Introduction
The SSE MBA is delivered in executive format, with studies conducted on a part-time basis over two full years. The program comprises sixteen five-day course weeks (Monday morning – Friday afternoon), approximately every fifth week during the academic year, adding up to a total of 80 contact days. One field trip to SSE campuses in Riga or Russia is conducted during the program, and one additional international field trip may be conducted during the program.
Navigate between the modules using the model. 
Preparations
Before commencing the program you are provided with preparatory readings and exercises in order to be prepared for your MBA experience.
Foundations (week 1)
The first module is geared at creating an effective learning environment. This week of intensive learning puts every participant in a position of making the most of the MBA program. You meet your fellow participants and you begin to discover how you can work and learn as a team. You are introduced to group dynamics, learning styles and study techniques. During this foundation week you are also introduced to different approaches to knowledge creation, critical analysis and other tools that help you develop your interpretative skills.
The Business Context: Markets, Relationships and Law (week 2–4)
Organizations are not islands. They operate in an environment permeated by norms and ideals of what it means to be an organization in a global society. They are amidst laws, rules, regulations, standards, norms, cultures, traditions and ideologies. To develop an organization, managers need to understand, interpret and handle not only relationships with customers, suppliers, employees and competitors but also local influencers of public opinion, governmental regulators, NGOs, and media. We discuss the role of corporations in a global society, explore economic theories, models, fundamental correlations and relationships as well as the legal context that comprise the rules under which organizations operate.
Course work includes:
- Corporations in Global Society
- Economics
- Business Law
Getting the Numbers Right: Financial and Management Accounting (week 5–8)
Business is a numbers game, and this module allows participants to adopt a qualified management perspective regarding financial and managerial performance. Delegates learn to distinguish what factors are of most importance when a company’s financial performance and managerial performance is evaluated. Through a deeper understanding of financial and management accounting students will be able to raise critical questions and provide feedback regarding subjects such as the company’s profitability level, the company’s ability to grow with a stable financial position, if the management performance system gives the intended signals to the staff and whether the managerial control system produces the intended consequences in the organization. Participants will develop a broad understanding of financial reporting and how to use financial reports when a company’s performance in terms of profitability, financial position, and liquidity is to be analyzed. Students will also learn how to utilize accounting methods and techniques to improve managerial decision making. The overall focus is to create qualified users rather than producers of financial information.
Course work includes:
- Financial Accounting and Analysis
- Fundamentals of Finance
- Management Accounting
Getting the Right People to Do the Right Thing: Management and Organization (week 9–10)
There is more than one way to understand an organization, and there is no one best way of managing. In this module, you will gain multiple understandings of how to analyze and manage organizations. Basic tenets of management are explored beginning with a review of management theory followed by selected aspects of management being more closely explored. We go into the limits of rational decision making, explore issues of sustainability and discuss contemporary corporate governance and its pitfalls. Aspects of power, politics and corporate culture are explored, and you will improve your ability to identify, analyze and deal with organizational and managerial problems.
Course work includes:
- Organizational Theory and Management
- Decision Making and the Limits of Rationality
- Sustainability Management and Business Ethics
- Corporate Governance
Doing the Right Things Right: Value Creation (week 11–13)
The ultimate reason for engaging in organized activities is to produce stakeholder value. In this module we take a multi-disciplinary approach where we focus on three pillars to a firm’s value creation: strategy, marketing and operations. The strategy pillar addresses the overall choice of what a business should be concerned with; the marketing pillar addresses the relationship to customers and the market; and operations, finally, addresses how resources are transformed in an effective way. Each of these three pillars contributes to the business development of the company and the focus of these weeks is to equip the participants with the tools and methods for driving their business forward. The overarching question addressed in the module is how organizations are to align their internal resources with the demands from the external environment.
Course work includes:
- Strategy
- Marketing
- Operations
Business Renewal and Innovation Management (week 14–15)
Organizations who do not renew or reinvent themselves are bound to disappear. This module focuses on how to create innovation and foster growth. Innovation is treated in its broader sense, referring both to innovation in products and/or services as well as to innovation in business processes. Innovation is the main tool of the entrepreneur in creating new businesses. However, innovation and entrepreneurship are not restricted to the creation of new, start-up companies. Innovation is equally important for the large, established firm. You will focus on innovation management, change management and the role of information technology in driving business renewal. You will be exposed to some common themes and challenges in managing information technology to create business renewal and learn how to organize for and lead innovation processes.
Course work includes:
- Organizing for Entrepreneurship
- Information Technology and Business Process Renewal
- Managing Innovation Processes
Making it Happen: Leadership (week 16)
This final week provides you with a fundamental understanding of the communicative parts of leadership. A number of important leadership tools are examined. One such tool is that of networks – an important aspect of gathering information and accomplishing work. Another is storytelling – a means of knowledge development as well as learning and a means in which to produce and reproduce an organizational culture. A third is the leader’s foremost tool – rhetoric – and here we look into how language can be used to shape leadership and promote change.
Course work includes:
- Using Social Networks
- Storytelling
- Rhetoric
