New classes developed by Kellogg’s cross-disciplinary strategic initiatives and academic departments debut in 2017-18
10/20/2017 -
The Kellogg School of Management is pleased to announce the launch of 10 new courses for the 2017-18 academic year. Developed by the School’s academic departments and cross-disciplinary strategic initiatives, the courses cover topics such as energy market economics, healthcare, data exploration, commercializing innovations and more. “We are very excited to continue our tradition of curricular innovation at Kellogg, drawing on both the scholarship or our research faculty and our connections with practice,” said Senior Associate Dean for Curriculum and Teaching Mike Mazzeo.
STRATEGY
The Economics of Energy Markets (STRT-958-5) | Quarter offered: Winter 2018
Meghan Busse, Associate Professor of Strategy
Strongly driven by fundamental economic forces, energy industries require strategy-setting and decision making. As such, the course will focus on various energy industries, primarily emphasizing microeconomic tools of analysis useful across multiple industries. Topics of the course include supply and demand drivers in competitive energy markets such as the roles of storage and transportation, antitrust concerns, market power, as well as the rationale for economic and environmental regulations.
DATA
Data Exploration (DECS-922-0) | Quarter offered: Winter 2018
Robert L. McDonald, Erwin P. Nemmers Professor of Finance
The ability to quickly and efficiently analyze data has become a requisite skill for business leaders. In this course, students will use a tool to explore the basic elements of data management and exploration. Discussions will focus on data acquisition and cleaning, data manipulation, including sub-setting, summaries and the rationale for long and wide formats; data normalization; data visualization; basic statistical analysis; reproducibility; as well as reporting.
“It is now common in business to need to analyze large and unwieldy datasets,” said Professor McDonald. “We moved from calculators to spreadsheets in the 1980s and now we need to move beyond spreadsheets.” The premise of the Data Exploration course, he added, “is that students should be able to work with and analyze raw data from a variety of sources and a variety of forms, using methods that scale. We will use R, which has become one of the dominant tools in data analytics.”
MARKETING
Customer Loyalty (MKTG-948-4) | Quarter offered: Fall 2017
Thomas O’Toole, Clinical Professor of Marketing; Senior Fellow
In marketing, customer loyalty is of enduring importance and is foundational. Taught by Thomas O’Toole, formerly the CMO of United Airlines, President of MileagePlus (among the largest top-rated loyalty programs in the world), and CMO of Hyatt, this class provides a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing customer loyalty, a structured approach to the development of strategies and practical guidance for the development and execution of customer loyalty programs and marketing activities. Students will explore definitions of customer loyalty, metrics and performance measurement, drivers of customer loyalty and more.
“Customer loyalty is a subject that is essential to virtually all business categories and enterprises,” said O’Toole. “It’s the focus of rising management attention in a growing range of categories from retail to healthcare. The main point of the new course is that, to be effective, a strategic approach is required. Thus, it provides a framework, applying research-based insights, for developing and executing customer loyalty strategies in the company.”
Ethnographic Customer Insights (MKTG-949-5) | Quarter offered: Fall 2017
Gina Fong, Adjunct Lecturer of Marketing
In marketing, qualitative research provides a nuanced understanding of customers, which informs how to “live the brand” throughout the customer journey. Taught by Gina Fong, a partner at marketing firm The Fortini-Campbell Company, this class provides an in-depth look at qualitative research tools and skills that reveal a customer’s truth.
“Ethnographic research is not just a way to answer important business questions, but also a way to bring the customer to life inside a company, helping make the decision-making of the company more customer-centric. Knowing the insight into the customer gives the marketer the ability to anticipate what the customer needs and wants – sometimes before he or she are able to articulate it,” said Fong. “This power to predict allows a marketer to stand out in a competitive field with an experience that surprises and delights like no other.” In this class, students will do a ‘deep dive’ into a customer’s life by studying a select customer subculture, experience the world from the subculture’s point of view, and design a customer experience.
HEALTHCARE
CEO Playbook for Health System Success (HEMA-935-5) | Quarter offered: Spring 2018
Dr. Jim Weinstein, Adjunct Lecturer
Strategy is a core organizing theme in healthcare delivery science. Taught by Dr. Jim Weinstein, former CEO and President of Dartmouth-Hitchcock health system, this class will focus on the strategies, tactics and execution of health systems to provide population and value-based care in new payment models. This course is intended to empower students to recognize, develop, communicate and execute against a leadership and change management strategy.
“Despite tremendous advances in medicine, policies remain abstract, hard to execute and lack the necessary ‘transparency’ to be effective and economically sustainable. The U.S. economy cannot sustain the current models that are the largest reason for our national debt. Without the appropriate public-private partnerships of science, technology and equitable distribution systems, we will continue this degenerative spiral toward furthering the inequities between the haves and have nots,” said Dr. Weinstein. “In this class, students will learn the requisite strategies and tactics to lead health systems through the continuous evolution of the industry.”
COLLABORATION & LEADERSHIP
Strategic Communications for Organizations (KACI-915) | Quarter offered: Winter 2018
Shana Carroll, Clinical Associate Professor of Management Communications; Faculty Director, Management Communications Program
As business leaders gain seniority, the ability to strategically and effectively communicate becomes increasingly critical. CEOs cite spending the majority of their time proactively communicating to engage large and dispersed workforces, as well as to manage the interests of diverse stakeholders. As ambitious managers, the communication skills of aspiring leaders will quickly be put to the test. Whether managing a cross-functional team, creating strategic alignment, building or shaping culture, driving growth or initiating change, an aspiring leader’s ability to engage, mobilize and gain support is instrumental to success.
"Effective communication is essential for leaders, regardless of what you do and where you work," said Carroll. "This course will teach students to be more compelling, intentional and strategic communicators. Specifically, we will take a deep dive on how to use communication to engage employees, drive change and manage reputation." Students in this Kellogg Architectures of Collaboration Initiative course will learn how to create communication plans and strategies that facilitate organizational success, as well as develop personal communication skills.
Leadership Development Models & Practices (KACI-930-5) | Quarters offered: Fall 2017, Winter 2018
Bernard (Bernie) Banks, Associate Dean for Leadership Development; Clinical Professor of Management
A noted expert on the subjects of leadership and organizational change, Associate Dean for Leadership Development and Professor Bernie Banks is a retired Army Brigadier General who formerly led West Point’s Department of Behavioral Sciences & Leadership. Banks is also the recipient of the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Award. In the Leadership Development Models & Practices course, Professor Banks focuses on a core competency and responsibility for managers: developing leaders. The Kellogg Architectures of Collaboration Initiative class concentrates on how organizational leaders can develop employees to realize their potential by integrating much of the theoretical work associated with constructs related to organizations, leadership and adult development in order to provide an understanding of how leaders are nurtured.
“All Kellogg graduates will serve as leaders within their organizations and communities,” said Associate Dean and Professor Banks. “Therefore, it is important they understand the science of leadership if they are to apply it in the most artful manner possible. Kellogg is committed to producing principled and knowledgeable leaders through courses such as Leadership Development Models & Practices.”
INNOVATION
Commercializing Innovations (KIEI-958-0) | Quarter offered: Winter 2018
Terry Fadem, Adjunct Lecturer
The success of any new technology is driven by the ability of a business to create and capture value through innovation – from product innovation to business model innovation. This Kellogg Innovation & Entrepreneurship Initiative class is experience-based and offers students the chance to put innovation to work by developing commercial opportunities for new and unique Northwestern University technologies, inventions and innovations. The class will be most beneficial to students with an interest in launching a startup, business design, business strategy consulting and commercialization. Class teams will function as a business development unit for potential selection by the Northwestern Innovation & New Venture’s Office (INVO).
“In this course, students will experience first-hand how to take an invention, product or technology from ideation to commercialization,” said Fadem. “Students will have the opportunity to partner with faculty, researchers, scientists and students from across the university, which will prepare them to lead cross-disciplinary teams developing innovations. Whether students wish to launch a startup, or lead development teams in innovative firms, this class will provide a real-world leadership experience.”
PUBLIC-PRIVATE INTERFACE
Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management (KPPI-450-5) | Quarter offered: Winter 2018
Liz Livingston Howard, Clinical Professor of Management; Director of Nonprofit Executive Education
This Kellogg Public-Private Interface class is a crash-course on the strategy, leadership, impact and funding outlooks of mission-driven organizations. Beginning with a focus on theory of change and strategic approach, the class also explores leadership and impact measurement and assessment. Topics introduced by guest speakers will include funding and resource development, as well as the philosophical, policy and longevity and long-term impact of work of nonprofit organizations. Students will gain exposure to theoretical and practical examples of leadership, strategy, finance, measurement of impact and more. This course is designed for students interested in working, volunteering, contributing to or sitting on the board of directors within the nonprofit sector.
“Kellogg has had a focus on the nonprofit sector for many, many years, and as a result, students and alumni are engaged within the nonprofit sector across the globe,” said Clinical Professor of Management and Director of Nonprofit Executive Education Liz Livingston Howard. “This year, we are excited to continue that legacy by offering a new course to provide Full-Time MBA and Evening & Weekend MBA students the opportunity to learn more about how they can use their leadership and management skills to do good in the world. This new offering will help students understand the issues and challenges of the mission-driven sector and the practical solutions that can be applied to create even greater success.”
Social Impact & Technology Innovation (KPPI-925-5) | Quarter offered: Fall 2017
Megan Kashner ’03, Clinical Assistant Professor of Public-Private Interface (KPPI); Director of Social Impact
This Kellogg Public-Private Interface course explores the intersection of technology and social impact, more specifically, how corporate or mass-market technology is leveraged or adapted for social impact, as well as how technology developed for social impact finds an additional market-based use and opportunity to scale. Students will explore trends, possibilities and innovations and hear from and visit technology leaders and innovators who successfully leverage the latest technology to make the greatest difference for people and the planet. The class includes a final project in which students will use a human-centered-design approach to formulate a strategy for real impact-sector leaders.
“Today, technology allows us to access and expand markets,” shared Professor Kashner ’03, who is also the director of Social Impact at Kellogg. “Because market forces are the key to sustained and meaningful impact, introducing students to the innovation and intricacies at the intersection of technology and social impact will serve to expand their view of what’s possible. Whether students have the opportunity in the future to extend the reach of corporate technology to underserved markets or spur new innovation to expand access to critical resources and opportunities by crafting new technological approaches, these concepts will come into play and these tools will prove essential.”
Decision-Making for Sustainable Business (KPPI-947-5) | Quarter offered: Spring 2018
Malcom Preston, Adjunct Lecturer
The role business plays within society is changing with increasing expectations that businesses deliver value not only to shareholders, but to multiple stakeholders, while taking care of and respecting the environment. Corporate management and reporting systems, as well as corporate boards, are now required to keep pace with these changing expectations and thus need the tools and frameworks to make decisions that take these demands into account.
“The business leaders of tomorrow will be required to take a broader and more holistic view, improving not only the financial, but also the societal and environmental performance for their organizations,” shared Preston. “To be successful, they will need to understand the new and emerging techniques of how to run a profitable and responsible business.” In this Kellogg Public-Private Interface course, students will explore the challenges the C-suite and board room face in meeting sustainable business expectations, as well as learn practical tools and frameworks.
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