Courses

• GSM MK 853: Global Strategic Marketing
  This course focuses on the key strategic marketing decisions managers must make: deciding whether to market globally; selecting countries in which to market; choosing marketing strategies and tactics for entry and growth; and organizing for and managing the implementation of global marketing strategies.
• GSM MK 854: Branding
  This is a course about branding, and the ways that brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace. The course is embedded in sociological, anthropological, and psychological theories of consumer behavior and culture, and relies on these disciplines for insight into effective strategic management of the brand. The cases, readings, in-class discussions, and assignments are designed to provide you with: an understanding of brands as co-creations of consumers, marketers, and cultures, and brand management as a collaborative process of meaning management; a sound foundation in consumer-brand behavior; and a capacity to think creatively and with increased precision about the strategies and tactics involved in building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining strong brands. Select topics we will cover include brand (re)positioning, brand design, brand community, product placements and grassroots marketing, internal branding, brand relationships, brand architecture, brand leverage and extensions, brand metrics, and brand stewardship. A group brand planning project weaves content throughout the course; individual write-ups allow you to explore select branding topics in more detail. Several guest speakers from the branding services, consulting, and practice sides will provide their insights throughout the course.
• GSM MK 856: Consumer Behavior
  In order to successfully implement strategy, marketers need to understand their consumers ? who they are, what they want, how they make decisions, and how their behavior is influenced by marketers? actions. This course will cover topics such as the role of culture, psychological processes (e.g. motivation, perception, memory, attitudes, etc.) and marketplace behaviors (e.g. in retail settings, online, post-purchase, etc.). We will also look at such marketing concepts as segmentation strategy, value-based pricing, brand equity, new product adoption, and customer relationship management. The course involves a team project focused on discovering an unmet consumer need and designing a product and marketing plan to address that need.
• GSM MK 857: Service Marketing Management
  This course takes both a practical and conceptual approach to the marketing of services. The marketing literature views quality as being defined by customer expectations and perceptions. This course looks at key components of services that affect these expectations and perceptions as well as issues of demand management; developing systems that address custom problem solving and complaint management; and the overlap between operational, organizational, behavioral, and marketing issues in service management. The focus of the course varies by class to include professional services, small service, large service organizations and businesses that produce services as a key and necessary line extension to products that they produce.
• GSM MK 859: Business Marketing
  This course provides an in-depth understanding of the unique aspects of marketing in a business-to-business environment. Students apply current marketing theory and techniques to industrial market settings. In addition, they develop managerial skills in the marketing planning and execution process, as well as critical analysis and problem-solving abilities with respect to marketing working relationships. The course allows participants to experiment with and apply strategic marketing concepts in a complex industrial marketing environment. Topics covered include the dynamics of relationships between suppliers and customers, the increasing reliance on the Marketing-R&D interface, the structuring of alliances between so-called competitors, and the process of negotiations-all in order to better understand how organizations endeavor to become and stay market-oriented. [Lectures, cases, guest speskers, interactive marketing simulation.]
• GSM MK 860: Integrated Marketing Communication
  The aim of this course is to provide you with an understanding of the strategic issues surrounding marketing communication, of which advertising is but one vehicle. We will be focusing on Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC), which involves using a variety of tools (e.g. advertising, sales promotion, public relations, etc.) in a synergistic manner to achieve communication objectives. Students will learn IMC principles and practices and then develop an IMC campaign from situation analysis to strategy development and implementation. The ultimate objective of this course is to enable students to understand and operate within the advertising industry from either a client or agency perspective.
• GSM MK 867: Marketing Social Change
  Many corporations are taking an interest in corporate social responsibility, as they realize the implications of climate change, respond to public, NGO and shareholder scrutiny of business practices, and see the need for long-term sustainability strategies. Businesses are analyzing how to incorporate practices that conserve resources and promote social good into the business model. Some companies are scrutinizing their supply chain, generating eco-footprints for their products, and developing metrics to evaluate the value that CSR brings to business. More and more, corporate marketers are integrating social-change strategies, from cause-related marketing to campaign sponsorship to social change advertising, into their marketing programs. The course Marketing Social Change will examine the roots of marketing social change -- marketing at traditional nonprofits, campaigns launched to influence public actions, legally-dictated social change, cause-related marketing -- and the evolution of corporate social responsibility. The course will explore how commercial marketing principles can be applied to positively influence social change. Particular emphasis will be placed on what it means for a corporation to be ?socially responsible? and the complex issues facing marketing managers in evaluating the costs and benefits of CSR. The course will include lectures, discussions, guest lectures by experts in social marketing and corporate social responsibility, and a semester-long project at a socially responsible company or organization. The course will be taught in Spring 2008 by Professor Kristi Kienholz. Professor Kienholz holds a BA from Williams College and an MPA from Harvard University. Kienholz currently consults to international organizations on NGO-private sector partnerships designed to advance social change. If you have questions about the course, you may contact Professor Kienholz directly at Kristi_Kienholz@ksg04.harvard.edu.
• GSM MK 912: Philosophy of Science and Pro-seminar
  This course focuses on the science of marketing. It develops an understanding of where the study of marketing falls within the philosophy of science and the creation of testable theory. After reviewing the historical underpinnings of scientific theory development and scientific methodology. It compares and contrasts different approaches to marketing science from empiricism to post modernism and examines what it is that makes some research interesting and important. The second part of the course is devoted to developing some of the professional skills needed by practicing marketing.
• GSM MK 927: Marketing Management and the Customer-Focused Firm
  This course will familiarize doctoral students with various areas of investigation for problem-oriented academic marketing research pertinent to the research mission of the department: advancing the customer-focused firm. Discussion topics include but are not limited to the following strategies for gaining strategic advantage through the cultivation of marketing relationships: branding and brand equity, pricing, sales, customer relationship management and CRM, consumer-company identification, corporate social responsibility, consumer-to-consumer relationships and brand communities, retailing and customer service, product innovation, and product launch strategy. Through exposure to a strategic marketing perspective for the identification of research problem areas, this course will further socialize students into the process of developing research ideas and undertaking research, while stimulating the development of ideas for summer projects, qualifying papers, and dissertations.
• GSM OB 712: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces you to some fundamental concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better acquainted with the organizations for which you work, the teams in which you work, the people with whom you work, and your own personal development. Specifically, this course has five tracks: 1) how to develop yourselves as managers, 2) how to work well within teams, 3) how to develop more effective organizations, 4) how to assess the external environment, and 5) how to initiate change in each one of the above arenas. Tying all of these elements together, we will devote particular attention to the traits, skills and behaviors that are indicative of good leadership and how organizations and managers can be transformed for better alignment with the business demands of the future.
• GSM OB 713: Managing Organizations and People
  This course introduces concepts, models and frameworks to help you become better managers of the organizations you work for, the teams you work in, the people you work with and your own professional development. Emphasis will be on behavioral science concepts and research findings related to the major challenge managers face ? how to organize individuals in order to fulfill the objectives and strategies of the firm. Topics that will be examined include: the nature and dynamics of the organization (organizational structure and culture, performance systems and metrics, reward systems, selection and socialization); the elements of individual leadership and personal development (power, decision-making, emotional intelligence, career development, developmental needs, feedback, and mentoring and coaching); managing change within organizational contexts (the dynamics and stages of organizational change and the skills and tactics employed by change agents); and the relationships between the firm and the external environment in which it operates. The course objective is to provide analytical skills and strategies, substantive knowledge, and a professional sensibility that will increase your ability to take effective action in firms, agencies and other organizations.
• GSM OB 830: Leading the Mission-Driven Organization
  Mission-driven organizations are created in order to accomplish goals that extend beyond profits for stakeholders and owners. Missions vary, ranging from, among many others, educating or protecting youth, safeguarding the planet, healing the sick, eradicating poverty, and enabling spirituality. Such missions occur in the context of various organizations, including non-profit and for-profit, philanthropic and religious, public and private, governmental and non-governmental. This course focuses on leadership theories, frameworks, and practices that take seriously the nature of workers, including both professional staff and volunteers, and their reasons for choosing to work in such organizations. This course is designed to build the capacities of students to use specific tools?related to leadership, conflict, and change?that are particularly useful in leading mission-driven organizations, and enable them to develop particular insights about specific mission-driven organizations of interest, related to their effectiveness and capacities for change. This course is particularly appropriate for students focusing on non-profit organizations, health-care systems and entrepreneurial organizations.
• GSM OB 838: Global Strategic Human Resources Management
  This course focuses on personnel and labor policies that are crucial to the accomplishment of a company's strategy. After introducing a conceptual framework, the course, largely through case studies, emphasizes the policies needed to attract, develop, and motivate an organization's members. Specific topics include the employment relationship, employee relations, contract negotiation and administration, and benefit policies and programs. This course is as concerned with the executive and professional level as it is with the non-exempt work force.
• GSM OB 840: Management Consulting Field Project
  The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of the management consulting process and its practical application. The course simulates a small consulting firm where students are consultants. Students complete significant fieldwork outside of classroom time. Students explore dimensions of defining and understanding the consulting framework, engagements, work methodology, client relationship management, value creation, developing and delivering presentations and client follow-up. This course includes one primary deliverable: the initiation, scoping and completion of a consulting field project. This class is designed and best suited for second year students who have 3-5 years work experience in the public, private or nonprofit sectors.
• GSM OB 847: Leading High Performance Teams and Project Groups
  This course introduces the challenges of leading and participating in teams and project groups. It emphasizes the role of leadership in composing teams, motivating members, and creating an environment in which teams and their members grow in capacity over time. This course will use cases, experiential exercises, and group projects to help students gain both knowledge of team dynamics and the skills to shape them.
• GSM OB 848: The Leadership Challenge
  This course examines the essence of leadership; its relationship to managing; and the behaviors, attitudes and perspectives that distinguish leaders. Leadership is considered in a variety of ways: leadership in crises, at the top, in the middle, and in groups. Case studies, students' past experiences, instruments, and other learning activities provide opportunities for students to assess and develop their leadership talents.
• GSM OB 853: Negotiations
  This course uses the theory and research on effective negotiating strategies to build students' understanding of, and skills for, managing differences and negotiation situations. The course considers, among other topics, the issues of negotiating across functions, between levels, across national and cultural differences, over race and gender differences, and between organizations. Students examine: 1) problems of influence and self-defense in highly competitive "hardball" negotiations; and 2) the art of using differences for creative problem-solving and "mutual gain" outcomes. The emphasis is on developing practical skills for effective negotiations that can be applied to concrete situations. Students should be prepared to learn from their own experiences and practice in this course.
• GSM OM 726: Creating Value Through Operations and Technology
  This MBA core course is case-oriented and focuses on topics of use to managers in any environment: process analysis, process improvement, supply chain management, and strategic operations decision-making. The course emphasizes the importance of effectiveness and efficiency and evaluates the potential trade-offs between them.
• GSM OM 840: Managing and Improving Quality: Six Sigma Green Belt Certification
  Six Sigma is a powerful management tool that promotes 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 Six Sigma tools available for the pursuit of lasting quality improvements. The third is to bring the experiences of Six Sigma practice into the classroom. We?ll benefit from the expertise and experience of Six Sigma professionals who will help us to understand the challenges of Six Sigma implementations and analyze the lessons they have learned from projects they have undertaken.
• GSM OM 845: Clean Technologies and Supply Chains
  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 being set up as an MBA elective that is aligned with the needs of Entrepreneurship, PNP and Strategy concentrations. GRS and ENG students who have graduate level exposure to clean technologies/ environmental studies, and who wish to explore business aspects of clean technology issues may enroll with instructors permission.

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