• Discuss the underlying assumptions and distinguishing features of dominant perspectives for the study of Strategic Leadership and Brand Management
• Select and apply models, concepts and theories in Strategic Leadership and Brand Management towards a given practical problem
• Compare and integrate the models, concepts and theories of Brand Management with the models, concepts and theories of Strategic Leadership and thereby explain and conclude on interfaces and their consequences from a management perspective
• Present argumentation for the relevance of the selected models, concepts and theories
• Synthesise and deduce new models that can be used towards practical problems of Strategic Leadership and Brand Management

What do we actually want students in the Strategic Leadership and Brand Management course to learn? It seems an obvious question to start with. Yet, in practice, many courses on the topic implicitly assume that the type of teaching objectives and teaching methods needed do not differ radically from any other subject - basically, strategic leadership and brand management can be taught in the same way as mathematics or baking cookies. This “instructional” approach is based on the following teaching objectives:

1. Knowledge. To get the student to clearly understand and memorize all of the "ingredients";
2. Skills. To develop the student's ability to follow the detailed "recipes";
3. Attitude. To instil a disciplined frame of mind, whereby the student automatically attempts to approach all issues by following fixed procedures.

However, while instructing students on a subject and programming their behaviour might be useful in such areas as mathematics, cooking and karate, we believe it is not a very good way of teaching strategic leadership and brand management. Instead, we have the following teaching objectives with the strategic leadership and brand management course:

1. Knowledge. To encourage the understanding of the many, often conflicting, schools of thought and to facilitate the gaining of insight into the assumptions, possibilities and limitations of each set of theories;
2. Skills. To develop the student's ability to define strategic issues, to critically reflect on existing  theories, to creatively combine or develop theories where necessary and to flexibly employ theories where useful;
3. Attitude. To instil a critical, analytical, flexible and creative mind-set, which challenges organizational, industry and national paradigms and problem-solving recipes.

Class session will consist of lectures and include interactive presentations and case discussions. Moreover, executives and experts may also be involved in a number of lectures to confront the class with a number of practical and challenging issues in the area of strategic leadership and brand management. The format of the course is thus based on a mixture of cases and theory, as it is our belief that understanding both practice and theory, and acquiring the skill to apply one to the other, should be the core of this course. Hence, classes will be used to partially review theory and promote critical discussion of theory application and to partially present and discuss cases. This discussion should, however, be guided by insights gained in the 'theoretical' readings and should lead to conclusions about the applicability of theoretical concepts in certain practical situations.

This course will provide the students with a solid understanding of the underlying assumptions - on the company as well as its environment- behind the different schools of thought within strategic leadership and brand management. 

de Wit, B., & Meyer Ron. (2014). Strategy: An international perspective (5.th ed.). London: Cengage Learning EMEA.

ISBN: 9781408082676

Heding, T., Knudtzen Charlotte F, & Bjerre Mogens. (2016). Brand management: Research, theory and practice (2.nd ed.). London: Routledge.

ISBN: 9781138804692

Plus: a selection of articles