Strategic Operations

2 credit hours

This course examines how consultants and managers can help organizations to use their operations to build a competitive advantage. In today’s increasingly global and competitive environment the operational choices a firm makes are a critical part of its strategy and eventual success or failure—whether or not the company owns or outsources its actual operations. Operations are not just a source of cost, or even a value-add to the core part of the business, but rather they can and should be a primary competitive weapon. This course seeks to answer three related questions:

We will examine companies around the world and across different industries. An organization’s operations strategy is distinct from, but not independent of, its other strategic choices. Therefore, this course will build not only on the core operations course but also on the work you have completed in other areas such as strategy, marketing, and organizational behavior.

This class is appropriate for individuals working or going into consulting as well as operating or general management roles. The study of how operations can drive a firm’s overall success (or failure) and how operations interact with other functional areas provides important lessons for all MBA students.

Explore how you can customize your degree by selecting from wide-ranging concentrations of study that focus on specialized disciplines. You can also request information to learn more.

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