MBA Courses

BUS 551 – Process and Systems Management (MBA core)
This is the core Information Systems and Operations Management course.  I have taught/currently teach this course in the full-time, evening and one-year MBA programs. Next offering: Spring 2011 (Evening MBA program)

This course covers the basics of operations management and information systems strategy. The course adopts an integrated supply-chain view of businesses. Topics include- Information Systems and Operations Strategy, Process fundamentals and analysis, Supply chain management, alignment of IT with business objectives, consumer profiling Security and privacy in online environments, and business process outsourcing and off-shoring.

BUS 556 – Analytics for e-Markets (MBA Elective)
This is an elective course is geared towards understanding and developing analytical strategies for competing in electronic markets. This course is specifically geared towards MBA students with any of the following interest-profile: 1. General manager in-charge of pricing and analytical strategies in high-tech industries such as mobile networks, software, video games, music. 2. Marketing manager for any firm with an interest in interactive/online advertising and social media.  3. Consultant in-charge of analytical strategies for electronic markets. While no special background in economics or statistics is necessary, an interest in quantitative problem solving (both analytical and empirical) is a must.  Next offering: Spring 2011 (full-time & evening MBA program)

The basis for many, if not most current online business models, is network economics.  In this class, students will be introduced to the fundamentals of network economics through a series of hands-on problems, cases and data analysis.  Along with network economics, we will also study pricing and versioning strategies specifically for electronic markets.  At the end of the class students will be able to abstract real-world problems into workable components through analytical models and thinking.  Industry speakers will add to this understanding.  It is not the purpose of this class to teach data analysis or regression but we will use what you have learnt in your prior courses toward understanding problem definition, data identification, collection and analysis.  While cases often directly provide students with data, a key business problem faced by many firms is identification of data itself. To this end students will be engaged in two group projects:

Google Online Marketing Challenge: In the previous years we have been part of the Google Online Marketing Challenge where students learn about two-sided markets through actual bidding for keywords.  We shall continue this tradition. The Google Online Marketing Challenge is a great hands-on exercise for students in classes such as advertising, ecommerce, integrated marketing communication, management information systems, marketing and new media technologies. Students will manage and update a Google AdWords campaign and in process learn about valuing information and the nature of two-sided markets.

Quantifying Social Media Impact: This project is geared towards structured thinking for unstructured problems.  For many businesses the rise of social media and user generated content is possibly a boon but also apparently a source of confusion.  There is not only an abundance of social networking sites but also different categories of data.  In this project, students will empirically show how social networking sites and user-generated content influence success of a product. You will identify, collect and analyze data to substantiate your claims.