Managing the Company of the Future

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.

Course Introduction

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

Week 1

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.

Week 2

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.

Week 3

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.

Week 4

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.

Week 5

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.


Julian Birkinshaw
Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship
London Business School