Course overview
Despite the current economic, political, and environmental challenges facing the globe – and the resultant volatility that they create – the opportunity to generate significant business value still exists in abundance. Over the course of this programme, students will gain exposure to South African businesses that have leveraged opportunity despite operating in a climate of uncertainty, ambiguity, and constant change. From small businesses and start-ups to established corporate giants and multinational enterprises, our GIC cohort will engage with business leaders who have applied innovative approaches to complex situations. In addition to these engagements, students will develop creative solutions to perplexing real-world challenges.
Academic year
2024/25
Duration and dates
2 weeks from Saturday 28 June to Friday, 11 July 2025
Teaching format
Face-to-face on campus in Cape Town, South Africa
Coordinators
Adwoa de Beer (Faculty) | Samantha Walbrugh-Parsadh (International Affairs)
Biography
Adwoa de Beer is a Strategy and Marketing lecturer at Stellenbosch Business School. After nearly a decade in various brand and customer experience management positions, she joined the business school full-time in 2023. Her experience spans industries such as executive education, intergovernmental organizations, and insights analytics. She thrives on research and classroom engagement, encouraging MBA and postgraduate students to think critically and creatively when addressing strategic challenges.
Samantha Walbrugh-Parsadh is Head of International Affairs at Stellenbosch Business School. She joined Stellenbosch Business School in 2014, and her responsibility spans development and execution of internationalisation policy and strategy. Her leadership and integration of internationalisation activities include initiating, developing, and implementing the internationalisation of Stellenbosch Business School’s core activities of research, teaching and learning, and social impact. Prior to joining Stellenbosch Business School, she was Assistant Director in the International Office at Stellenbosch University main campus for 10 years, managing various internationalisation programmes and new initiatives. Her experience spans from working within the Marketing and Communication Division; the Office of the Rector and Vice-Chancellor; as well as the Institutional Advancement Division at Stellenbosch University.
Learning outcomes
On completion of this course a student should be able to:
- Understand the nuances informing business in an emerging market, South African context
- Interrogate the interrelatedness between navigating complexity and successful business practices
- Demonstrate an ability to integrate theory from multiple business disciplines to form a coherent strategic view of business cases
- Use a variety of strategic management and marketing tools to analyse the internal and external environments of firms
- Identify the key challenges to achieving impactful innovation within a business growth context
- Develop innovative solutions to key strategic business challenges
Course content
The programme delivery will include a range of learning interventions, designed to maximise the student learning experience. From interactive lectures and company visits to a real-world consulting project, students will leave this two-week programme having been immersed in the South African business ecosystem. The detailed schedule will provide students with an in-depth view of the programme.
Course value
6 ECTS
Required background
Students must have completed one semester of coursework at the Master's level in one of the participating business schools.
Technical Requirements for Team Assignment
Students must adhere to the following requirements for their team assignments: PowerPoint (or similar) format for presentation PDF format for submission; 15 – 20 slides in length maximum (upper limit with be strictly enforced); In-text references – can be at the bottom of each slide (APA-Style referencing); Cover page with student names, surnames and student numbers; Robust reference list (APA-Style referencing); Any professional, easy-to-read font will be accepted (eg. Arial, Calibri).
Required background
Students must have completed one semester of coursework at the Master’s level in one of the participating business schools.
Assessment
In this module, all students will be assessed via one team assignment in the form of a consultation project. Stellenbosch Business School students will have one additional submission in the form of an individual reflective essay.
For this project, each team will address a brief based on a real-world challenge that a South African organisation is currently facing. The brief will be provided in the class materials folder.
To develop a solution to the business challenge at hand, it is important to apply strategic, critical, analytical, systemic and creative thinking. Students must ensure that they understand the business processes, required transformation, change management and innovation that will be required to sufficiently address the challenge. In order to do this successfully, they will make use of strategic frameworks and models, such that they may develop holistic and informed solutions. Additionally, it is important that they use facts to validate their perspectives. A recommended assignment structure follows below:
Introduction and Background
This section should clearly, and succinctly, introduce the business problem (aligned with the brief), provide a summary of the key players and identify the key objectives of the consultation. It should be clear, upon reading this section, what students are aiming to achieve.
Contextual Analysis
This speaks to the usage of relevant frameworks and models to analyse the organisation’s current context. Students must please make use of the following tools to build a robust contextual understanding (at least eight of these must be utilised):
UN SDGs
PESTLE
Sustainable Value Framework
Porter’s 5 forces
Industry driving forces
Strategic Group Maps
Complimentary Analysis
Customer empathy map
Customer Segmentation
Industry key success factors
Internal value chain analysis
Risk Analysis
Osterwalder Business Model Canvas
Integrated SWOT
Recommended Plan of Action
Finally, students must put together a strategic solution that is informed by the contextual analysis that was conducted. They must endeavour to provide robust, well-thought-through and properly substantiated recommendations that demonstrate a good understanding of the organisation’s current context, whilst being aligned with their future-orientated goals. They must ensure that this section is aligned with the objectives outlined in the brief.
The culmination of this project will be a presentation on the last day of the programme, whereby students will showcase their work to the respective company’s representatives (via a PowerPoint presentation or similar). They will also need to submit their final presentation document via email (converted to PDF format).
Bibliography
- Cerruti, C., Tavoletti, E., and Grieco, C. 2019. Management consulting: a review of fifty years of scholarly research. Management Research Review, 42(8).
- Kipping, M. & Clark, T. 2012. Researching Management Consulting: An Introduction; The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford Publishing.
- Kumar, V., and Srivastava, R. 2020. New perspectives on business model innovations in emerging markets. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 48, 815–825. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-019-00713-2
- Lopes da Costa, R.; Martinho, F., Miguel, I, and Barreiros, L. 2013. The “Fashionable Knowledge” of Management Consulting. Journal of Management and Sustainability, 3(3).
Extra cost
To be confirmed.
Miscellaneous information
Groups will be formed prior to arrival.
About the School
University of Stellenbosch Business School is the leading business school in Africa and specialises in personalised and transformative student experiences, having an in-depth understanding of the forces that shape the future.
Being geared towards positive change and social impact, University of Stellenbosch Business School recognizes the need to leverage students’ leadership skills to develop responsible leaders and drive prosperity in uncertain times, as well as create new knowledge that contributes to better business in better societies all over the world.
