Managing the Company of the Future

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Managing the Company of the Future

Instructor: Julian Birkinshaw

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6 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

3,650 reviews

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

6 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

3,650 reviews

1 week to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

98%

Most learners liked this course

Skills you'll gain

Details to know

Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

5 assignments¹

AI Graded see disclaimer

Taught in English

See how employees at top companies are mastering in-demand skills

Learn more about Coursera for Business

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There are 6 modules in this course

The aim of the course is to provide you with a comprehensive framework for understanding both the traditional principles of management inside companies today as well as the alternative principles that are becoming increasingly important. It provides both theoretical and practical perspectives on the nature of management in today’s organisations.

Hello and welcome to 'Managing the Company of the Future'. To help you understand how the course will be structured, we would suggest that you go to the 'Start Here' tab first. After that, feel free to explore the rest of the course including the lectures, readings and quizzes.We would also encourage you all to interact with each other on the Discussion Forums. This is a great way of hearing from others and discussing particular topics so please go and introduce yourself in the Introduce Yourself thread. So let’s get started! Best wishes,Julian Birkinshaw & the MCOF Teaching Team

What's included

3 readings

Hello and welcome to the first week of 'Managing the Company of the Future'. In Week 1, we will be talking about the difference between leadership and management, and the reasons why we need to reinvent management as it is today.

What's included

11 videos3 readings1 assignment

11 videos Total 75 minutes

1.1 Overview of the course 8 minutes
1.2 Management versus Leadership 7 minutes
1.3.1 How the business world is changing (Part 1) 7 minutes
1.3.2 How the business world is changing (Part 2) 8 minutes
1.4.1 The Failure of Traditional Management (Part 1) 5 minutes
1.4.2 The Failure of Traditional Management (Part 2) 6 minutes
1.5.1 The Need for Management Innovation (Part 1) 6 minutes
1.5.2 The Need for Management Innovation (Part 2) 6 minutes
1.6.1 What does this mean for me? (Part 1) 6 minutes
1.6.2 What does this mean for me? (Part 2) 9 minutes
Week 1 Summary 5 minutes

3 readings Total 30 minutes

Videos from Management Innovation eXchange (MIX) 10 minutes
Week 1 slides 10 minutes
Week 1 reading 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Week 1 Quiz 30 minutes

Welcome to Week 2 of 'Managing the Company of the Future'. This week, we'll be learning about traditional and alternative approaches to coordination and decision making, and how you can experiment with some of the new alternative ideas in your own company.

What's included

12 videos2 readings1 assignment

12 videos Total 88 minutes

2.1 Defining your management model 11 minutes
2.2.1 Principles of co-ordination (Part 1) 8 minutes
2.2.2 Principles of Coordination (Part 2) 7 minutes
Steven Weber, University of Berkeley: Making our actions visible to others enables better coordination and overall social welfare 4 minutes
2.2.3 Principles of co-ordination (Part 3) 6 minutes
2.3 Moving from bureaucracy to emergence 12 minutes
2.4.1 Principles of decision making (Part 1) 6 minutes
2.4.2 Principles of decision making (Part 2) 6 minutes
Gary Hamel, London Business School : A crowdsourcing approach to getting new ideas funded in large companies 4 minutes
2.4.3 Principles of decision making (Part 3) 7 minutes
2.5 Moving from hierarchy to collective wisdom 9 minutes
Week 2 summary 8 minutes

2 readings Total 20 minutes

Week 2 slides 10 minutes
Week 2 reading 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Week 2 Quiz 30 minutes

Welcome to Week 3 of 'Managing the Company of the Future'. We're almost at the halfway point of the course in terms of content now. This week, we'll learn about traditional and alternative forms of motivation and objective-setting and we'll find out how you can experiment with some of these new ideas in your own company.

What's included

13 videos2 readings1 assignment

13 videos Total 81 minutes

3.1.1 Principles of motivation - Managing within (Part 1) 9 minutes
3.1.2 Principles of motivation - Managing within (Part 2) 6 minutes
3.1.3 Principles of motivation - Managing within (Part 3) 6 minutes
Andrew McAffee, MIT: How do we tap into everyone’s “slice of genius” in an organisation? 2 minutes
3.2.1 Moving from Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation (Part 1) 5 minutes
3.2.2 Moving from Extrinsic to Intrinsic Motivation (Part 2) 6 minutes
3.3.1 Principles of Objective Setting (Part 1) 6 minutes
Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stanford University: The problem with traditional measures in large organisations 2 minutes
3.3.2 Principles of Objective Setting (Part 2) 7 minutes
3.4 Moving from Linear Alignment to Obliquity 12 minutes
3.5.1 Putting the four dimensions together (Part 1) 5 minutes
3.5.2 Putting the four dimensions together (Part 2) 7 minutes
Week 3 summary 8 minutes

2 readings Total 20 minutes

Week 3 slides 10 minutes
Week 3 reading 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Week 3 Quiz 30 minutes

Welcome to Week 4 of 'Managing the Company of the Future'. In our penultimate week of content, we'll be getting a bit more hands-on. You'll be analysing your company's management model and thinking about how to change it. We'll also be learning about different ways of enabling change and, more generally, how management ideas gain and lose currency.

What's included

11 videos3 readings1 assignment

11 videos Total 74 minutes

4.1.1 Diagnosing your current and future models (Part 1) 5 minutes
4.1.2 Diagnosing your current and future models (Part 2) 6 minutes
4.2.1 How can you change your management model? (Part 1) 6 minutes
4.2.2 How can you change your management model? (Part 2) 5 minutes
4.2.3 How can you change your management model? (Part 3) 6 minutes
4.2.4 How can you change your management model? (Part 4) 5 minutes
4.2.5 How can you change your management model? (Part 5) 9 minutes
4.3 A methodology for experimenting with new ways of working 8 minutes
4.4 Rise and fall of "outlier" companies with unusual models 7 minutes
4.5 Learning from outlier companies 12 minutes
Week 4 summary 5 minutes

3 readings Total 30 minutes

Week 4 slides 10 minutes
Worksheets 10 minutes
Week 4 reading 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Week 4 Quiz 30 minutes

Welcome to Week 5 of 'Managing the Company of the Future'. So you've made it to the last week - congratulations! This week we'll look at the manager as an individual and help you look at your own practice with tips and tricks for becoming a better boss.

What's included

11 videos2 readings1 assignment1 peer review

11 videos Total 65 minutes

5.1.1 From firm to individual (Part 1) 5 minutes
5.1.2 From firm to individual (Part 2) 5 minutes
5.2 An employee's eye view 6 minutes
5.3 Understanding our biases 7 minutes
5.4 How do I change my own way of working? 6 minutes
5.5.1 What will the company of the future look like? (Part 1) 7 minutes
5.5.2 What will the company of the future look like? (Part 2) 6 minutes
5.6.1 Changing nature of work (Part 1) 5 minutes
5.6.2 Changing nature of work (Part 2) 6 minutes
5.7 Concluding thoughts 5 minutes
Week 5 summary 6 minutes

2 readings Total 20 minutes

Week 5 slides 10 minutes
Week 5 reading 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Week 5 Quiz 30 minutes

1 peer review Total 60 minutes

Final assignment 60 minutes

Instructor

Instructor ratings

(1,083 ratings)

Julian Birkinshaw

4 Courses 151,912 learners

Offered by

University of London

London Business School

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Reviewed on Oct 31, 2020

This is an excellent course that gives simple but powerful insights for leaders to run the business in a volatile environment. Thanks a lot and hats off to Prof. Julian and academic staff.

Reviewed on Dec 20, 2022

Amazing! great learning experience and insights. Very engaging, so insightful, well structured, concise, relevant, giving the basics enough to steer thought provoking rich discusses. Awesome!

Reviewed on May 7, 2020

The course is amazing! Dr Julian Birkinshaw is a wonderful lecturer, I enjoyed the course under his guidance. However, assignment reviewed by peers is not the best idea. It's not very efficient.

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