In the hyper-competitive job market of today a postgraduate degree in business management has become a required qualification for employment in jobs that university graduates would find appealing and rewarding. Fields that were in high demand a few years ago are now saturated and many graduates are unable to secure the job they have targeted with their first degree. They are seeking to discover new opportunities in the private and public sector to secure gainful employment with good career prospects.

Here at  CIIM – Cyprus International Institute of Management, with 27+ years in management education, we have designed and tested over the years a master degree that addresses the needs of younger professionals with limited work experience who want to take a step up on the career ladder to follow a managerial path or start their own business. This is what our MBM – MSc in Business Management – offers to its participants. Unlike MBA – Master of Business Administration – the MBM programme does not require a three-year work experience because it is designed specifically for fresh graduates or those who have been employed in a non-managerial role and now may want to grow to a different role or even change their career path. The MBM programme is designed to expose students to the broadest spectre of business management functions and at the same time to enrich their skill set via different specialisations. Our mission is to develop university graduates into professional managers who will gain the ability to see value-creating opportunities in the dynamic world of global business and use those opportunities – in a responsible manner – to start or advance their career. Our key aspiration is to enhance employability prospects of our students to help them find rewarding jobs.

Seven reasons to choose CIIM MBM – MSc in Business Management

1. CIIM MBM – MSc in Business Management (previously MSc Management) was ranked 21st in Western Europe by Eduniversal, the Paris-based global ranking agency in higher education.
The CIIM MBM programme was placed after the MSc Management programmes of HEC Lausanne (Switzerland) 19th place and of the UCD (Ireland) 20th place, and before the Bologna Business School (Italy) 22nd

It is worth to recall that the Master in Management degree was introduced in the middle of 1990s by European business schools.  Ever since, it has been growing in popularity, and much faster than MBA, so that in the Masters in Management Ranking of 2015 by the Financial Times Business Education, the editor Della Bradshaw wrote: “The Masters in Management degree, once the best-kept secret of European business schools, is becoming the star of 21st-century business education.”

2. CIIM MBM focuses on business management and specifically on marketing, innovation and value creation.

Let me explain why these three in particular and why they are important. As noted already in the early days of management science, marketing is a unique function of business management, a function that is lacking from the management of a non-business entity, such as government or army or church. Other management functions – managing people, managing operations, and managing finances – are common between business and non-business entities, but marketing is truly unique to business. This fundamental thought was first expressed in 1954 by Peter Drucker in his book “The Practice of Management”. Drucker is considered the most influential management thinker ever. To clarify what he meant by marketing as a unique business management function, Drucker wrote: “There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer.” Having ‘created’ a customer, each business needs to innovate continuously in order to stay successful. And ultimately, a business needs to offer good value for money to its customers, and generally speaking, it is important to create value in the economy.

3. CIIM MBM participants have the opportunity to complete two different specialisations in addition to the core subjects on business management – thus diversifying their knowledge and skill set.

Available specialisations: Digital Marketing (includes an opportunity to receive an international Professional Diploma by the Digital Marketing Institute (DMI) in addition to the CIIM Master degree), Entrepreneurship (opportunity to get involved in the activities of ENTICE, Centre for Entrepreneurship and participate in the IDEA business incubator programme funded by the Bank of Cyprus), General Management (focus on Negotiating Skills, Customer Relationship Management, Total Quality Management), Project Management, and Insurance Management.

4. CIIM MBM programme follows a unique philosophy “Learning by Doing” which emphasizes practical learning in a variety of formats, such as career development seminars, company visits, real-life company projects, optional internships, and other.

As Benjamin Franklin famously wrote: “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I may remember, involve me and I learn.”

5. CIIM MBM courses are taught by prestigious international faculty from leading Universities (Harvard, Cambridge, UCL, Yale, and other).

The Programme Director Dr. Olga Kandinskaia is the winner of the 2017 international award ‘Outstanding New Case Writer’ in the prestigious annual case writing competition by the UK-based Case Centre.

6. CIIM MBM programme is fully accredited by DI.PA.E of the Ministry of Education of Cyprus and recognised by KYSATS.

Furthermore, all the students graduating from CIIM receive, in addition to their degree, the Diploma Supplement (a model developed by the European Commission, Council of Europe, and UNESCO/CEPES). The DS is a document attached to a higher degree aiming at improving international transparency and facilitating the academic and professional recognition of qualifications.

7. CIIM MBM has a flexible modular system allowing students to work while doing their degree or seek an internship. With rolling admissions, the programme can be started any time of the year.

Gaining work experience at the same time with the master studies may be challenging yet it accelerates the learning progress and dramatically improves the employability. This makes it a unique investment in one’s future, and helps identify and prepare for the job that one is looking for. As Peter Drucker wrote: “The best way to predict the future is to create it”.

About the Author
Dr Olga Kandinskaia
Assistant Professor of Finance and Director of the MBM – MSc in Business Management
CIIM – Cyprus International Institute of Management
[email protected]