Introduction to the
Management
Development Program

You are about to embark on the
Management Development Program, which forms a major part of your degree.
This program is very in-depth, with an enormous amount of highly useful
information for any manager. It also highly practical, and will
substantially improve your organisation's effectiveness and your
employment/promotional prosects if you complete its practical activities
diligently.

As the program is so in-depth, many
students will have questions they would like answered before beginning
with the program. In order to answer these, we are including a list of
Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q.'s) and their answers.

F.A.Q.'s (Frequently Asked Questions) -
and their answers

Wow!! There's sooo... much in
this CD. How will I ever get through it all?

The
idea is to give you an electronic library of resources which you can
utilise as much or as little as you'd like. (Well, as little as would be
appropriate given the degree you're studying.)

If you go into a
well-stocked library or bookstore, you don't expect to read every book.
But the more good books that are available, the more options you have.
This Management Development Program is a complete library on management.
It probably contains more useful information on the topic than if you
bought all the management books from the best bookstore in town. (There
are over 50,000 files on the CD.) And everything is linked together so
that you can learn more about related topics as you study - and go as
deep as you'd like.

The modules contain a list of essential
readings as well as recommended optional readings. Additional links are
given from these - which you can choose whether to read or
not.

There are a lot of broken links.
Why? And what do I do when a link is
broken?

Please click
here to read the answer
(as contained in the
"Navigating through this CD" file stored in The "Extras" folder.)

The
activities we are asked to do look quite difficult - particularly if you
aren't running your own organisation.

a/ Do they need to be so
difficult?

The program is designed to be as
practical as possible - and to give students real world experience at
being leaders and senior managers. This means that we have given you
activities that reflect real life activities and decisions that managers
are required to make. Managers who earn high salaries do so because they
are doing difficult jobs. And we want to train you to be able to earn a
high salary (or an even higher salary than you are now on), so we'd
prefer to give you harder questions now and know you'll earn a great
salary, - rather than giving you easy questions and only preparing you
for a mediocre job (and a mediocre salary and level of contribution and
job fulfillment etc.)

b/ Do we earn extra bonuses to make up
for the difficulty?

The good news is that we do give you
bonuses to make up for the difficulty.

As mentioned in the
introduction:

To reward you for the extra work
(and thinking) that is required, you may add 50 "pages" per module to
your readings. If you are studying half a module then you will be
awarded a bonus or allowance of 25 "pages".

"In addition, the
person marking your summary may give you a further bonus if they feel
that the quality of your work in these modules is particularly
high.

"The modules on "Developing Your Strategic Plan" and
"Developing and Marketing Your Programs" are awarded triple bonuses (or
allowances) - i.e. you may add 150 "pages" of bonuses for each of these
two modules. And markers are particularly likely to give you additional
bonuses for these modules - if your practical work is particularly
good."

Please click
here to read the full explanation regarding these bonuses (as contained in the additional instructions).

c/ How well do you expect me to do the
activities?

This is up to you. We don't want you to set such
a high expectation of yourself that you end up feeling scared to
complete the activities, or overwhelmed at what you need to do. At the
same time we do want you to gain as much as you can from doing the
activities - and the more you put into doing them, the greater the
benefit will be.

Lets look at the module on Strategic Planning as
an example. You could spend half an hour doing a strategic plan for a
business. Yet you could also spend 10,000 hours doing a strategic plan
for the same business. (Many large corporations do spend thousands of
hours and millions of dollars doing their strategic plans. Yet often the
biggest impact on a company's strategies are the few hours the Managing
Director spends thinking about the company's strategy.)

A
person who thinks strategically could walk into an organisation he
knows very little about, and in half an hour he could make some
strategic suggestions that could be helpful - though there would also be
some options he might suggest which would actually have negative
consequences if followed blindly, without establishing if these really
were the best options.

If the person were then taken on board as
a consultant with the brief to do a strategic plan for the organisation,
then he would spend hundreds of hours developing his initial analysis,
looking at other options, checking if his assumptions were correct, and
testing the potential results of differing strategies.

So in
your assignments you could spend just half an hour developing each
type of strategic plan. The plan may not be developed sufficiently to
rely on it as being the best plan to follow - but it would have some
worthwhile suggestions and options that an organisation could
use.

If you wanted to produce a better plan (and to get a better
grade), you would spend more time, you'd ask more questions, and you'd
give more thought to alternative options and their
consequences.

When you are asked for the first time to produce
a strategic plan you could well feel overwhelmed. However if you take it
step by step, developing a strategic plan needn't be too
difficult:

You might start off doing a SWOT analysis: -
asking yourself what are the Strengths and Weaknesses of
the organisation you are looking at, and what Opportunities and
Threats do they (or might they) face. Based on this you could
then give a recommendation on what would you believe would be the best
course of action the organisation could take (what seems to be the best
things the organisation could do).

Am I able to
complete the practical activities if I don't run my own
organisation?

If you run your own organisation or
if you are thinking of setting up your own organisation you will
find the activities invaluable. (One of our first students commented
that doing these activities was worth at least one hundred times the
cost of studying with World University - because of the benefits (and
profit) that accrued from doing them.).

If you are thinking
of setting up an organisation you can answer all your questions about
this potential organisation. The ideal would be that you actually set up
the organisation while studying. If you do this, you will find that
everything you learn and all of your homework will help make your
organisation grow and prosper. If this is impossible (i.e. if you can't
set start the organisation just yet) then you can talk about your future
plans and assumptions instead of applying the teachings to an existing
organisation.

If you are a senior manager for an
organisation you will also find the activities tremendously helpful.
Some of the questions asked and activities given may well fall beyond
your normal responsibilities. This is a great opportunity to learn more
about your organisation; and gives you a reason to talk with senior
managers about their roles and what they think. It also puts you in a
good position for promotions because you will know a lot more about the
organisation than most other people working for your
organisation.

If you are a junior member of staff
this program gives you an ideal way to get known - and recognised for
your management skills, approach and outlook.

If you don't work for any
organisation then find an organisation you'd like to work for and
suggest that many consultants charge $100/hour, but that you would be
happy to work for free in order to be able to complete your practical
assignments. Most organisations should be very happy to get someone
providing free consulting - particularly if they are dedicated and keen
to make a positive difference to the organisation.

This is a
wonderful way to get known to an organisation - so that later when they
are looking for a manager, they will think of you. In fact, by the time
you have finished the management development module you will be in an
ideal situation of having very valuable insights into the organisation
that probably no other manager has. You will have worked with the
organisation in developing a strategic plan, a marketing plan, looked at
how to develop and recruit good directors and staff, and many other
areas. This should greatly help your chance of getting a job with
them.

(To allay any fears
the company may have, you might offer to sign a confidentiality
agreement which asserts that you will keep confidential all confidential
information provided to you.)

The final option is to find a friend and
"consult" to him (or her). Even if the friend's organisation is a
small one (like a small shop), it is permissible to modify the questions
to be appropriate to the size of the organisation. e.g. If the
question relates to a C.E.O. (Chief Executive Officer), and you are
working with a friend who has a couple of people he employs at his shop
- then he is the C.E.O. If you are asked to look at a Board of Directors
then you can ask who he asks for advice - and can mention that he has no
Board of Directors, but that for the sake of the questions you will
consider his father, his friend who also runs a shop, and you as his
board.

Some of the
questions assume that I'm in a more influential position than I am, or
that my organisation is in a different phase of operation than it
actually is. e.g. In the "Starting and Understanding Your
Organisation" module it asks me to recruit board members, draft a
set of Articles of Incorporation, hold a board meeting (if applicable),
and to file any necessary documents of incorporation. What should I do
for these type of activities?

The actual question you asked
about is optional. However you are encouraged to answer these questions
even if you aren't setting up an organisation.

This program has
been designed so that it is more than merely a theoretical program. As
well as being a management development program it is designed to help
you to build and develop an organization. As such, the activities given
are very practical and hands-on. To make it as valuable as possible it
assumes that you are in a position to make important decisions relating
to your organisation. If this is not the case, or if the organisation is
in a different phase of operation than the question assumes, then simply
do the activity to the best of your ability, to the degree to which
your organisation is prepared to let you. And do the activity or a
variation on the activity in the most appropriate way possible. If its
inappropriate to do the activity than simply mention this. However, if
there's a compromise, than do the compromise.

e.g. Lets
assume you are a low level employee in a well established government
department, and you are asked to complete the activity mentioned above.
Clearly it would be inappropriate for you to recruit board members, hold
a board meeting, and to file documents of incorporation.

In this
circumstance you should first mention the situation: e.g. "I am a
junior member of staff working as a .... for the ... department of the
government, which has been established for ... years." If relevant
you may also mention a little of the history of how the organisation was
started and how it developed: - e.g. "This department originally
started as the ... department and later changed its responsibilities to
include ..."

Then you'd mention how the actual context of
your organisation (or the organisation you are looking at) and what is
appropriate, compares to what is asked in the question. - e.g.
"Therefore it wouldn't be relevant to begin a new organisation,
recruit board members ... etc." And you would then look at the
possibility of making a type of compromise in the activity that you are
asked to do. - e.g. You could mention what you might do if you were to
start the organisation yourself. - e.g. "If I were in the position of
starting this department myself I would look at finding people who had
the following experience, attitudes, talents and contacts... I would try
to find them by ...". Then you might choose to either enclose the
actual articles of incorporation, or the equivalent of these articles
(e.g. the relevant government Act; or you might make a rough draft of
your own articles of incorporation utilising the sample articles
provided in the module. You'd then mention what would need to be filed
if you were setting up the organisation yourself.

In
summary: Don't be scared about changing the questions to whatever
you feel is most appropriate in the given circumstances.

Look for
the best way to:

a/ Gain as much from the activity as possible.

e.g. 1/ If you might start up your own organisation in the
future, then look at this possible future organisation - even if you've
previously been looking at the organisation you currently work for.
(Just make sure you make this clear to whoever is reading your
homework.)
e.g. 2/ If you want to get a promotion in your current
department, then you might consider either new options for your current
employer, or you might focus on understanding the existing situation
further.

b/ Show your understanding of the topic you are
learning about

c/ Apply the learnings as much as possible.

e.g. "We already have an articles of incorporation. However,
I have drafted a (rough) new one covering the areas I feel would be
important if I were starting an organisation."

d/ Learn as
much as you can
e.g. Interview people - particularly senior
people in the field / research the topic further / learn from other
organisations etc.

Why are some words spelt in
International English (e.g. "organisation") and others spelt using
U.S. English spelling. (e.g. "organization")?

The World
University of Leadership endeavour to always spell using International
English conventions. However, when they supply materials originally
written by or provided by an American person or institution then the
materials are provided in their original (American)
format.

Further questions will be added as they arise - and
will appear at www.update.worlduni.com as well as on future editions of this CD.

Please also look at these instructions
- with very important information about these modules.

If you haven't already done so then please
also read "Navigating though this CD" which has some very helpful hints
which are particularly important when using this CD - due to the huge
number of files in it.
(The full Management Development Program has over 50,000 files - though
you don't need to read them all.)

The "Extras" folder |
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Leadership (on the web) | The
latest information for World University students (requires internet
connection), Copyright Notice © 2003 -
World University of Leadership. All rights reserved. Last updated
1/4/2002