Southampton Business School delivers International Professional and Executive Education Programme in Oman
The department of Digital & Data-Driven Marketing at the Southampton Business School delivered an International Professional and Executive Education Programme in Oman. The module is part of a 3 module-programme that progressively explores and offers professional educational support in Digital Marketing, expertise calibrated at the level of prior experience and knowledge of the participant organizations. The first level foundation course is designed to help participants with no prior experience in Digital Marketing to understand, evaluate and consider optimization aspects for their company digital marketing management strategy with focus on customer-oriented understanding.
Between 18th and 21st January 2021, the introductory course - The Fundamentals of Digital & Data Driven Marketing - was successfully delivered online to the first cohort of professional participants in Oman. The participants included senior managers from Oman involving sectors such as banking, government agencies, not-for-profit sector, automobile and tourism. The sessions were enthusiastically delivered and resulted in dynamic interactions among participants. Together, trainers and participants explored how digital marketing techniques can be adjusted to the new dynamic business challenges and how important data and analytics are within the digital domain. The final session offered a chance for feedback into how each selected company can adapt their digital strategy and communications to develop a successful engagement with their prospect customers. Furthermore, these sessions were a great opportunity for all participating organizations to connect different departments under a common goal: improving their digital transformation and offer to customers.
The Programme will continue offering two more specialized courses in advanced digital and data driven Marketing and strategic perspectives for experienced practitioners in Marketing Departments or for those who already participated in the first course.
The overall Programme is aimed to expand our University international relationships, and it is delivered by the Digital and Data Driven Marketing Department, Southampton Business School. The Programme is led by Prof. Paurav Shukla, Head of Digital and Data driven Marketing Department, supported by Prof. Sabu Padmadas, Associate Dean International, Faculty of Social Sciences. The first course was delivered by Dr Monica Mihalache and Dr Philip Alford, lecturers within the Digital and Data Driven Marketing Department at Southampton Business School.
Dr. Monica Mihalache, lecturer in the programme: “In these changing times, the diversification of our educational offer by getting closer to new markets comes logically. Our Department has the potential to explore new boundaries and formats of delivery, engaging with new research and educational environments in Digital Marketing through interactive online sessions. And we are learning too! Through international programmes, we come to better understand other educational systems, how mature students expand their knowledge, how they interact in different environments and apply our advices. I had a captivating experience and I am thankful for the opportunity and support”.
Dr Phillip Alford, lecturer in the programme: “I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of co-delivering the "The Fundamentals of Digital & Data Driven Marketing” to the professional course participants in Oman. As is always the case with executive level education, the flow of knowledge is never only one way - participants learn from the course leader, from each other and the course leader also learns from the participants! One of the many interesting and creative aspects of delivering a course to professionals lies in being able to adapt the content of the course to the company context in which the participants are employed. During the lectures and the small breakout groups, I was able to draw on my research into SME Martech adoption and integration, and also my professional experience of consulting and training with SMEs, in order to bring the topic to life in ways both engaging and relevant to the participants’ tactical and strategic marketing challenges within their respective organisations.”
Prof. Paurav Shukla stated that “The programme is our first foray into executive education online and in Middle Eastern market. Our cutting-edge research in the field of digital and data-driven marketing underpins the programme and the high-level satisfaction observed among participants is a clear reflection of that. We continue to explore further such global opportunity through the dynamic team within the department and the amazing support from the Faculty International Team”.
Reflecting on the event, Prof Sabu Padmadas, Associate Dean International of Social Sciences, said: “Our vision and aspirations to enable knowledge-transfer have no fixed geographic boundaries, and Faculty of Social Sciences remain committed to strengthening capacity and building meaningful partnerships across the globe…a brilliant start and a wonderful professional experience working with Data Academy in Muscat".
