This core course focuses on understanding levers for structuring, managing, and improving a firm's recurring business processes to achieve competitive advantage in customer responsiveness, price, quality, and variety of products and services. These levers are as applicable to banks, hospitals, and brokerage firms, for example, as to traditional manufacturing. Processes within firms, as well as between firms, i.e., supply chains, are explored. The fundamental principles underlying state-of-the-art practices are examined so that students learn to critically evaluate these and other operational improvement programs.
The course teaches the basics of managing a firm's operations and how operational issues affect and are affected by the many business decisions they will be called upon to make or recommend in their careers. As such, this course is essential for students aspiring to become consultants, entrepreneurs, or general managers. A working knowledge of operations is also indispensable to those interested in marketing, finance, and accounting, where the interface between these functions and operations is critical. Finally, an understanding of how firms become market leaders through operations is important in investment careers.
Most sessions consist of in-depth case discussions integrated with theory. As such, the course is ideal preparation for many cases encountered during interviews for internships and full-time positions.
