Strategising for Small Enterprises

Managers, strategists, and businesses in general, encourage both enterprise and innovation within their organisation. This involves goal setting and processes which promote idea generation, creativity, market and customer awareness, and brand or service development. 

This 10-week course appreciates the importance of enterprising behaviour and implementing strategies within small-sized or family-owned businesses. 

During this course, several themes and topics of relevance are addressed. These include: 

• Discussing and explaining enterprise and entrepreneurship
• Appreciating strategy formulation, organisation, implementation and forecasting within organisations
• Reflecting on current challenges from society and industry which impact organisations, partners and consumers
• Considering existing factors which impact an organisation’s innovative practice and strategic decision making

In response to the assessment strategy outlined by this course, the student will complete:

• A portfolio of written work comprising of both discussion and reflection of experienced practice
• A presentation focusing on strategic planning for small enterprises in response to a question or scenario example 

This course is developed in accordance with the UWS Graduate Attributes and helps those to develop the skills, qualities and abilities which will prepare them for success both out with university and beyond their period of study at UWS.

Target audience & pre-requisites  

This module is aimed at anyone working in a managerial role or those who work and/or own a small business.  While there are no formal pre-requisites for this, it is expected that participants have practical experience in managing a business. This is an SCQF Level 9 module and upon successful completion, participants will be awarded 20 credits.  Participants will also receive certification to demonstrate completion of the course. 

Delivery  

This course will last for 10 weeks.  Participants are required to attend 1 x 2-hour online live session each week, alongside completing online learning on our virtual learning environment.  A full timetable will be published in advance of course commencement.

Course Presenter 

Dr Robert Crammond is a Senior Lecturer in Enterprise at University of the West of Scotland (UWS).  His academic interests lie in enterprise and entrepreneurship education and progressing contemporary, enterprise-centric stakeholder theory.  A Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and Management and Business Educator (CMBE), Dr Crammond also teaches and coordinates across many disciplines, including subjects such as organisational behaviours and stakeholder relationships, leadership theory and practice, human resource management, organisational development and addressing business and managerial research skills.

NOTE: This is a university module and upon approval of your application, you will be invited to register and then supported to complete enrolment. To enrol on the university system, the first step involves security set-up using the Microsoft Authenticator app; you will need to ensure that you have a compatible smartphone.

Further information is available at the Student Information Portal.

To access this module via the CPD route, individuals should be ordinarily resident in Scotland.  If you do not meet this criteria, please enquire here.