Strategy & Innovation Certificate

When it comes to making important business decisions in a today’s organization, skillful usage of data and storytelling are keys to successful outcomes. Leaders who know how to leverage big data to explore trends, make predictions and communicate data effectively, are in high demand. This course developed by professor, Jesse Bockstedt, is designed to introduce managers and leaders to the methods behind good data visualization as well as the tools and techniques for creating compelling visual insights. You will build a foundation in data analysis – understanding your data, best practices, build a dashboard, tell a story with your data and effectively present insights from your data.

Explore the importance of iteration in the innovation process, engage in an interactive team-based exercise in design thinking, solve an unfamiliar problem to better understand and apply design thinking concepts, and apply all that you’ve learned in a high-impact problem-solving activity. In this course, you’ll dig into the strategy and principles of design thinking. Finish feeling ready to solve any problem back at the office.

Organizations survive or fail based upon the decisions of their leaders. Every day, you make many decisions, from the seemingly unimportant to those that could determine the very survival of the business. By matching decisions with the tools and frameworks best suited to solve them, you can analyze the underlying dynamics of an organizational issue in order to quickly and effectively resolve it. This interactive live online short course will provide you with insights into the psychology, physiology, and sociology of decision making, so that you can evaluate both your role in and your responsibility for the decision-making process to deliver better outcomes yourself and your organization.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses faced increased competition in an ever-evolving marketplace. As a result of the pandemic, companies have been forced to reinvent their offerings and business models to maintain a competitive advantage. If you want to lead an innovative, resilient and future-focused organization, this 2-day immersive course will deepen your understanding of innovation, how to bring an innovation mindset into your organization, and find new ways to create to value in a rapidly changing competitive landscape.

Strategy & Execution focuses on closing the gaps between the planning and execution of your strategy
by evaluating how you align your operations with strategic objectives. You will learn how to
strategically review, plan, and execute initiatives that are important to your line of work. You will
also gain new insights on hidden barriers many strategists face during the execution phase.

Multinational Firms & Strategy will be in-person and typically held on Saturday afternoons from 1:30-5:30pm on August 28-December 4, 2021. Learn how to examines strategy and organization of business in this global economy. This course considers international competitive forces and national/regional contexts as determinants of strategic challenges and options for managers. We employ a cross-functional approach, drawing from strategic management, microeconomics, political science, and regional studies.

Learn to master effective negotiation strategies that can be applied in an array of business environments. Begin to feel more confident making tough decisions within the realm of bargaining, gain the ability to close deals more effectively, and enhance your overall negotiation skill set.

The course is designed for both marketing specialists and generalists. The course exposes students to the contemporary challenges faced by a broad variety of firms in developing and launching new products, creating and maintaining brand equity, and managing products and product lines.

This course is designed for both specialists and generalists; namely, those who are pursuing a career in sales and business development, as well as those who will use sales skills in their careers. The course exposes students to the contemporary challenges faced in the selling process. The settings of the cases and exercises used in the course are quite diverse in terms of the sizes of the organizations involved and the types of markets that they serve. Therefore, the course is relevant to students whose interests are in general management, consulting, finance, and entrepreneurship as well as those who expect to work directly in sales and business development. The course centers on three themes: Personal selling Sales management Selling into the channel of distribution The objective of this course is to develop and enhance the skill set that students will need to pursue careers that involve selling and business development. By the end of this course, you will have acquired the skills that will allow you to enhance your firms' revenue, either personally or through a sales force.

Gain insights for solving messy, unstructured challenges with no clear “right answer”. You will emerge with expertise managing the process of problem solving in a structured manner, from framing the problem to communicating a compelling case for action.