General Management Seminar at ESMT Berlin
Experiencing strategic management
The General Management Seminar
MARGA has been part of the General Management Seminar (GMS) at ESMT Berlin for many years. The seminar is aimed at experienced managers who are about to take on a senior executive position or have recently done so. Managers are expected to recognize trends, plan strategically, motivate employees, ensure the financial stability of their company and also think innovatively and act in a socially responsible manner. The seminar prepares participants to take on this comprehensive responsibility. On completion of the seminar, they receive the Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Management, an official recognition and confirmation of their professional development.
Various methods are used in the three face-to-face modules: lectures and plenary discussions, exchange of experiences, outdoor training, strategy simulation game, case studies. By integrating MARGA, participants experience strategic management in fast motion. They manage a diversified holding company and make decisions both at group level and at business unit level. As a team, the participants develop the corporate strategy with seven business areas and implement it operationally.
In the systematic process of strategic management, they experience all phases, from target planning to strategic analysis, strategy formulation and implementation. The focus is on the long-term positioning of the company on the market. At holding level, growth or contraction strategies can be realized both organically and through the acquisition or sale of entire divisions as part of portfolio management. Competitive strategies are developed and implemented at division level.
Learning content
The participants
- align the company for long-term success.
- develop corporate and competitive strategies.
- manage the group as a whole with the help of portfolio management.
- ensure adequate corporate financing.
- negotiate acquisitions and sales of entire business units (mergers & acquisitions, M&A).
- make operational decisions for the individual divisions.
- are responsible for investment controlling.
The story in the
business game
Strategic trap
An initial analysis shows that individual business areas are caught in a classic strategic trap: they are too small to enter the market with favorable cost structures and low prices. On the other hand, they lack the technological edge that would legitimize higher prices. The result is a further decline in market share, which worsens the situation with each passing day.
Portfolio Management
How important are these business areas to us? Is restructuring worthwhile and how do we go about it, how do we reposition ourselves on the market? Or is a sale also an option? But what is the business area worth? Is there a buyer who might be prepared to pay a premium because we would make them the market leader?
It’s good that we also have healthy businesses that we would like to expand. Here we are faced with the decision of organic growth or strategic acquisition. Either way, it means that we need to invest and therefore need money.
Corporate financing
How will our financial requirements develop overall, also with regard to possible restructuring costs in other areas? Will our debt then get out of hand? We would then be forced to sell loss-making business areas, both to raise money and to save on restructuring. What do our owners say, would they be prepared to support a capital increase or is the focus on returns?
What our
customers say
The business simulation MARGA Strategy has been a unique opportunity for me, as a new managing director with a technical background, to learn the coherences of strategic decisions and economic key figures in a practical way. The fact that our team has won gave me additional self-confidence.
Dr. Tanja Lindermeier-Kuhnke
Geschäftsführerin GuS Glass + Safety
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