Adelaide University Professional Management Program PMP - The Entrée MBA
Thinking of studying a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) but aren’t completely sure you are ready to start several years of study?
Wouldn’t it be great if there was a way to “try out” MBA level study?
Well – if you can get to Adelaide or Darwin – you can, via the Adelaide University Professional Management Program PMP, run by the Executive Education Unit.
The Executive Education Unit’s Professional Management Program is like an entrée MBA, giving you a small bite sized experience of MBA level study across six subjects.
The following dot points from Adelaide University’s EEU summarise the program:
- Completed within 12 months
- Modular 2-day format to suit busy managers
- Open to graduates and non-graduates with relevant experience
- “Action-learning” – adults learn by doing
- Bridge to further study, including the University of Adelaide MBA
- Learn how to take a “helicopter” view
- Expert presenters with real world experience
- Lively classes with diverse participants
- Form lasting business relationships
- Learn how to build and lead cohesive teams
- Develop problem-solving and analysis abilities
- Practical tools with immediate application
- Workplace-based projects to transfer learning
- All-inclusive fee – no more to pay
- Fees include high-quality materials, tuition, refreshments and luncheons
I completed the Executive Education Unit’s PMP program in 2011 as part of the Hyde intake. It was a great experience and confirmed for me that I did want to continue into the MBA program. Which is great because the PMP provides status of two subjects.
In our intake, we covered the following subjects, each comprising of a 2 day intensive:
Leading and Managing People
This subject covers the basics of leading a team and understanding both yourself and the people you interact with. Whilst this may sound a little airy to some, it’s actually a great eye-opener. We used tools such as Belbin’s Team Roles, McPhee-Andrewartha Influence Dimensions and Myers-Briggs personality type to gain a better understanding of ourselves and how we interact with others.
According to the instruments, I’m a Myers-Briggs ENTP, a McPhee-Andrewartha ‘Creator’ and a Belbin ‘Monitor Evaluator and Implementer‘. The instruments should be taken with a pinch of salt, but they do make you reflect on yourself in a positive way.
Financial Management
This subject was an introduction to financial management and accounting concepts. We covered the basics of accrual accounting, depreciation, time-value of money and also financial reporting metrics such as return on equity, days inventory etc. This base level made it a little bit easier to complete the MBA subject ‘Accounting for Managers’. Probably the key take out for me was the time-value of money.
Business Fundamentals
I found this subject the most interesting and applicable of all the subjects. It covered the history and evolution of business performance improvement, process thinking, the cost of quality and the negative effects of complexity has on a business amongst other things. We stepped through (and later applied in our assignments) the DMAIC process for problem solving and things like fishbone diagrams and pareto analysis. It was in this subject that I started to think more like a manager and less like a worker bee.
Negotiation for Success
Negotiation is something we do every day. Having a better understanding of how it works is beneficial at work and at home. Or in the car yard negotiating your next set of wheels!
It’s the most fun out of all the subjects and involves a some role-play. A key take out of this subject is that when negotiating always look for things the opposite party values more, or less highly than you. This involves trying to understand their motives; what do they really want, in the pursuit of a win-win outcome. Too many people think negotiating is about winning or losing and this leaves value on the table.
Business Law for Managers
All managers need a foundation understanding in Law. Ignorance won’t keep you out of jail – it’s not a valid excuse. In our intake we all had a bit of trouble with this subject. It was delivered a bit too fast and tried to cover too much ground.
I believe it has been revised and improved since our intake. Even if it hasn’t, it’s still worth doing.
Strategic Management
Strategic Management covered strategic thinking, applying tools and frameworks, designing strategic plans and then implementing and measuring them. Only after recently completing the MBA subject ‘Marketing for Management’ did I realise that this subject also covers a bits of marketing. Another great subject that helps to open your mind to management thinking.
Communicate to Captivate
The course culminates in a group project and presentation that is reasonably substantial. The communicate to captivate subject helps you understand some core concepts of effective delivery. The concepts are then applied on your final presentation that takes place in front of the whole class and a number of peers. This might seem daunting but at this late stage of the course you know your intake pretty well and it’s not so bad.
Wrap up
So that’s my summary of studying the Adelaide University Professional Management Program (PMP) with the Executive Education Unit. I recommend it as a nice way to start your MBA. You’ll meet a new group of friends (many will go on to do the MBA) and get across a wide range of topics that can be immediately applied in your organisation.
And, for the moment, it’s actually a slightly cheaper way to get two units of the MBA completed….
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment below, I’ll do my best to answer.