AFM4101: Strategic Business Advice
Aims
This module focuses on building the ability of students to generate and articulate appropriate, justified advice in the context of strategic business decision-making. Students will be expected to make and justify key recommendations for given organisations. These recommendations will include financial analysis, such as business valuation, investment appraisal and business performance analysis. The course will also require strategic analysis, with students having to analyse and make recommendations relating to corporate strategy. The aim of this module is to encourage students to not only provide sensible advice to businesses, but to consider their proposals from the perspective of both management and investors.
Outline of syllabus
- Relevant aspects of investment appraisal
- Relevant aspects of business valuation theories
- Business financing theory
- Relevant aspects of financial statement analysis
- Relevant aspects of strategic analysis
Students will make use of technical content from previous years to help create an overall strategic recommendation for a given organisation.
Teaching methods
Teaching activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length (HH:MM) | Student Hours (HH:MM) | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 13 | 02:00 | 26:00 | 6 lectures per semester |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 6 | 01:00 | 06:00 | |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Module talk | 1 | 01:00 | 01:00 | 1 module talk in Semester 1 for whole cohort |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent Study | 165 | 01:00 | 165:00 | Question practice, skills practice |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Drop in/surgery | 2 | 01:00 | 02:00 | |
| Total Hours | 200 | ||||
Teaching rationale and relationship to Learning Outcomes
Lecture materials are used to explain the issues, and to introduce theory, concepts and techniques. Students will have the opportunity to develop their understanding and judge their progress.
Small group teaching is used to share understanding and practice at key phases of the course. These will primarily be used to undertake regular work with students to help them practice application of the core theoretical models to case-study style application.
Assessment methods
Exams
| Type | Length (mins) | Semester | When set | Percentage | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Final Examination | 180 | 2 | 100% | Final examination, based around a pre-seen case study of information common to BAF4003 |
Formative assessments
| Type | Semester | When set | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mock Examination 1 | 1 | M | 1.5 hour case based on first semester material only |
| Mock Examination 2 | 2 | M | 3 hour mock case based on whole semester |
Assessment rationale and relationship
The module is assessed by a written exam in semester 2 which is designed to test students’ skills of discussion, analysis, evaluation and professional judgement. The exam will be based on a pre-seen element that students can spend time analysing (released around 2 weeks before the actual exam), with further unseen impact information being released as part of the final exam. This provides an important bridge between students’ previous studies and their future educational needs, as well as developing their critical thinking and ability to make sensible recommendations in a business context. This is also consistent with the learning outcomes for the module which are concerned with applying relevant knowledge to an organisation based on its circumstances.