Courses

• SMG OB 444: International Management
  Examines the many dimensions of managing people in the global organization. Topics include understanding and valuing cultural differences as well as career management in global organizations.
• SMG OB 448: Negotiations
  Focuses on the problems and possibilities of effective negotiations, conflict management, and power and influence at work and in other settings. Emphasizes developing both intellectual knowledge of approaches to negotiation, conflict and organizational influences and practical skills in applying that knowledge to various situations.
• SMG OB 460: The Leadership Challenge
  This course will be co-taught by Prof. Lloyd Baird and Dr. Sandi Deacon. Required for Organizational Behavior concentrators. Explores the nature of leadership in theory and practice. Emphasizes the perspective that leaders are needed at all levels in organizations. In addition to studying leaders, this course uses self-assessment as an initial step in creating a plan for personal leadership development.
• SMG OB 498: Directed Study: Organizational Behavior
  
• SMG OM 323: Operations Management
  Junior requirement—component of SMG SM 323, The Cross Functional Core. Focuses on the elements of operations management that are of particular importance in the context of new product development. These include: product and process design, process analysis, supply chain configuration, inventory management, and capacity and production planning. A semester-long business plan explores the interaction between operations management and marketing, information systems, and finance decisions.
• SMG OM 440: Operations Strategy
  Operations Policy explores the ability of an organization’s operations to satisfy its strategic requirements. We do so by investigating the influence of decisions made about the structure—capacities, facilities, technology, and vertical integration—and infrastructure—workforces, quality, production planning and control, and organization—of an organization’s operations and its capabilities. These decisions are considered in the context of different types of performance improvement plans organizations use: quality management, JIT, reengineering, supply chain management, strategic alliances, and performance management.
• SMG OM 441: Operations Analysis
  This course presents tools and modeling frameworks that are relevant to solving today’s supply chain problems. The class is a mixture of case discussions, lectures, games, and outside speakers. Case discussions cover subjects including designing new-product supply chains, optimizing inventory levels, quick response, and capacity management. Lectures provide the theoretical foundation for the course; the major subjects are inventory theory and forecasting. Although the course is not overly focused on mathematics, enough detail will be provided so that students can apply the material in practice. 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 developed in practice. This course is designed for students that will be working in consulting or supply chain management after graduation. For students majoring in areas like Finance or Marketing, it is a solid exposure to an area that is integral to any product-focused company.
• SMG OM 443: Supply Chain Modeling Practicum
  This class provides hands-on exposure to modeling a real-world multi-echelon supply chain problem. Students will work in teams and be assigned to solve a supply chain problem presented by a local company. Companies include Boston Scientific, Gillette, and Seven Cycles. The projects focus on determining the optimal solution as well as near-optimal solutions that can be more easily implemented in practice.
• SMG OM 465: Improving Quality: Six Sigma Certification
  Six Sigma quality programs help companies deliver near-perfect products and services. It has not only changed the quality “DNA” of leading companies around the world, but also emerged as a key factor in promotions and salaries. People trained as Six Sigma experts are highly sought after on the job market. This course makes students proficient in Six Sigma including its underlying philosophies, tools (for example, statistical process control), and implementation. This course certifies students as Six Sigma Green Belts and is also designed to prepare students so that when they complete one or more quality improvement projects in a post-BU career, they will be ready to test for a “Black Belt.”
• SMG OM 467: Global Supply Management
  Required for Operations Management concentrators. Aims to develop an understanding of the nature of international problems associated with the supply, distribution, and sourcing of products. Issues such as the operational support of market development in foreign countries, international sourcing, country analysis, and the management of supply and distribution activities are covered. A team project is required.
• SMG OM 498: Directed Study in Operations Management
  Directed study requires consent of the instructor and the department chairman.
• SMG PL 498: Directed Study in Markets, Public Policy and Law
  Directed Study
• SMG QM 450: Modeling in Excel
  There are two main goals for the course: (1) to improve students’ ability to think logically about and to structure complex managerial problems; and (2) to improve students’ ability to develop Excel-based spreadsheet models that can be used to significantly improve managerial decision-making. The course will be taught almost entirely by example, using problems from the main functional areas of business—Finance, Operations, and Marketing. Students will learn about the two main types of modeling approaches: optimization models, i.e., models that can help find the “best” solution; and simulation models, i.e., models that allow explicit consideration of risk trade-offs associated with alternatives.
• SMG SI 422: Strategy and Policy
  This course provides students with a powerful set of tools which will prepare them to analyze, formulate, and implement business unit and corporate-level strategy with the aim of attaining sustainable competitive advantage. SI422 adopts the perspective of the general manager, challenging student knowledge in each functional area in the effort to create integrative strategies that serve the needs of shareholders, as well as other stakeholders inside and outside the company. The course includes conceptual readings, which elucidate the fundamental concepts and frameworks of strategic management, as well as case analyses, which enable students to apply their knowledge to real-world situations and managerial decisions. The class culminates with a final project, which requires student teams to perform a complete strategic analysis on a public company, considering its industry environment and dynamics, its strategic positioning and internal resources, and proposing a course of action for the firm to respond to its strategic challenges.
• SMG SI 435: Entertainment Management
  See instructor for course description
• SMG SI 438: Talent Representation and Management
  Prereq: SMG OB221. Offered only in Los Angeles. Using case studies and business models, students will examine the manner in which critical players interact and attempt to work together in behalf of clients in an effort to make their “professional dreams” come to fruition. Participants will gain an understanding of the different areas of talent representation, how each one functions in the scope of a talent’s career and what the responsibilities are for each position in each area of representation. Participants will also gain a clear view of what the business of Entertainment Representation has to offer as a chosen career. (Pilot course for Spring 2010.)
• SMG SI 443: Art of the Start
  Prereq: SMG FE 323, SMG IS 323, SMG MK 323, SMG OM 323 and SMG SI444 or permission of the instructor. The course focuses on sales strategy and execution, critical factors in building a successful business. The entrepreneur, having successfully created a novel offering, must create and keep a customer. This course will provide students with effective sales skills to create traction with customers and maximize revenue growth. In addition, students will learn new frameworks to evaluate the various market channels, trade-offs in strategic partnerships, and approaches to managing a field sales force. The course also addresses identifying early adopters, pricing strategies, and the selling process. Students will engage in a field project assisting an entrepreneur with the go-to-market strategy. (Pilot course for Fall 2010.)
• SMG SI 444: Entrepreneurship
  Addresses the specifics of planning a business startup or expanding and altering an existing small business, including the feasibility of ideas, market definition, management, and operations and financing requirements. This is a hands-on, experiential learning course requiring integration of previous coursework into a coherent, realistic business plan. Helps students assess and develop their own particular idea and to consider the appropriateness for them of entrepreneurship as a career choice.
• SMG SI 445: Small Business Management
  Designed to help students understand the intricacies of running a small company. The course addresses the major problem areas in smaller companies, including valuation, negotiation, deal structure, personnel and compensation, and marketing and financing. Exposes students to a wide range of business activities, emphasizing significant differences between large and small enterprises.
• SMG SI 447: Investing in Sustainable Technologies
  Summer only. Prereq: SMG FE 323, IS 323, MK 323, OM 323. Introduces students to the broad issues underlying global sustainability challenges resulting from population growth, resource scarcity, environmental degradation, and climate change; emerging technological solutions to those challenges in food supply, water/sanitation, energy, healthcare industries/sectors; and, the structure, operations and methods of the global venture capital industry. Students will work in teams focused on specific industries/sectors of interest and identify attractive investment opportunities within the industry/sector. Students will then search for and identify an array of breakthrough technologies related to that sector, connecting emerging innovations from the research lab with market needs/opportunities and assessing attractiveness and commercial feasibility of each, thus collectively crafting a diversified portfolio of sustainable technology-based investments. The course is intended for students with limited/no prior background in sustainability, sciences or technologies. (Pilot Course for Summer 2010.)

Note that this information may change at any time.

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