Study program
Characteristics of the MBA program
The MBA program Management in agribusiness consists of 7 training modules supplemented with a diploma seminar and – additionally for people interested in expanding their skills – intensive workshops in the formula of an in-depth, several-day case study (Study week) and a study trip abroad. Study week and Study trip are not obligatory for participants.
Module Manager and organization covers the fundamental issues of management, organization of own work (time management), negotiations, corporate governance. Additionally, students in this module will be introduced to the economic foundations of modern business (the so-called managerial economics).
In the process of the economic system’s evolution towards a knowledge-based economy, employees and the level of their involvement are of key importance. Therefore, special emphasis in our program is placed on the “soft” aspects of management. As part of this module, students will be able to gain knowledge and skills
in the field of: leadership, human resource management, employee involvement, periodic appraisal and bonus systems.
Module Operational management , is in turn the so-called hard aspects of management. As part of this module, we offer a condensed package of knowledge and skills in the field of production and quality management as well as logistics and Supply Chain Management, enriched with the use of quantitative methods (statistics and production management, operational research) and an overview of contemporary trends in IT.
Module Marketing offers knowledge of Consumer behavior, international marketing and PR. Particular emphasis was also placed on the practical aspects of marketing and the ability to prepare a marketing plan.
As part of the module Finance management we provide students – in a friendly convention “for non-financiers” – the opportunity to acquire competences in this area (basics of financial analysis, management accounting and controlling, corporate finance and financial markets, business-plan) necessary for the manager’s work.
In the conditions of a complex and changing environment, a modern manager needs the ability to look at the long term and the conditions determined by the environment of the organization. It is a prerequisite for building winning strategies and for sustainable management of the company’s development. The module responds to this need Strategic management . In this module, students will gain knowledge and skills in strategic analysis, strategy formulation and its effective implementation. This module will also allow you to build competences in the areas of organization development and change management, as well as in the “tool” area, i.e. project management.
As an MBA program associated with the Faculty of Economics of the Warsaw University of Life Sciences – which has been a leader in training managerial staff for 66 years
for the food economy in Poland – we feel especially entitled
to offer the “industry” module. The purpose of the module Food Economy is to supplement the managerial competences of our students with knowledge and skills in the field of: agricultural markets, international agribusiness, negotiations with commercial networks, food safety, food quality management systems.
In addition to the above-mentioned 7 education modules, additionally as part of expanding knowledge and skills – Study week (for those interested), we offer intensive workshops in the formula of an in-depth, several-day case study conducted by our long-term collaborator from the USA. In turn Study trip is a several-day study trip (for those interested) to one of the European countries, the task of which is to familiarize the Participants with the agribusiness sector in a given country. As part of field seminars, we will learn about the best practices of leading companies.
Students will also participate in the Essence Diploma Seminar
and the methodology of writing the diploma thesis, which crowns the MBA studies, and which can be prepared under the supervision of the supervisor individually or for two people.
Module 1: Manager and organization
1.1. Management basics
- Division of labor and the problem of coordination
- Decentralized coordination – the invisible hand of the market
- Coordination through hierarchical power – the visible hand of managers
- Hybrid solutions
- Outline of the development of management practice and theory
- Organization as an open socio-technical system
- What do managers do?
- Fayol’s shot – management functions
- Mintzberg’s approach – managerial roles
- Planning
- Strategic planning
- Operational planning
- Organization
- 3 dimensions of the structure of the organization
- Basic types of structures and their advantages and disadvantages
- Outsourcing
- Steering
- Selected theories of motivation
- Management styles
- Groups and group processes
- Controlling
- Why is monitoring important?
- Controlling based on single and double loop
- Operation control forms
- Case studies and workshops
- Division of labor and the problem of coordination
1.2. Organization of own work and time management
- Self-diagnosis of time management – diagnosis of individual obstacles in the effective organization of own work and the use of time
- Time management rules
- Setting goals and planning – how to construct a goal to increase the chances of its implementation (including SMART, Gauss curve, 60/20/20 rule, short and long-term goals)
- Managing priorities – Eisenhower diagram – setting priorities, dividing tasks into urgent, non-urgent, important and unimportant
- Priority management – Pareto principle in effective time management
- Priority management – the ABC principle
- Time thieves – time wasters, work breakers
- Reasons and methods of fighting with postponing tasks
- Delegating tasks
- Tools that help you manage yourself in time
1.3. Business negotiations
- The negotiator’s identity
- Professional identity of the negotiator
- Types of negotiators and negotiation styles
- How to build the desired merchant image
- How to create yourself as an important customer
- How to maintain the image of a professional negotiator
- Interpersonal communication in negotiations
- Model of interpersonal communication in negotiations
- Body language in the communication process
- Standing and sitting formations in negotiations
- Linguistic patterns in persuasive communication
- Active listening in negotiations
- Feedback in communication
- Principles of influencing people according to R. Cialdini
- The rule of reciprocity
- The rule of social proof of equity
- The rule of authority and inaccessibility
- The rule of liking, commitment and consistency
- Basic methods and tools in negotiations
- Types of negotiation. The negotiation process
- Determining your own negotiation area – ZOPA
- Create your own BATNY
- Identification of the negotiating party’s BATNY
- Selection of the negotiating team
- The roles of the members of the negotiating team
- Win-Win Lever
- Opposition and rule-based negotiations
- Conflict management
- Negotiation techniques
- Manipulation techniques
- Forming techniques in negotiations
- Provocative technician in negotiations
- Subliminal techniques
- Working with resistance in negotiations
- Making concessions in negotiations
- Closing negotiations
- The negotiator’s identity
1.4. The company and the market in economy
- Industry supply and aggregate demand
- Shaping the market balance in the case of perfect competition, monopoly and oligopoly.
- The use of comparative statics methodology in economic analysis
- Externalities (externalities)
- The specificity of the agricultural market.
1.5. Corporate Governance
- Key corporate governance issues
- Agency conflict
- Property rights
- Corporate governance beneficiaries
- Corporate governance systems in the world
- Open systems
- Closed systems
- Mixed systems
- Ownership structures of public companies
- Shareholding concentration
- Types of shareholders and their influence on the functioning of companies
- Capital ties between entities
- Mechanisms of exercising control over companies
- External and internal elements of the control system
- Control costs and benefits
- Control leverage mechanisms
- Corporate governance and the functioning of the capital market
- Transparency problem
- Types and forms of public offering of shares
- Financialization
- Key corporate governance issues
Module 2: “Soft” aspects of management
2.1. Leadership
- A review of modern leadership theories, incl. according to Hersey and Blanchard, Blake and Mouton, Mintzberg
- Practical application of situational management
- Types of communication – verbal and non-verbal
- Typology of preferences in action – Hippocrates, Jung, Myers and Briggs, A. Lothian
- B. Tuckman’s syndrome development model
- Selected theories of motivation – Maslow, McGregor, Herzberg
2.2. Human Resources management
- Human resource management – introductory issues
- Recruitment and selection of employees
- Introduction to the organization
- Motivating employees
- Planning of personal development
- Employee training and development
- Conduction
- Trust management
- Leaving the organization
2.3. Motivation and commitment
- Motivation and commitment
- What is commitment really: state, trait or behavior?
- Reasons and effects of employee involvement
- From commitment to business outcomes: the cause-effect relationship model
- Commitment and strategy
- How to conduct an employee engagement survey
- Manager’s practical problem: How to motivate the avant-garde, what to do with black sheep
- How to manage employee engagement – an exemplary employee engagement program
- The role of a manager in building employee engagement
- Maturity in managing commitment
- Differences between committed and disengaged employees from the boss’s point of view. Why is it worth taking care of the involvement of your team.
2.4. Periodic assessments and bonus systems
- Employee evaluation
- Employee appraisal: Objectives of applying employee appraisal; Employee appraisal then and now
- Which is why periodic assessment systems are so rarely used
- Advantages and disadvantages of the evaluation system in my company
- 6 barriers to effective employee evaluation
- Project of implementation of employee appraisal
- Adjustment of employee appraisal to the company’s strategy
- Employee assessment from the manager’s point of view: the most common mistakes
- Benefits of IT systems supporting employee appraisal
- Bonus systems
- Why do we award bonuses; How employees perceive bonus systems
- Rewarding as sharing the success of the organization
- From strategy to bonuses – selection of strategic goals used in the bonus system
- Should the employee appraisal affect bonuses or the amount of remuneration?
- Individual or group bonuses; Differentiation of bonuses for different job groups
- The role of the manager in the process of rewarding employees; Benefits for managers from employee bonuses
- Transparency of the bonus system as an absolute condition for success
- Employee evaluation
Module 3: Operational Management
3.1 Organizational techniques and process improvement
- Managing production processes
- Procedures
- QFD
- 6 Sigma
- TPM, SMED, OEE
- Practical application of quality planning tools:
- Procedure / Flow Chart – mapping processes, building procedures
- BPMN – (Business Process Model and Notation) process modeling graphical notation used to describe business processes,
- FMEA (Failure mode and effects analysis) – analysis of the types and effects of possible errors
- 5 Why – streamlining processes, detecting causes of defects
- Process performance measurement – VSM (Value Stream Mapping), RTY (Rolled Throughput yield), OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness).
- 5S – a tool of continuous improvement, the aim of which is to create a well-organized and orderly workplace
- APQP (Advanced Product Quality Planning) – planning and implementation of new projects
- PPAP (Production Part ApprovalProcess) – the process of approving parts for serial production (automotive industry
- CPM, PERT – process planning in time
- JiT – inventory minimization (case study)
- “Meat grinder” (case study)
3.2. Statistics in production management
- Types of distributions
- Measures of location and dispersion of distributions
- Definitions of process stability and capability
- Process capability indicators
- DPMO, PPM,
- Sigma Level, Cp, Cpk
- Construction of the control card and its interpretation
- Process stability tests using the control chart.
- Types of control cards
- Interpretation of data distribution in terms of central tendency and process differentiation.
- Selection of appropriate position measures for the types of distributions
- Calculation of DPMO, PPM, Sigma Level, Cp, Cpk indicators. Interpretation of process capability indicators.
- Interpretation of control charts
- Selection of control cards for process analysis
- Analysis of process capability and stability based on experimental data
- Analysis of data from production processes using authentic data from the company.
3.3. Total Quality Management
- Evolution of the concept of quality
- Principles of TQM
- Methods: KAIZEN, Just in Time, Idea / Innovation Management, POKA YOKE, Quality Cost Analysis, Lean Management
- Case studies:
- Mackies Ice Cream
- teamwork
- Kaizen in practice (video)
- Ishikawa diagram and Pareto analysis
- HKMA quality award
3.4. Operational research
- Introducing the necessary concepts to model the discussed class of decision problems
- Getting to know software for solving decision problems (Excel, GAMS, R)
- Case study – identification and solving of a specific decision problem
- Optimal decision and post-optimal analysis
- Practicing the acquired skills while solving decision problems prepared by the teacher in groups of 2-3 people
3.5. Logistics in the enterprise
- Inventory control (ABC / XYZ analysis, EWZ method, inventory management methods)
- What are the reasons for keeping stocks?
- How to determine which and how many stocks to keep?
- How do I calculate Maintenance, Replenishment and Out of Stock?
- Warehousing (location theories, square root law and its modifications, outsourcing, innovations in storage and picking)
- Where to locate warehouses? Centralization or regionalization of warehouse management?
- How to automate and optimize warehouse processes?
- Packaging
- The essence of barcodes and RFID
- Ecological, active and intelligent packaging
- Transport
- The role and functions of manipulation and internal transport in the enterprise
- External transport
- Optimization of transport links
- Transport issues in commercial contracts
- Case study – transport costs (about 3.5 h)
- Inventory control (ABC / XYZ analysis, EWZ method, inventory management methods)
3.6. Contemporary IT trends in business
- Development of IT technology in the 21st century
- Automation – rescue for the industry
- Robotics – where it applies
- Automation is the cure for a lack of human resources
- The impact of automation on business development
- Long-term planning. How quickly the investment pays off
- E-commerce – a new gigantic market without area restrictions
- How to use technology support in sales management
- Business Intelligence – what opportunities it gives
- Center of Gravity – Global reach through proper planning
- Social networks and their derivatives – how they significantly influence our professional life and business development
- Is office space still needed – technologies that allow you to work in the comfort of your home
- Digitization – Smart… – are mobile devices compatible with humans?
- The latest trends in transport. What will the transport look like
- public
- private
- supply chain
- 3D printers – where they can be used
- Virtualization – what do we mean by this concept
- Virtualization of servers
- Google glass
- Virtual reality – will we spend all our free time there?
3.7. Supply Chain Management
- The concept of supply chain management
- IT systems supporting cooperation in supply chains
- Types of relations and cooperation in supply chains
- Network solutions and the bull whip effect in the supply chain
- Bull whip effect
- Integration of partners is the key in network relations
- Networking support systems
- Lean and agile supply chains
- Information flow and product flow management in the supply chain – Beer game (introduction: 30-45 min; game: approx. 2 hours; summary: approx. 1 hour)
Module 4: Marketing
4.1. Marketing in practice
- Marketing – what for, who, why?
- Goals, strategies, measures of success in marketing
- “Marketing mix” or how to start preparing a strategy
- Market research (quantitative, qualitative)
- Contemporary consumer – what does he expect?
- target group
- Cultural megatrends and communication
- The consumer as a “shopper”
- How to position the brand?
- What does “USP” mean and is it worth having?
- Why do some brands decline and others grow in strength?
- Brand dualism – “heart and mind”
- “How to extend the product life cycle?
- Portfolio strategies
- Price or value?
- Packaging – what function it fulfills
- Product promotions
- Effective communication
- Integrated communication strategy – what is it?
- Criteria for good advertising
- How to communicate – emotionally, functionally?
- Is it worth using celebrities in advertising?
- What does “shopper marketing” mean?
- Communication at the point of sale
4.2. Customer behavior
The course is coaching oriented and covers the following topics:
- The Consumer Behavior concept, antecedents and diversity.
- Meaning of Consumer Behavior approaches, theories and models
- Consumers as individuals – Motivation, Needs, Values, Involvement, Personality, Attitudes, Perception, Learning and Memory and, Interpretation.
- Consumer as decision-makers- Problem recognition, Information Search, Alternative Evaluation, Purchase Decision, Pos-purchase Evaluation.
- Consumer External Influences – Culture, Social Class, Situational Factors, Family, Reference Groups).
- Learning from cases-studies:
- Consumer Behavior and Food Safety
- Food Quality Products
- Innovation Products
4.3. Marketing plan
- Components of a marketing plan
- Setting goals
- The project team
- The main stakeholders of the projects
- Effective Marketing Strategies
- Preparation of a new offer (product mix)
- Positioning (USP)
- target group
- Mark
- Portfolio strategies
- Recipe / composition
- Price
- Packaging (unit and collective)
- Communication on the package
- Positioning the offer on the market (marketing mix)
- Mix product
- Distribution
- Support / Promotion
- Competitive environment
- Channel strategy
- Shopper marketing
- Establishing Success Criteria for the Project (KPIs)
- Market research – verification of the offer and communication
- Preparation of the financial calculation of the project
- Price
- Sales potential / market shares
- Distribution
- Rotation
- Competitive environment
- Costs allocated to the project
- The concept of incremental revenues
- Profitability of Support (ROI)
- Project implementation
- Post evaluation – when and why is it used?
4.4. International Marketing
The course is coaching oriented and covers the following topics:
- Part I – The international marketing scope (marketing and its links to global strategy, International marketing intelligence)
- Part II – International marketing policies (Product, Distribution, Price Communication policies)
- Part III- International marketing coordination
- Part IV. Look at the international marketing environment, Cultural differences
- Part V. International marketing decisions – whether to enter, which markets to enter, decide how to enter, plan marketing programs
4.5. Public Relations - PR
- Public Relations as an element of shaping the success policy
- Media Relations – how to cooperate with the media in the era of picture information
- Can a crisis in a company be turned into success? How to inform the public about a crisis situation.
- Elements of public speaking and self-presentation – what to do when the camera and microphone frighten us?
Module 5: Financial Management
5.1. Fundamentals of financial analysis
- The role of financial analysis in business management.
- Methods and techniques of financial analysis of enterprises.
- Initial balance sheet analysis.
- Profit and loss account analysis in a comparative and calculation system,
- Analysis of the cash flow statement.
- Ratio analysis of the company’s liquidity, efficiency, profitability and debt. Du Pont analysis.
Classes conducted with the use of multimedia techniques, exercises consisting in solving and analyzing the case of an exemplary enterprise.
5.2. Management accounting and controlling
- Cost accounting in operational decisions
- Budgeting of operational tasks
- Management accounting and making strategic decisions for the enterprise
- Controlling as a system of internal regulation
- Organization of controlling processes in the enterprise
- Cost controlling
- The controlling system and motivating employees
5.3. Corporate finance and financial markets
- Policy and strategy in managing the finances of the enterprise
- Corporate financing strategies
- Financial planning
- Working capital
- The role of working capital in managing financial liquidity
- Working capital strategies
- Optimizing your cash management
- The Baumol model
- Miller Orr model
- Financial result
- Evaluation of the financial result using the four-factor method
- Distribution of profit in the company
- Financial markets
- Policy and strategy in managing the finances of the enterprise
5.4. Business plan
- Business Plan – goals, structure, evaluation;
- Case study – constructing a financial plan on a simple example using the “Business Plan” computer program
- Preparation of individual business plans by each student for a selected company (venture)
- Business plan presentations and discussion
Module 6: Strategic Management
6.1. Enterprise strategy
- The genesis and development of the company’s strategy and strategic management
- Strategy and mission and vision
- Strategy as content, context and process
- Competition strategy (business unit strategy) versus development strategy (corporate strategy)
- Competition strategy – strategic positioning
- Domain (scope of competition)
- Competitive advantage
- Cost leadership
- Uniqueness (differentiation)
- Concentration
- Getting bogged down
- Competition strategy – processes and resources
- Development strategy – resource allocation
- The spread and the distribution of corporate activities
- Portfolio methods – BCG matrix and McKinsey matrix
- The problem of synergy and the role of the headquarters
- Development strategy – directions of development
- Ansoff matrix
- Modified Ansoff matrix
- Development strategy – ways of development
- Internal development
- Strategic alliances
- Mergers and acquisitions
- Case studies and workshops
6.2. Strategic analysis
- Searching for the context of the strategy – strategic analysis
- Strategy and the processes of regionalization and globalization
- How to choose the right geographic scope for strategic analysis?
- The globalization potential of the sector according to the Yip model
- Market factors
- Cost factors
- Government factors
- Competitive factors
- Strategic analysis of macro turnover according to the PEST model
- Political and legal environment
- Economic environment
- Social environment
- Technological environment
- Strategic analysis of the competitive environment according to Porter’s 5 forces model
- Competitors
- New entrances to the sector
- Substitutes
- Suppliers
- Buyers
- Strategic analysis of the competitive environment with the use of a map of strategic groups
- Strategic analysis of the enterprise
- Potential
- Processes
- Market and customers
- Financial results
- Synthesis of previous analyzes – SWOT (strategic balance)
- Case studies and workshops
6.3. Implementation of the strategy
- Strategic thinking and strategic action
- Strategy implementation barriers
- The essence of the Balanced Scorecard concept and strategy maps
- Balanced Scorecard and the understanding barrier – how to communicate the strategy to various stakeholder groups
- Balanced Scorecard and the motivation barrier – how to use the bonus system to focus on the implementation of the strategy
- Balanced Scorecard and the resource barrier – how to relate the strategy to the budget
- Balanced Scorecard and the attention barrier – how to make strategy an everyday thing for every manager
- Strategic learning and strategy improvement
- Balanced Scorecard at the level:
- corporation
- strategic business units
- support risers
- Case studies and workshops
6.4. Organization development
site under construction
6.5. Shift management
- Changes and resistance to change
- What is change?
- What are the reasons for the changes?
- Responses to change
- Resistance
- Changes and manager roles
- management roles
- decision-making progress
- management attributes
- Management tools
- Venn diagram
- force field analysis
- problem tree
- Risk management
- reconstruction of business processes (reengineering)
- risk weight
- risk analysis
- Recapitulation
- personnel change management
- change management and TQM
- other related issues
- Changes and resistance to change
6.6. Project management
site under construction
Module 7: Food Economy
7.1. Analysis of agricultural markets
- The specificity of agricultural markets
- Market regulations and interventionism
- Internationalization and globalization of agricultural markets
- Methods of analyzing agricultural markets
- Market balances
- Structure-Conduct-Performance model
- Review of agricultural markets
- Case studies of selected agricultural markets using the Structure-Conduct-Performance model
- Grain market
- Meat market
- Milk market
- Sugar market
7.2. International agribusiness
- Data sources, tools and methods of market analysis
- Characteristics of the global agribusiness on the example of dairy industry, case studies
- Integration of the world milk market
- Liberalization of world trade in dairy products
- Deregulation processes on the world milk market
- Financialization of the milk market
- The implications of integrating the world milk market for the dairy industry, case studies
- The boom on the world milk market
- Business cycles on the world milk market, case studies
- Risk management, case studies
- Long-term prospects of the world milk market
- Export chances of the Polish dairy industry
- Export strategies among the world’s largest exporters of dairy products, case studies
- Analysis of potential export markets, case studies
7.3. Negotiations with retail chains
- Market intelligence
- Ways and sources supporting the recognition of the company
- Ways and sources supporting the identification of the buyer
- Understanding the buyer’s goals and negotiating strategies
- The minds of merchants from retail chains
- Why will the merchant talk to you?
- The specificity of negotiations in commercial networks
- Negotiation scenarios in retail chains
- Beginning of cooperation
- Renewal of cooperation
- Renegotiations
- Closing of cooperation
- Preparation for negotiations with a commercial network
- Recognition of expectations
- Preparation of the offer and presentation
- How buyers build their negotiating positions
- Planning negotiation strategies (methods, techniques and tools)
- Selection of the negotiating team and determining the roles
- Working with the negotiating team
- Identification of strengths and weaknesses
- Preparation for the designated role in the negotiating team
- Techniques for the development of team members’ negotiating competences
- Building a relationship with the merchant
- Building an emotional state in the merchant
- The art of maintaining positive relationships
- Business etiquette in negotiations
- Negotiations with retail chains
- The introductory phase
- Proper phase
- Closing negotiations
- Maintaining cooperation and expanding the introduced assortment
- Building a relationship with the merchant
- Strengthening the position of a business partner
- Crisis management during contract implementation
- Blocking competition
- Market intelligence
7.4. Food safety
- Food safety
- Legal requirements in the field of food safety
- Official food control
- Guidelines on the requirements of good hygiene and production practice and the HACCP system
- Product path tracking – tracebility
- Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed RASFF
- Marking
- Examples of food adulteration
- Food safety and packaging
- Safety of food contact packaging
- Packaging trends
- Food safety
7.5. Food quality assurance systems
- Basics of Sustainable Agriculture – the perspective of social expectations and agricultural policy
- Selected (certified) agricultural production systems:
- By ecological methods
- Integrated production
- Selected quality assurance systems in food production (HACCP, ISO22000, FSSC22000, GMP +, IFS, BRC. GFSI and others)
- Global Food Safety Initiative (Benchmarking Systems)
- Products FQS (Food Quality Schemes) – Protected Designation of Origin, Protected Geographical Indication, Traditional Specialty Guaranteed
- Case studies
8. Study week
As part of the Study week Students will be able to take part in intensive case study workshops. Study week these are practical, multi-day, in-depth training case study .
9. Study trip
We also provide for interested students Study trip , i.e. a study trip to one of the European countries for a few days, the task of which is to familiarize the Participants with the agribusiness sector in a given country. As part of field seminars, we will learn about the best practices of leading companies.
10. Diploma seminar
The condition for obtaining the MBA diploma signed by the International Board of the MBA program network “Agribusiness Management and Commerce” and accredited by ICA (The Interuniversity Consortium for Life Sciences) is the preparation and defense of the thesis. The work should be of a research nature or to solve real business problems. Seminars – devoted to the essence and methodology of writing diploma theses are designed to support students in writing a dissertation, which they will prepare on their own or in groups of 2 – under the supervision of a selected supervisor.