Courses

• QST OM 840: Managing and Improving Quality: Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726, QM711/716/717
  Lean and Six Sigma are powerful improvement methodologies that promote process improvement, cost reduction and significant enhancement of bottom-line profitability. The purpose of this course is to thoroughly examine the concept of quality, to define it in terms that are useful for managers, to survey the ideas of major quality thinkers and theorists, to develop proficiency in the use of quality tools, and to consider the challenges of quality program implementation in real business situations. Throughout the course we will investigate similarities and differences between quality management in manufacturing and service contexts. The course has three major objectives. The first goal is to define quality and explore important philosophies and useful frameworks for managers or consultants. The second goal is to focus on the Lean and Six Sigma tools available for the pursuit of lasting quality improvements. The third is to bring the experiences of Lean Six Sigma practice into the classroom. We'll benefit from the expertise and experience of Lean and Six Sigma professionals who will help us to understand the challenges of Lean and Six Sigma implementations and analyze the lessons they have learned from projects they have undertaken.
• QST OM 845: Clean Technologies and Supply Chains
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726
  The clean technology industry is one of the largest sectors of the economy and yet still undergoing significant growth and attracting a plethora of new entrants. It has been characterized by a great deal of experimentation around new technologies and around business models in the face of regulatory and market place disruptions. The course uses a combination of cases, simulation and analytical exercises to review trends and their co-evolution within the clean technology/energy eco-system. It aims to build a skill set around risk and opportunity assessment, and allied implementation challenges. This course is aligned with the requirements of the Entrepreneurship, PNP and Strategy concentrations.
• QST OM 854: Supply Chain Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726
  This course presents tools and modeling frameworks that are relevant to solving today's supply-chain problems. The class will offer a mixture of case discussions, lectures, games, and outside speakers. Case discussions will cover subjects including designing new-product supply chains, optimizing inventory levels, quick response, the role of B2B exchanges, and managing capacity for short life-cycle products. Games, including the distribution game, the OPT game, and the Beer Game, will reinforce the concepts in a constructive way. Finally, outside speakers will present real-world examples of how supply-chain models are being deployed in practice. This course is for students who will be working in consulting or supply-chain management. For those interested in finance or marketing, the course provides solid exposure to an area that is integral to product-focused companies.
• QST OM 855: Project Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726
  Projects are increasingly the way that work gets done in companies of all types and sizes. In this new course you will learn the strategic dimensions of project management, including critical aspects of project selection, definition, planning, execution, and monitoring. Concepts and approaches for dealing with complexity, uncertainty, vague mandates, temporary staff, partners, stakeholders, dynamic risk, and time-critical deadlines are emphasized. Cases and readings cover a wide range of industry and organizational contexts. This course requires that students apply these topics and considerations to a real project of their choice either by analysis of publicly available information or direct field study. Many MBAs are tested on the job through tough assignments in project settings. Your performance there is highly visible. Doing especially well can accelerate your subsequent career opportunities. Prepare now for success in strategic project management by developing the skills and perspectives covered in OM855!
• QST OM 865: Idea Lab
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726, MK713/723/724
  This is an experiential course aimed at developing ideas for digital products and services ("web services"), within the context of a multi-stage "innovation tournament." The tournament structure will force the screening of certain ideas in the initial stages, and in such cases, some students will get reassigned to the surviving ideas. Participants will learn specific tools, methods, and concepts related to the creation of such services (e.g., opportunity sensing, management of variation, innovation/business analytics, crowd sourcing vs out sourcing decisions, existing versus incremental enabling technologies, idea interdependence and information architecture, task sequencing for enhancing cycle time and service quality) and will be required to develop web based test tools. The instructor anticipates that the best performing ideas will have high potential for entrepreneurial development. Thus, this course can serve as a front end to conduct follow-on development by working either in the IS, operations, health sector management, energy or entrepreneurship concentration courses, and/or by working with affinity groups in the BU community, such as, ITEC. Participants will be expected to read assigned material on visualization of ideas, and engage in the generation of promising ideas prior to starting this class. Make sure you have basic familiarity with how the web works. You need not be technical, nor have deep experience with the web development. Rather, you simply should understand the basic ideas behind URLs, HTML, and how web browsers work. You can figure this out by reading the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Wide_Web). We will also provide you with a mock-up of a typical website along with a tutorial on how to upload and edit this web site.
• QST OM 880: Product Design and Development
  Graduate Prerequisites: OM710/725/726
  This course explores central managerial challenges in the effective design, development, and introduction of new products. Topics covered include reducing the time to market while meeting cost and quality targets; managing cross-functional projects and inherent technological risks while keeping a focus on customer requirements; and integrated problem-solving by industrial designers, engineers, manufactures, and marketing specialists. [Case studies, readings, guest lecturers, field project]
• QST OM 898: Directed Study: Operations and Technology Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chairman
  Graduate-level directed study in Operations and Technology Management. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Program Office website.
• QST OM 922: Theory of Technology and Operations Management
  This seminar's objective is to expose the students to the traditional research associated with Operations Management. Early work done in the areas of inventory, scheduling, facility layout and logistics are generally considered the foundation on which traditional OM research has built. While highly quantitative, the seminar focuses on the means by which the research was (1) conducted, (2) linked to real problems, (3) implemented (or not implemented), and (4) the research opportunities that have been or could be exploited.
• QST OM 928: Research Seminar: Economics and Operations Management
  This course exposes students to a diverse range of OM research methods and topics, and highlights the research of current OTM faculty. The goal of this course is to train students to think as a serious OM researcher who aims to publish in top-tier journals and make meaningful contributions to the field.
• QST OM 998: Directed Study: Operations and Technology Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chairman
  PhD-level directed study in Operations and Technology Management. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Program Office website.
• QST PL 350: The Psychology of Decision Making: Implications for Business and Public Policy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: sophomore standing
  This course provides an introduction to how individuals make decisions by applying the tools of psychology and economics. We will learn to identify common mistakes and biases. Students will have the opportunity to evaluate their own decision-making ability and learn how to make improved decisions. We link each aspect of decision-making studied to current personal finance decision, business problem, and/or public policy issue. This course will improve negotiation ability and prepare students to use social science data to support decisions. The course consists of case discussions, lectures, and experiments, as well as a project applying insights from the course to students' topic of choice.
• QST PL 425: Introduction to the Health Sector: Issues and Opportunities
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: SMG SM131 and FE101, and junior standing. Open to non-SMG students with junior standing with consent of the instructor.
  This course provides a dynamic introduction to the health sector, beginning with the burden and distribution of disease and current patterns of expenditures. While the primary emphasis will be on the U.S. healthcare system, a global context will be developed. The basic elements of insurance and payment, service organization and delivery, and life sciences products (drugs, diagnostics, and devices) will be described, and placed in the context of the unique economic structure of the sector. The intense challenges of the sector will be explored, including ethical, social and organizational dilemmas that arise as well as business opportunities that emerge. The roles that government policy, rapid technology growth, and practice development play as drivers of system change will be addressed throughout.
• QST PL 430: The U.S. Healthcare System in Transition
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: SMG SM131 and FE101, SMG LA 245 and junior standing. Open to non-SMG students with junior standing and a minor in business with consent of the instructor.
  The U.S. healthcare system is undergoing sweeping change as a result of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Knowledge of how the reform law is affecting healthcare organizations, health professionals, consumers, and American businesses is essential for everyone, especially those planning careers in management or business. This rigorous Law and Public Policy seminar provides an in-depth look at the economic, political and organizational challenges facing the nation as major reforms are implemented, including the creation of state health insurance marketplaces, the formation of accountable care organizations, and new methods of paying hospitals and physicians. Students read and analyze articles, business cases, issue briefs, and legal opinions from diverse perspectives to learn how the U.S. healthcare system came to be and how it will change in the future.
• QST PL 498: Directed Study in Markets, Public Policy, and Law
  Directed study in Markets and Public Policy. 2 or 4 cr. Application available on Undergraduate Program website
• QST PL 700: Introduction to Business Law
  This course will survey contemporary issues in selected areas of law and ethics. We will introduce pivotal areas of law, so that students begin to anticipate legal problems, analyze how to avoid them, and realize how legal principles can be employed to add value in their chosen fields. The subjects are torts, contracts, employment law, securities regulation and corporate governance. We expect that this overview of a few disciplines will encourage students to explore other legal topics relevant to their business interests. We will also offer an analytic structure that enables students to identify ethical issues in business, analyze options and make choices consistent with their own values.
• QST PL 714: Topics in Managerial Economics
  This course will review the economic principles of demand, cost, and competition and show how they provide a foundation for formulating corporate strategy. While much of the course will be devoted to decisions that maximize profits, we will also examine whether profit maximization is the proper (and only) objective underlying the decisions companies make. Other topics include the determinants of demand, demand elasticity, the relationship between production processes and costs, economies of scale, the distinction between planning-stage and realized costs, marginal analysis, interdependent decisions (game theory), and how market structure affects pricing.
• QST PL 727: Organizations, Markets, and Society
  Understanding and analyzing the core strategic decisions facing businesses in competitive markets. Students will examine how businesses achieve their fundamental goals given the need to produce goods and services efficiently and a market environment reflecting consumer preferences (demand) and the strategies and strengths of competitors. Students will develop analytic skills necessary for understanding core business models and how different models create value for the business as well as the larger society.
• QST PL 834: Macroeconomics in the Global Environment
  Macroeconomics is the study of the aggregate behavior of global market participants, i.e. consumers, firms, workers, governments, central banks, foreign investors. Decision making by investment bankers, product/sales managers, policy makers, or consumers inevitably rely on an understanding of the main forces driving GDP, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, and exchange rates. Consider these questions: 1. Should new consumer durable products be launched during recessions? 2. Are countries that experience high productivity growth good investment targets? 3. Will interest rates drop if the US government starts buying back its debt? 4. With significant liquidity demands by the US economy from the public sector, the household sector and businesses, what explains the low US interest rates? Are these factors expected to keep interest rates low also in the future? 5. Can the Euro boost productivity in Europe in the medium to long run and what are the competitiveness challenges for US businesses of such changes? 6. What are the economic effects of wars and how should they be financed? These and other issues will come up in the course. The main goal of this course is to provide a coherent framework that you can use to understand economic events as you confront them in your work environment.
• QST PL 837: Strategic Fundraising and Corporate Philanthropy
  This course is designed to help students develop a sophisticated understanding of the field of philanthropy and its role in building successful nonprofit organizations. The course is designed for students who want to become effective nonprofit managers and development professionals, securing financial resources for charitable organizations from foundations, corporations, and individuals. It is also designed to help students become thoughtful stewards of philanthropic funds as a foundation trustee or program officer, corporate giving officer, or individual philanthropist. Accordingly, the course will alternately adopt the perspective of the grant-seeker and the grant-maker. This approach will help prepare future leaders in the field, whether providers of funding or applicants for it, to understand the current and historical context of their work and to ask the right questions of prospective funders, prospective grantees, and their own organizations. The course will consider diverse viewpoints on philanthropy and explore some alternatives to traditional grant-making.
• QST PL 845: Improving Your Decisions
  The main aim of Improving Your Decisions is to present many of the decision problems managers face and to identify the most effective ways to make sound decisions -- as well as the pitfalls, biases, and mistakes that should be avoided. A key element of the course is to present students with a series of decision challenges: What would you do? In other words, you must come to grips with actual decisions and defend your actions. The assigned readings also convey the most recent research findings in behavioral economics: how individuals and managers actually make decisions. The second half of the course centers on group decision making: how groups with common and not-so-common interests decide. The focus shifts from individual choices to group decisions that embody both competitive and cooperative elements.