditors, debtors and cash
• Budget forecasting and control
• Cost accounting and control.

Digital Strategy

• Situational analysis
• Strategy
• Objectives
• Tactics
• Action and control.

Strategic management

• Awareness and application of basic strategic management concepts and analytical tools
• Recognition, appraisal and assessment of strategic processes within organisations
• Diagnosing strategic problems and evaluating strategic choices
• Demonstration of an awareness of ethics and the role and rights of various stakeholders in order to manage stakeholder demands.

Leadership and professional development

• Different approaches to leadership
• Understanding leaders as individuals vs leadership as a process
• Identification of personality type and work preferences – development of action plans to improve personal effectiveness
• Identification of the organisational factors necessary to foster a distributed or collaborative form of leadership.

Benefits

• Cardiff Business School is 6th in the UK for research excellence - the Cardiff LBA gives you the opportunity to meet and work with our excellent academic faculty, on a range of different topics, and in an enjoyable and thought-provoking way.
• Teaching will be wholly applicable to the workplace, so that, following a session, you will be able to begin practically applying your learning straight away.
• Conversations within the programme are connected to real-world problems that participants are currently facing within the workplace, and those that you will likely face in the future.
• Teaching examples are provided from a range of different sectors, in order to illustrate key learning points.
• A Certificate of Attendance for Executive Education at Cardiff Business School will be awarded subject to the completion of all of the education elements of the programme.
• This is a very flexible programme, designed to fit in around existing work and home commitments. Choose to attend all sessions or just the ones that most interest you.
• Whether you've already got the learning bug, or it's been a while since you've been to University (or even if you've never studied before) you'll find that working with Cardiff Business School will ignite a passion for new ideas and new thinking.