Unique five-day intensive programme in innovation for business strategy is being offered to postgraduate students from the University of Sunderland Business School this year.
The business school has teamed up with global business transformation business, blackswan, which has agreed to collaborate with a university for the first time to carry out this live in-depth case study. It will bring in three senior management consultants to deliver the programme, led by chief executive Maurice Duffy.
The students will work with one of blackswan’s major international clients to analyse the organisation’s business strategy, and use blackswan’s TransformationDNA® change programme, TDNA, to assess the DNA and health of the company and recommend how it can step change to the next level.
blackswan innovates and transforms leaders and businesses through its unique knowledge base and capability and now works with many global organisations in over 40 countries around the world. The students will compare traditional analytical techniques with the findings of TDNA and present their findings to the host organisation. Through workshops, seminars, teleconferencing, reports and presentations the innovation programme will demand commitment from each of the participating students.
The programme will form part of the innovation module for the MBA and MSc Human Resource Management students. Each student will be awarded a professional development enhancement certificate at the end of the course.
Professor Bernie Callaghan, Dean of the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Sunderland, said: “This innovative partnership with blackswan offers a fantastic opportunity to some of our postgraduate students, one which no other university is able to provide. It will embed commercial expertise alongside academic studies to help give the students a competitive edge when they begin their careers.”
blackswan is pleased with the partnership and is now in talks with Sunderland Business School about a series of business innovation programmes for postgraduate students building on this pilot scheme.
Maurice Duffy, chief executive at blackswan said: “This is a real opportunity to transfer the unique learning we have from the world of business into the classroom. The strong relationship we have formed with Sunderland Business School has led to this first pioneering pilot scheme, and we are delighted to be working with its Masters students on an exciting new course. This is a totally original programme which will be valuable for each student, for our participating client and for us.”
“At blackswan we have succeeded because we bring together enterprise, strategy and innovation to transform businesses. Some of the Masters students we are working with at Sunderland Business School may well become future global business consultants.”
Derek Watson, senior lecturer at Sunderland Business School, has driven forward the programme and will lead the innovation module. He said: “We’re bringing more local companies into the business school to create new partnerships which benefit the region. blackswan’s enthusiasm and excellent client list means that the innovation programme has the potential to grow in the future, and offer students the chance to work with international companies while studying for their degrees, strengthening their employability.”
