If you are a recent graduate seeking to build a career in management; mid-career specialist looking to move into management; or a senior manager wondering how to build effective, efficient, and innovative solutions for the operational and strategic problems of your organisation; then this is the degree for you.
Managers face a constant tension between managing the operational challenges of today and ensuring that they can lead their organisation to success in the longer term.
- How do you lead people?
- How can you find the resources needed to build a more successful organisation?
- How do you choose to focus your team’s energies between competing opportunities and challenges?
The MSc in Strategy and Innovation provides you with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify and solve operational and strategic problems that real organisations face. Successful managers need to be able to analyse problems, make decisions, work in and lead teams, communicate solutions, and find innovative and effective ways to translate strategies into action. Our approach to learning is to blend the development of advanced specialist knowledge and capabilities with practical application. Our programme is focused on your career success. We develop skills that you need to be an effective manager.
| Semester 1 |
In Semester 1 you will come to understand the process of strategy formulation and implementation, innovation, and how technology can be used to create operational and strategic value and develop your career plan to achieve your ambitions. |
| Semester 2 |
In Semester 2 you will learn how to put this knowledge into practice through Strategy Live, where you work both in teams and individually on current strategy problems faced by organisations. Through our modules on Leadership and Financial Management, you gain insights into how to be both
a follower and a leader and how to analyse the potential of an organisation to create financial value. |
| Semester 3 |
In Semester 3 you will apply your knowledge and skills in a real-world context, choosing between a Work Placement, Dissertation, or Business Research Project.
Part-time students will develop these capabilities over two years. |
The course develops you as a manager who can create value for private and public organisations with analytic, personal, and decision-making capabilities to be an effective contributor in teams that identify and solve complex operational and strategic problems faced by organisations. For recent graduates, this master’s gives you the skills necessary for a career in consultancy, general management, and business analysis. For those with work experience, this degree helps you transition from a role as a technical specialist into a managerial role, or to develop the skills needed to advance to senior management. The Work Placement and Business Research Project options are particularly valuable to employers as they demonstrate your ability to apply your learning in the world of work.
IMCA
All students on this MSc are entitled to free Graduate membership of the IMCA (Institute of Management Consultants & Advisors) for the duration of the programme and for the 12 months following completion.
“What is unique about the course is...the Business Research Project. It really gives you a great understanding for the future when you go into the workplace. The programme helps you transfer knowledge into practice. It’s all a lead up towards the Business Research Project so everything you have learned you finally apply to the final thesis of the course which is really important as you learn the skills and knowledge to go forward. It really is a worthwhile course to take. You learn so much in terms of your academic learning as well as your personal development.” Sean Harnett, MSc Strategy & Innovation Graduate
You must hold a Business, Management, or Marketing degree, or a Business related degree, having achieved a minimum of a 2.2 honours (or equivalent) overall. Alternatively, you may hold a non-Business degree (minimum 2.2 overall) with at least five years’ work experience. Exceptionally, consideration will be given to candidates who do not hold a primary degree, but who do have at least 10 years’ relevant work experience, at least three of which are in a management position.
Our learning blends developing individual analytic capabilities with team work, leadership, and communication skills. Strategy and Leadership modules provide you with analytic capabilities to decompose complex problems, devise solutions, and apply your skills in practice through experiential learning modules such as Strategy Live. Innovation, Digital Business, and Finance modules provide you with the practical skills necessary to transform organisations to create value for customers. Career development and research modules equip you with tools and resources to develop your own career strategy and how to solve real problems. The capstone of the programme is a paid Work Placement, Dissertation, or Business Research Project where you learn to apply the lessons to a real-world issue. Modules are generally taught in blocks of two days every two weeks (full-time). Themes may include:
- Career Planning and Development
- Digital Business
- Innovation
- Strategic Management: Tools and Concepts
- Leadership
- Financial Management
- Strategy Live
- Actionable Insights through Research
- Business Research Project / Dissertation / Placement
Students complete a summer pathway, either a Business Research Project, Dissertation or a Placement. Placement is only available to full time students. Student allocations to one of these pathways are made by the School of Business based on student academic performance and academic guidance.
Apply online at PAC, choose Maynooth University
PAC Code: MH54D (full-time) / MH55D (part-time)
