Marketing as a Strategic Discipline: Executive MBA Participants Explored How Companies Create and Deliver Value

Marketing at the executive level is about much more than communication. It sits at the intersection of strategy, customer understanding, growth, competitive positioning, and value creation.

Participants in our Executive MBA Class of 2025 recently completed the Marketing module, an intensive learning experience designed to challenge conventional views of marketing and broaden participants’ understanding of its strategic role within organisations.

Led by Marek Novinsky, the module combined Harvard case studies, interactive discussions, and practical business situations drawn from a wide range of industries and markets. Throughout the course, participants worked through real managerial dilemmas and explored how senior leaders make decisions in increasingly competitive and customer-centric environments.

The learning experience was further enriched by guest lectures from industry leaders Jaroslav Malina and Josef Karasek, who shared their executive perspectives and practical insights from years of business experience. Their contributions connected academic frameworks with the realities of leading organisations and building successful brands in dynamic markets.

During the module, participants examined how companies develop compelling value propositions, build and manage brands, respond to competitive pressures, and adapt to rapidly evolving customer expectations. Discussions frequently extended beyond traditional marketing topics, highlighting the close relationship between marketing decisions and broader business performance.

Rather than viewing marketing as a standalone function, the course emphasised its role as one of the key mechanisms through which organisations translate strategy into market relevance and sustainable growth. Even the most sophisticated business strategy can fall short if a company is unable to clearly create, communicate, and deliver value to its customers.

For executive leaders, understanding marketing is therefore not optional. It is an essential capability for driving organisational performance, shaping competitive advantage, and ensuring that strategic ambitions resonate in the marketplace.

At the Executive MBA, we believe that effective leadership requires not only making the right strategic choices, but also understanding how those choices ultimately reach and create value for customers.