Executive MBA (Fashion)

Content

The Executive MBA (Fashion) is for fashion business executives, directors, managers and growing entrepreneurs. This specialist programme is uniquely focused on the fashion industry, enabling participants to broaden their careers beyond their own specific experiences, developing a greater strategic approach, confidence and understanding that can equip them for more senior roles and greater responsibilities.

This exclusive blended learning programme is delivered by a combination of 3 day face-to-face teaching blocks in London, followed by online seminars, discussions and peer-to-peer learning, taught by some of the most highly respected professionals that the fashion industry and creative academia can offer.

You will be taught by staff with significant fashion business experience and access to the fashion industry through consultancies and research. LCF maintains close relationships with industry leaders, which underpins the EMBA’s focused content, enabling participants to learn from real-life case studies and from industry specialists.

This unique learning experience will provide you with the opportunity to acquire new knowledge and skills to succeed in the widest variety of fashion enterprises. During the course you will be able to enhance your evaluative, analytical and problem-solving skills by combining your growing theoretical knowledge with the decision-making challenges faced during your work roles.

Modes of learning

Fast track:

• 18 month part-time programme
• Designed to complement full-time employment
• Periods of intensive study
• Seven units completed in sequence.

Flexible learning:

• Unit-by-unit flexible approach
• Take one or more units at a time
• units can be taken in any order (except Consultancy Project)
• Entry points in October, January, April and July
• Up to five years to complete full MBA qualification
• Option to exit with a Postgraduate Certificate (60 credits) or a Postgraduate Diploma (120 credits).

Structure

This is a blended learning course, which is delivered through a mixture of face to face attendance and online distance learning.

Face to Face teaching

Candidates will be required to attend in person for a maximum six days every three months (three days per unit). Classes will include a mix of tutor and student-led seminars, group and individual presentations, individual and team responses to case studies, and lectures.

Lectures will be supported by guest speakers from fashion and related industries. Case studies will form a further focus for student-led seminar and workshop activity.

Industry visits

Site visits are scheduled for each attendance block, allowing candidates restricted behind the scenes access directly related to the unit of study. Recent site visits have offered candidates the opportunity to visit a working factory at Margaret Howell, and to discuss up to the minute strategies and figures with the HR and Finance Directors in the boardroom at the Superdry Flagship store.

Networking events

Candidates are offered access to exclusive evening industry networking events in the form of panel discussions with high-profile speakers, which are followed by the chance to meet the speakers and academics over drinks and canapés to further discuss points raised during the debate.
Recent events include ‘The Global Menswear Market: Challenges and Opportunities for Growth’ and ‘Global Luxury Consumption: The Future of Exclusivity’, with panel members including Michael Ward, Managing Director of Harrods; Maurice Mullen, Head of Fashion and Luxury at the London Evening Standard; Eric Musgrave, Drapers Editorial Director; Peter Ruis, CEO at Jigsaw; and Eleanor Robertson, Buying Manager at Selfridges.

Online distance learning

The advanced virtual learning environment offers candidates the opportunity to engage with tutor-led live seminars, discussion forums and chat room facilities. This blend of learning provides an accessible, inspiring and flexible space in which to gain this EMBA degree.
Candidates are expected to engage frequently in self-directed peer communication. The latter will help strengthen the strong networking opportunities afforded by the programme.

International Fashion City Excursion

The Product Portfolio Management unit encompasses an international fashion city excursion to look at global retailing with particular emphasis on design and retail concepts. In June 2016, the excursion was located in Italy’s fashion capital Milan and included dedicated visits to local manufacturing and retailing fashion businesses.


Course units and attendance dates for 18/19:

Please note: The order of the units for 2018/2019 are subject to change.

• Global Supply Chain and Distribution (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Monday 1 October 2018 – Wednesday 3 October 2018
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 3 October 2018

• Socio-cultural, Organisational and Economic Context of Fashion (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Thursday 4 October 2018 – Saturday 6 October 2018
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 3 October 2018

• Consultancy Project (60 credits)

(only available after completion of all other units)
Attendance dates: Monday 8 October 2018 – Friday 12 October 2018
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 10 October 2018

• Strategic Financial Management (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Monday 7 January 2019 – Wednesday 9 January 2019
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 9 January 2019

• Consultancy Project Presentations (60 credits)

(only available after completion of all other units)
Attendance dates: Monday 18 March 2019 – Tuesday 19 March 2019

• Leadership and Strategic Human Resource Management (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Monday 8 April 2019 – Wednesday 10 April 2019
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 10 April 2019

• Strategic Branding and Marketing Management (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Thursday 11 April 2019 – Saturday 13 April 2019
Industry networking evening event: Wednesday 10 April 2019

• Product Portfolio Management (20 credits)

Attendance dates: Monday 8 July 2019 – Wednesday 10 July 2019
International Fashion City Excursion: Thursday 11 July 2019 – Saturday 13 July 2019

Term dates

• Fast Track part time Year 1: 1 October 2018 - 20 September 2019
• Fast Track part time Year 2: 1 October 2018 - 22 March 2019
• Flexible Learning: 1 October 2018 - 20 September 2019

Course units

The Global Supply Chain and Distribution unit explores vertical integration, alternative supply chain strategies, their impact on critical paths and delivery to market, as well as alternatives distribution routes, their costs and benefits and the emergence of e-retailing, ethical issues and sustainability. The development of multiple new routes to market such as the emergence of e-retailing has created new levels of complexity in supply chain management that require the simultaneous application of analytical thinking and the delivery of creative solutions. The unit therefore is fundamentally concerned with flow of product covering on the one hand sourcing and on the other delivery of product to customers, enabling you to evaluate business problems and opportunities arising from buying and merchandising activity across the fashion retailing sector.

Organisations and brands frequently need to be refreshed and repositioned as the global competitive environment changes around them. The Socio-cultural, Organisational and Economic Context of Fashion unit aims to analyse the various contexts in which fashion product and services are produced, marketed, distributed and consumed. These contexts influence decisions, strategies and procedures within the business and thus demonstrate the importance of contextual environmental factors on the business itself, as well as explore the definition of fashion as a socio-cultural phenomenon. Considering these as a whole the unit will provide tools and perspectives available to organize analysis, identify strategic challenges and begin designing an organisational response. Even though internationalisation is now considered an unarguable characteristic of the fashion industry, cultural and legal diversities that exist at country level can have significant repercussions on actual performance, whilst advances in technology have the power to cause dramatic shifts affecting the fashion industry at a global level. The unit will engage with these issues through the use of case studies and input from key speakers and you will be encouraged to apply your understanding of these issues to business problems.

The Strategic Financial Management unit introduces candidates to the financial aspects of running a business and how the management of various forms of capital is critical in the formulation of successful strategies. It is important to trace different kinds of decisions from the strategic to the operational by reviewing and being able to interpret financial statements, budgets and the impact that these different decisions may have on the financial bottom line. You will examine how finance and accounting interact and learn how to tackle the main financial problems you may encounter. You will also be able to understand and analyse the accounts of different fashion companies.

The bigger an organisation gets and the higher up in the organisational hierarchy an executive is positioned the more he/she manages work flow and delivers results via other people's work outputs. Creating teams, motivating individuals and managing outcomes therefore become crucial in determining strategies. The Leadership and Strategic Human Resource Management unit will enable you to analyse and apply leading-edge thinking in the practice of HR management in the context of leadership and business ethics, employee resourcing, talent cultivation and development/performance management. The unit focuses on exploring the nature of 'leadership' as a personal attribute and the development of skills that are essential for effective management. Communication, negotiation, presentation skills, team building, intrapreneurship and entrepreneurship are some of the areas covered within this unit. You will have the opportunity to reflect on your current skill set, develop a set of personal aims and engage in actively enhancing the skills that support your own chosen aims.

The Strategic Branding and Marketing Management unit critically examines the main principles of brand management within a global fashion context. In conjunction with an understanding of the fundaments of consumer behaviour, you will have the opportunity to view the fields of branding and marketing in a holistic manner, examining them both from a strategic and operational perspective. Broader corporate objectives need to be aligned with market positioning and branding strategies so that they maximise performance by using resources effectively. You will have the opportunity to explore the interdependence and impact of these factors on business performance via the use of case studies, analysis of theoretical frameworks and discussions with industry practitioners.

Fashion products are by nature cyclical and ever-changing, subject to trends and wider socio-economical influences. Yet a fashion company needs to manage the creation of a product line in a strategic way that transcends short-term fluctuations and reflects a conscious longer term direction. In parallel to this, the complex nature of the fashion industry will be explored to re-define ways in which we create and develop fashion using flexible collaborative networks for global markets. The Product Portfolio Management unit explores how 'Product' (be it an entirely new design concept, the development of a whole range or even a service) needs to be created in a manner that is congruent with corporate objectives and values, whilst fashion ranges can be viewed as a portfolio of investments yielding varying returns according to desirability and demand.

The Consultancy Project unit is the capstone of your course. It provides the challenge and opportunity of applying the learning and skills you have gained during the EMBA course to pursue, with tutorial support, a personally directed research project. The research project will be focussed on addressing and solving a problem within a company of your choice. With a tutor to guide the construction of the report and an expert supervisor helping you focus on the theoretical and practical specifics of your enquiry you will explore, accurately diagnose and analyse a problem within a company. You will use available theoretical models, evaluate alternatives and propose effective solutions. In your final submitted project you will need to have demonstrated your competence in evaluating and analysing the complex factors revealed by your project. Having analysed the issues you will then need to explore a range of solutions, demonstrating a clear understanding of their effects in terms of costs and benefits to the company and its market position. You will finally put forward a proposal articulating fully the rationale of your chosen solution. To accompany your written report you will deliver a presentation to a panel of fashion practitioners and academics.