Master of Science in Business Administration

TRAINING OBJECTIVES:
The aim of the "Project Management" course, in line with the aim of the master's degree course to which it refers, is to transfer specific professional skills in the field of project management. This is in order to prepare them to be part of projects, even large ones, or to lead smaller projects.

To this end, the course intends to achieve the following objectives:
- Acquire knowledge and ability to use the main planning and control tools for projects;
- Acquire the skills to operate effectively in project contexts;
- Acquire knowledge and governance skills of the main project management processes;
- Acquire the soft skills necessary to cover the role of project management;

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
- Define the purpose and scope of a project
- Knowing how to identify the hypotheses and risks associated with a project
- Knowing how to identify and manage stakeholders
- Project planning tools (WBS, OBS, Gantt, PERT, CPM, etc.)
- Project management tools (procurement, quality, communication, change management, etc.)
- Project control tools (earned value, and its applications)

APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Production of a project charter
- Identification of critical activities, with fast-tracking and crashing methods
- Identification and quantification of project risks and their management
- Take on the role of project controller
- Cover the role of project manager

MAKING JUDGEMENTS:
- Understand the opportunity to start a project
- Understand the level of criticality / risk of a project
- Evaluate whether to intervene to correct an ongoing project

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
- Knowing how to discuss with top management the advisability of starting a project
- Knowing how to present and discuss a project plan to stakeholders
- Knowing how to report on the progress of the project

LEARNING SKILLS:
- Learn from the experience of projects you have collaborated on
- Develop critical skills in understanding risks and opportunities
- Knowing how to share their project experiences with colleagues

Students are required to have good knowledge of fundamentals of marketing.
Students that do not have such skills have to study in advance the following compulsory readings:
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management. 15e. New Jersey (some chapters) or analogous manuals

A)COURSE DESCRIPTION: Today more than ever we witnessing a series of huge challenges, pandemics, wars, digitalization, iper competition are just some examples of what today impact on our lives, consumer behaviour, consumer needs and on the other side on company strategies. Thus, today organizing a proper and effective sales management process is essential for all the firms. This Course will outline the importance of selling and sales management today. This management process will be explained and documented from the theoretical and practical viewpoints.

The Course will cover following aspects:

PART 1 - Sales perspective: The role of selling, The marketing concept, Sales and marketing planning

PART 2 - Sales environment: Consumer and organisational buyer behaviour, Sales contexts and customer management

PART 3 - Sales practice: Sales responsibilities and preparation, Personal selling skills, Key account management, Relationship selling, Multi-channel selling

PART 4 - Sales management: Sales management and technology, Recruitment and selection, Motivation and training, Structuring the sales force and rewards, Sales forecasting and budgeting, Sales force evaluation.

B) TEACHING METHODS The class will be taught using a mixed approach: traditional lectures, Project Work (Italian Society of Marketing), discussion of case studies, mid-term assignments, guest speakers’ lectures.

C) FINAL PROJECT WORK: (Dec. 7th and 9th 11-13am) Groups of attending students (3 participants) will be formed during the Course. Each group will work on a project to be presented (public presentation) at the end of the Course.

D) TEXTBOOK: Selling and Sales Management, 11th Edition, David Jobber, Geoffrey Lancaster & Kenneth Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, 2019, Pearson.

E) OTHER LEARNING SOURCES: Slides, cases and other materials will be provided and uploaded (teacher’s website) during the Course.

F) ATTENDANCE: Class participation and attendance are very important and highly recommended. Attendances of the students will be registered lesson by lesson.

G) EXAM: Project work (mandatory) (Oral) & written exam (4 open ended questions, 1 question per module).

FINAL MARK: The exam (pw+we) is evaluated X out of 30 (25% project work, 75% written exam).

Project work: The 2020-2021 project work will be based on the “Italian Society of Marketing Award” and will be presented during the course

TEXTBOOK: Selling and Sales Management, 11th Edition, David Jobber, Geoffrey Lancaster & Kenneth Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, 2019, Pearson.

Selling and Sales Management, 11th Edition, David Jobber, Geoffrey Lancaster & Kenneth Le Meunier-Fitzhugh, 2019, Pearson.

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2015). Marketing management. 15e. New Jersey (some chapters) or analogous manuals

The class will be taught using a general session, combination of case studies, discussions and guest speakers’ lectures. The Course will include a group work (max 3 participants each).

Project work & written exam (5 open ended questions, 1 question per module). The exam (pw+we) is evaluated X out of 30 (25% project work, 75% written exam).
No oral exam is scheduled.