Study Abroad Programs in Certificate

Do you know your organization’s strategy? If so, how well does it serve your customers? Your employees? And will it scale into the future? These are vital questions to ask, whether you’re a first-line worker or a senior executive.

Every organization has three layers – the functional, the divisional, and the corporate. The most effective organizations use strategic models to align these layers around the senior leadership’s vision, values, and goals. When everyone is moving in the same strategic direction, organizations create meaningful outcomes for their stakeholders – both internally and externally.

This course on Developing Strategic Business Models will help you to evaluate your organization’s strategic models and provide the tools and techniques you need to create strategic alignment at every level of the business.

What You’ll Learn

Optimizing First-Line Performance Through Strategic Planning

• Utilize tools and techniques, including PESTLE, competitor, segmentation, and value chain analyses to gain a better understanding of your functional strengths and weaknesses
• Analyze existing business processes to ensure alignment with external drivers of change
• Develop goals and objectives to align the organization with senior leadership’s broader vision, purpose, and goals
• Complete a SWOT analysis to create actionable objectives for functional leadership

Aligning Functions within Strategic Business Units with the Overarching Corporate Vision, Purpose and Key Goals

• Gain tools, models and methods to translate the organizational vision into functional goals
• Interpret and develop aligned goals and objectives to meet the needs and requirements of individual teams and functions
• Recognize your most valuable resources for strategic synchronization – things like precise market research, strong relationships with suppliers, and more
• Re-new or Stabilize an Organization.

Understanding Corporate Strategy and How to use the Models to Grow, Stabilize, or Renew an Organization

• Gain different tools and techniques for maintaining a healthy organization – like resource allocation, capital distribution, portfolio analysis, and more
• Recognize the nine critical roles that corporate strategists embody in successful organizations
• Utilize the three primary levers of corporate strategy – vertical/horizontal integration, empowerment, and diversification
• Analyze the makeup of your own organization and identify its specific strategic needs

Future-Proofing Organizational Strategy

• Recognize the critical strategic questions that all employees must ask – regardless of their role in an organization
• Understand how the organization’s strategy is serving your aspirations (and the aspirations of those around you)
• Explore current trends in organizational strategy – around organizational structures, technological infrastructure, training and development, and sustainability
• Analyze stakeholder capitalism, one of the most powerful strategic models in business today

Who Should Register

• New senior managers needing to go beyond their functional area skills to applying strategic thinking skills as they become more proactive towards customer needs and develop departmental and organization-wide strategies in a senior leadership position.
• First-line managers and middle managers tasked with greater departmental strategic responsibility and needing a deeper understanding of meeting customer needs, and combining macro-strategy, micro-strategy, and competitive strategy within their department and align with the organization’s overall strategy, vision and goals.
• Senior-level executives and people leaders who are looking for more formal strategy development and change management education to proactively connect with customers, and build resiliency, agility and infuse new thinking within their teams and the organization overall.

All-New Course!

Creativity is the heart of every transformational, visionary leader. Any single individual is capable of transformative creativity. However, creativity is at its most powerful when it is cultivated with purpose, resulting in innovative teams and high-performing organizations. 

This course on Developing a Creative Mindset will provide the tools, tactics and insights you need to develop your strategic creativity as an individual, as the leader of a team and as a valued contributor to your organization. 

Over the four weeks of the course, you will establish an objective, foundational view of decision making and its importance in business, better understand yourself as a creative decision maker and explore specific decision-making strategies and methods. In applying these strategies and methods, you’ll develop yourself to become more strategic and decisive in your role, cultivate techniques to capitalize on the competitive advantages of a creative mindset within your industry and utilize tactics to maintain this creative mindset (and competitive edge) as your team and organization grow. 

What You’ll Learn

Creative Decision Making

• Understand how individuals make decisions and the limitations inherent in the decision-making process
• Recognize the pros and cons of key decision-making models
• Understand why individuals and teams sometimes fail to consistently devise creative solutions to problems

Techniques for Creative Decision Making

• Recognize the biases that affect individuals’ decision making
• Gain techniques for overcoming those biases and thinking more strategically
• Recognize your motivators as a creative decision maker

The Creative Power of Groups 

• Explore methodologies for cultivating creativity as a team
• Adapt and apply the best methodologies for creating an agile, high-performing team
• How to best approach and solve problems as a team
• Recognize the pitfalls of team creativity and how to avoid them

Creative Decision Making in Business

• Understand the competitive business advantages of cultivating a creative mindset within your team and your organization as a whole
• Gain practical techniques and tools for building and planning creative business strategies
• How to maintain and continuously develop a creative mindset to build a team and organizational culture of creativity and innovation

Who Should Register

The course in Developing a Creative Mindset is designed for:

• The aspiring leader, first-time supervisor and/or junior manager who desires to develop their own creative mindset and inspire a creative mindset within their team
• Mid-level managers who understand the business at an operational level and seek to gain a competitive advantage by fostering strategic creativity within their teams    
• Strategic decision makers who see uncertainty and change as opportunities for creative problem solving and innovation

A lack of customers means a lack of business. From raw materials to distribution, it’s your job to ensure that customers are satisfied so your business can compete in today’s global marketplace. Gain an integrated view of procurement, operations and logistics management, while also learning how to manage the flow of products from sourcing and acquisition through delivery to every customer.

Explore the true scope, application and definition of supply chain management with thorough lectures and real-world applications. By the end of this eight-week 100% online course, you’ll understand how each functional component and its processes become one integrated operation to satisfy your customers’ needs.

What You’ll Learn

Fundamentals of Supply Chain Management (SCM)

• Activities of SCM and how they integrate together to serve customers
• Physical entities involved in SCM and key requirements to improving its performance
• Types of supply chains matched with types of products
• Value that can be obtained through effective supply chain management
• Different perspectives of supply chain operations and management

Processes

• What a process is, its characteristics and its impact on the overall supply chain
• How innovation and supply chain work together to provide products to consumers
• Process inhibitors and their impact on supply chain performance

Customer Service, Satisfaction and the Supply Chain

• How to develop a customer-focused supply chain strategy for longevity
• Ways to define customer satisfaction
• Strategies to improve basic service elements

Procurement

• Cost reduction in the procurement process
• Three stages of procurement strategy development
• How to develop deep relationships with key suppliers critical to operation

Supply Chain Information Technology

• Framework of supply chain information technology and the major components
• How to balance the tradeoffs between supply and demand and resource constraints with advanced planning and scheduling (APS)

Anticipatory to Response-Based Business Models

• Whether to have an anticipatory or response-based business model in the operation
• Supply chain integration objectives, barriers and implementation challenges

Manufacturing

• What strategy to put in place based on the relationship between flexibility and the demands of the firm
• Five practices that are foundational to achieving excellence in complexity management
• Objectives, market characteristics and what it takes to succeed with four competitive, flexibility-based strategies

Distribution

• The roles and responsibilities of various institutions within channels of distribution
• Distribution channel member functions
• Logistical and marketing channel separation

Planning & Forecasting

• Effective demand, production and logistics planning
• Forecast elements and major influencing factors
• How product characteristics influence the need to forecast
• Improve forecast accuracy with more collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment (CPFR) between supply chain partners
• Keys to successful sales and operations planning (S&OP) implementation

Supply Chain Globalization

• Four stages of globalization strategies
• Successful global supply chain integration requirements
• Operational considerations of international trade

Who Should Register?

This dynamic, instructor-led course is ideal for anyone who wants to expand their integrated supply chain management knowledge and skills— from analysts and managers to directors and vice presidents. Supply Chain Management I is designed to help new and seasoned professionals re-examine the foundational skills of managing an integrated supply chain, while fine-tuning their approach to complexity management.

All-New Course!

Moving into a supervisory management role for the first time can be exhilarating, gratifying and intimidating all at once. You are now responsible for translating the vision, mission, and objectives of your organization into meaningful activities with your first-level or departmental employees. Where do you start? Start with the basics to build up the essential skills and knowledge you need as a supervisory manager.  

Management Essentials covers a wide range of fundamental concepts crucial for new managers who are faced with supervising direct reports for the first time. With four primary focus areas, the course will provide you with a toolkit of how to direct and manage, best practices for managing diversity in the workplace, the importance of decision making and communication and the key principles of people management.

What You’ll Learn

How to Lead and Manage 

• Gain core supervisory management skills in human relations, communication, administration, leadership and emotional intelligence 
• Learn various pragmatic approaches to management and how to apply them   
• Master the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading and controlling 
• Adapt to and implement the latest trends and ideas in management 

Managing Diversity in the Workplace 

• Overcome leadership dilemmas and motivate your team by creating an understanding team culture 
• Apply Kolb’s Learning Styles to understand key differences between individuals, leveraging team strengths and diversity 
• Understand policies defining and protecting diversity  
• Learn key theories of human motivation and management and how to apply them  

Effective Decision Making and Communication 

• Implement an effective decision-making process 
• Recognize and leverage different ways in which people communicate and the channels they use  
• Adopt best practices of planning methods and goal setting at the individual and team levels 
• Understand the various levels and structures within your organization and the best communication strategies for each  

People Management Basics 

• Understand and implement your staffing and hiring process, from recruitment to on-boarding to compensation 
• Become competent in applying directive, non-directive and structured interviews in the selection and hiring process 
• Develop effective on-boarding and training plans for new hires that can help improve employee engagement and retention 

Who Should Register

The course in Management Essentials is designed for emerging leaders or those new to management who are: 

• Junior to mid-level managers  
• Recently promoted to a supervisory role
• Aspiring supervisors or those preparing to take on a supervisory role for the first time 
• In a position responsible for translating the vision, mission, and objectives of an organization to first-level or departmental employees 

All-New Course!

“Manager” may be a title that denotes a position of leadership, but “leadership” is a skill set, a knowledge base and a mindset that transcends job titles. Moving into that official leadership role for the first time can be exhilarating, gratifying and intimidating all at once. How do you act as a leader? Where do you start? Start with the basics to build up the essential skills and knowledge you need as a leader.   

Leadership Essentials covers a wide range of fundamental concepts, methods and practices designed to help mold leaders responsible for translating the vision, mission, and objectives to an organization’s first-level or departmental employees. With four primary focus areas, the course will provide you with the strategies and techniques for effective leadership in a supervisory role, self- and team-discovery through the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Assessment, successfully leading people and processes and using leadership behavior to overcome challenges. 

What You’ll Learn

Leadership in the Supervisory Role 

• Implement an employee performance review process that incorporates stated expectations, goal setting, ongoing feedback and formal review 
• Communicate employee appraisal results and indicate opportunities for performance improvement 
• Develop your own style and methods for leadership by exploring various practices of leadership, management and supervision  
• Adapt to and implement the latest theories and trends in leadership today  

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Assessment 

• Gain a historically and psychologically grounded understanding of the (MBTI) Assessment 
• Discover your MBTI personality type and how this informs your attitude, actions and decision-making processes 
• Understand and lead the diverse personalities in your team through effective coaching 
• Better relate and respond to your own supervisor’s personality type, as well as the different personalities across the levels of your organization   

Leading People and Processes 

• Assign and delegate tasks, projects and responsibilities to improve efficiency and empower team members  
• Establish managerial control processes by creating standards, measuring performance and correcting issues  
• Adopt methods for team and individual discipline using authority, constructive feedback and problem examination   
• Build a high-performing team by leading them in different ways through understanding the phases of forming, storming, norming, performing and transforming  

Leadership Behaviors that Overcome Challenges  

• Learn and apply effective conflict resolution techniques and tactics  
• Respond to employee complaints and grievances with discernment, fairness and effective decision making 
• Understand various labor laws and maintain compliance with labor unions  
• Improve team efficiency and effectiveness using methods of time management, prioritization and scheduling

Who Should Register

The course in Leadership Essentials is designed for emerging leaders or those new to a leadership position who are: 

• Junior to mid-level managers
• Recently promoted to a supervisory role 
• Aspiring supervisors or those preparing to take on a supervisory role for the first time 
• Supervisors with an established knowledge of management principles who are looking to brush up on their leadership skills 

All-New Course!

What sets a successful supervisor apart, taking them from being a “manager” to acting as a “leader”?  It’s in the way that they think and leverage information to solve problems. A leadership mindset calls for critical thinking, human reasoning and applied analytical thought processes to synthesize data and make informed decisions. To be that successful supervisor is to change the way you think.

That’s exactly what Essential Analytical Skills helps you to do. This course grounds you in the principles of critical thinking and human reasoning for informed problem solving and decision making. The course provides you with the strategies and techniques of critical thinking, how to best utilize thinking and reasoning in the operational environment, methods for leveraging data analytics and turning that data information into the action of effective problem solving.

What You’ll Learn

Problem Solving

• Understand the nature of problems in the workplace — what they mean, why they occur and what’s at stake if they’re left unsolved
• Master the 6-step MindLeap Problem-Solving Model to overcome your cognitive blind spots and create tangible solutions to the real issues you face every day
• Utilize tools and techniques like Fishbone Diagrams and Is/Is-Not Analysis to help pinpoint the most economical solutions to complex problems

Critical Thinking

• Recognize and manage your own cognitive biases and protect against biases within your team and workplace as a whole
• Grasp the fundamental nature of cause-and-effect and how it’s the secret blueprint to solving the most confounding issues
• Avoid cognitive pitfalls by understanding the dangers of assumptions and heuristics, and how they can negatively impact your ability to think critically

Data Analytics

• Apply analytical thinking to improve decision making, team performance and your problem solving skills
• Use basic analytics and the MindLeap Problem-Solving Model to investigate complex business problems inspired by real-life case studies
• Craft analytics-driven solutions to issues in the retail, distribution, and manufacturing sectors

Who Should Register

The course in Essential Analytical Skills is for emerging leaders or those new to management who are:

• Junior to mid-level managers
• Recently promoted to a supervisory role
• Aspiring supervisors or those preparing to take on a supervisory role for the first time
• Supervisors with a basic knowledge of management and leadership principles wanting to brush up their critical thinking and analytical skills

All-New Course!

The success of any organization lies in its people. That doesn’t mean simply filling job openings so there’s a body at every desk. It means making sure the right people are in the right place, doing the right job. Do you have the strategy in place to connect with the people your organization needs, and in turn, ensure they feel connected to the organization once they come on board?  

The Human Resource Talent Strategy course looks beyond the steps of talent recruitment and employee retention to examine how the people are crucial to the design and development of the organization, with human resources at the center. In covering a wide range of fundamental concepts, methods and practices of human resources and talent management, the course is designed to help mold the leaders responsible for an organization’s most valuable asset—it’s people. 

Through three primary focus areas, the course will provide you with the strategies and techniques to formulate your HR strategy, align your organization’s vision, values, and goals, understand and analyze the talent required to achieve those goals, and forecast future talent needs based on analysis, strategic planning and goal setting.  

What You’ll Learn 

Applying Fundamentals of Human Resources 

• Define the needed roles and responsibilities of your human resources team  
• Understand the competitive challenges influencing HR and how you can meet those challenges 
• Analyze various business models and recognize how your business model influences HR strategy 
• Formulate and implement your HR strategy and leverage for a competitive advantage 

Conducting Workflow Analysis 

• Learn the key elements of organizational structure and apply for improved organizational workflow 
• Conduct workflow analysis for improved process and operational efficiency  
• Understand how human resources management both influences and supports organizational structure and workflow  

Analyzing and Designing Jobs 

• Understand the distinctions in Job Design versus Job Analysis and apply both effectively to align with your business objectives and organizational structure   
• Gain various competency modeling techniques; conduct competency analysis to measure the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of individuals and teams; and apply analysis to identifying and filling any competency gaps  
• Create a data-driven HR strategy to forecast future talent needs aligned with organizational strategy and goal setting 

Who Should Register 

• Experienced professionals looking to make a job change from a frontline position to a more strategic role in human resources 
• Young or emerging professionals with a desire to recruit and promote the next generation of workers and leaders for their organization 
• Experienced professionals or professionals re-entering the workforce who desire to put their extensive organizational experience into practice by identifying and developing top talent and building a culture of teamwork

All-New Course!

What’s the secret to building a high-performance organization? Certainly, the systems, processes, and tactics of organizational structure facilitate growth and performance, but these are just the framework in which your organization operates. Optimal performance depends on your organization’s greatest asset—your people. Building a high-performance organization starts with building up your workforce—bringing on the right people and then continually motivating them as high-performing individuals, engaging them in high-performing teams, and therefore, into a high-performance organization.   

The Building High-Performance Organizations course provides you a firm foundation on which to build—the mission, vision and goals of your organization. Through models and real-world case studies, you’ll see how understanding and aligning with your organization’s objectives and strategy guides your methods and practices of human resources in recruiting, managing and developing top talent, both for today’s needs and future growth.  

Through three primary focus areas, the course will provide you with the strategies and techniques to formulate and align organizational and HR strategy, the effective methodology for recruiting, evaluating and hiring the right people, and a forward-thinking approach to continually developing, engaging and rewarding your people to meet performance goals.  

What You’ll Learn 

Aligning HR Strategy with Company Strategy 

• Ensure organizational objectives and organizational strategy are in alignment and informing human resources strategy  
• Define and implement organizational Mission, Vision and Goals to HR strategy 
• Gain, follow and apply best practices and methodologies of strategy alignment from real-world case studies  

Recruiting Talent for Today and Tomorrow 

• Learn the basics of effective recruiting and interview selection  
• Develop key approaches and identifiers of the top talent for your organization through analyzing real-world case studies  
• Create your organization’s methodology for the selection and hiring of talent  
• Implement a hiring and onboarding experience that sets your new employees up for immediate success and continual performance growth   

Managing and Developing Talent for Today and Tomorrow 

• Understand the core elements of talent management and how you can leverage to your competitive advantage, driving strategic alignment across the organization  
• Gain new methods, strategies, and forward-looking approaches to cross-functional talent development and succession planning  
• Create expectations of coaching and feedback across the organization to drive performance  
• Define and establish your organization’s rewards program and optimize rewards to continually motivate and recognize individual and team performance 
• Assess different types of compensation plans and how you can continually evolve your compensation structure to adapt to industry trends and talent expectations  

Who Should Register 

• Experienced professionals looking to make a job change from a frontline position to a more strategic role in human resources 
• Young or emerging professionals with a desire to recruit and promote the next generation of workers and leaders for their organization 
• Experienced professionals or professionals re-entering the workforce who desire to put their extensive organizational experience into practice by identifying and developing top talent  

All-New Course!

“Culture” has become a buzzword in organizational development. Company culture has become as important for prospective employees (especially to Millennial and Gen Z workers), as compensation and benefits packages. Recruiting and hiring for “cultural fit” has taken on an equally important deciding factor for HR as experience and technical acumen. In short, your culture can be a key differentiator for your organization in attracting, hiring and retaining top talent. How can you ensure that your culture is connecting with your people—both your current employees and those you’re hoping to attract? How can you create and continually develop your culture?  

The Developing Organizational Culture course helps you to better understand how the mission, vision and goals of your organization not only fuel performance, but also serve to establish the values and shape the attitudes that connect your people and create your culture.  

Through three primary focus areas, the course will provide you with the tools and techniques to evaluate the current state of your organization’s culture, understand culture within the context of your industry and the larger global business environment and formulate adjustments in attitudes and values where necessary, and strategically develop and leverage your culture to connect and grow your employees and your organization’s relationships with consumers and key business partners — both locally and around the world.  

What You’ll Learn: 

Evaluating Your Organization’s Culture 

• Define culture and its impact, both organizationally and personally 
• Understand cultural differences across the world and their impact on the global business environment  
• Analyze different value systems and how they shape attitudes and culture 
• Gain different expert perspectives on the importance of cultural relationships and apply to develop a cultural antenna in your organization  

Adjusting Culture Through Attitude 

• Develop methodologies for utilizing the “culture web” in your organization 
• Understand the context of the changing cultural environment 
• Establish HR’s role in continual culture creation by applying human resources management through job redesign, role analysis and skills training 
• Recognize dilemmas and tensions caused by contradictory organizational objectives and how your culture can help reconcile and leverage for highly desirable outcomes  

Aligning Your Culture to the Global Environment 

• Understand your culture within the global context and the issues facing international business leadership 
• Identify and overcome cultural differences in communication and nonverbal negotiating behaviors 
• Adopt best practices in recognizing and alleviating tensions in multicultural situations 
• Gain insight into various cultures using the Spony Profiling Model and apply the model to analyze potential differences and evaluate how to best adapt to other cultures 

Who Should Register 

• Experienced professionals looking to make a job change from a frontline position to a more strategic role in human resources 
• Young or emerging professionals with a desire to recruit and promote the next generation of workers and leaders for their organization 
• Experienced professionals or professionals re-entering the workforce who desire to put their extensive organizational experience into practice by identifying and developing top talent  

Change is happening faster than ever before, driven by technological innovations, marketplace factors and the new normal of a post-pandemic world. The strongest leaders don’t merely keep up or react to change. They are prepared to transform themselves and their teams to meet current needs while staying focused on the future. But how do you become that leader?

This course in Transformational & Visionary Leadership provides a roadmap for decision making and a plan to improve your leadership effectiveness, adapt to your team and company needs and confidently drive your organization toward positive change.

Over the four weeks of the course, you will learn to identify your personal strengths and leadership styles, gain strategies that can immediately improve your leadership abilities, learn frameworks for analyzing your company’s present and future state, and techniques for changing in-step with your industry. This course grounds you in the concept leaders need to lead individuals, teams and organizations toward – and through – transformational change.

What You’ll Learn

Your Personal Leadership Style

• Recognize your areas of strength as a leader
• Understand the contexts and situations in which your leadership style excels

Lead From All Levels

• Understand why every employee – regardless of title – can create transformational change
• Explore time-tested leadership tactics from some of history’s greatest business minds

Organizational Analysis

• Analyze your organization’s current strengths and weaknesses
• Evaluate your executive leaders’ vision and performance
• Pinpoint the organization’s structure and culture – and use them to facilitate organizational transformation

Industry Analysis

• Gain the tools and tactics you need to forecast impending industry changes – and turn them into opportunities for transformation
• Utilize proven leadership techniques to transform your organization into a future-ready enterprise that embraces the power of change

Who Should Register

The course in Transformational & Visionary Leadership is designed for:

• Senior-level executives making transformational decisions and leading the organization into uncertainty and change
• People leaders and managers responsible for translating the vision, mission and objectives of change to first-level or departmental employees
• The employees and individual contributors adopting the processes of change and adapting to these new situations

The only thing constant is change. Today, this constant change seems to be happening faster than ever before, and organizations must be prepared to adapt and change just as fast. The days of thoroughly strategizing and long-term planning—where leaders could once take a year or more to pivot a company’s direction – are ending. Organizations and their leaders must be prepared to quickly change course through open system strategy, in which they can quickly create strategies based on shifting needs and preferences.

This course in External Market Drivers & Disruptors takes a deep dive into various disruptors and drivers of change, provides the tools and tactics for you to identify and assess the impact of these drivers and disruptors on your organization and your customers, and create the best change strategy for a competitive advantage.

By focusing on four primary areas, this course will help you to better understand the speed of change happening in the world today and its impact, apply methods to identify and assess key change indicators and utilize these to develop open systems strategies to help avoid disruption and proactively embrace change, and ultimately leverage drivers of change to your advantage by aligning your organization’s change strategy. 

What You’ll Learn

Understanding the Speed of Change

• Establish the current context for the ever-changing business marketplace
• Explore how factors such as demographics, climate change, pandemic-altered business models and supply chains, Industry 4.0, and geo-political events are all drivers accelerating the rate of change
• Understand the importance of recognizing and assessing your response to change and learn to mitigate risk

Key Strategic Drivers for the Rate of Change

• Assess the drivers of change (introduced in module 1) that your organization and/or functional area is most vulnerable to
• Learn to proactively leverage the opportunities created by these drivers through various tools and best practices, such as competitor analysis and mapping the complete product lifecycle
• Grasp and track the business environment you’re operating in through the principles of an external environmental analysis
• Gain steps for effectively leading change through Kotter’s strategic model

Strategies to Avoid Disruption and Embrace Change

• Utilize open systems strategy to help your organization quickly re-strategize based on external drivers and disruptors
• Understand the right questions to ask to develop and test the efficiency and effectiveness of open systems strategy to your organization
• Recognize the dangers of ignoring external drivers and disruptors
• Develop and apply tools to overcome biases and blind spots to diagnose threats and the strategies to avoid them

Selecting the Best Change Strategy for Your Organization

• Apply the tools, methods and best practices learned in the previous module to develop your unique open system strategy
• Communicate your strategy for organizational buy-in and alignment
• Predict and plan for the disruptors of the future

Who Should Register

• New senior managers needing to go beyond their functional area skills to applying strategic thinking skills as they develop departmental and organization-wide strategies in a senior leadership position.
• First-line managers and middle managers tasked with greater departmental strategic responsibility and needing a deeper understanding of how to combine macro-strategy, micro-strategy, and competitive strategy within their department and align with the organization’s overall strategy, vision and goals.
• Senior-level executives and people leaders who are looking for more formal strategy development and change management education to build resiliency, agility and infuse new thinking within their teams and the organization overall.

The coordination and integration of functions across the supply chain is more important than the individual functions themselves. This is especially true in a global supply chain. Supply chain executives in organizations across industries have enjoyed increased sales and an improvement of overall performance from globalization efforts in recent years. As global supply chains increase their reach and complexity, the need for professionals with the capabilities and skills to manage them will continue to increase.

In this 100% online course, you’ll learn how to coordinate and integrate your global logistics, purchasing, operations and market channel strategies. You’ll apply the global supply chain management framework, exploring the implications of industry globalization drivers for supply chains. Using globalEDGE™, the expansive research tool created by the International Business Center at MSU, you’ll learn how to retrieve relevant international business and trade data. You’ll also learn how to use globalEDGE’s diagnostic tools, including Company Readiness to Export (CORE) and International Partner Selection (PARTNER), among others, to assess company strengths and weaknesses to assist you in making strategic market channel partnership decisions.

What You’ll Learn

Establishing a Global Supply Chain Strategy

• Insight into global trade and global supply chains
• Expertise in emerging markets and global supply chains
• Best practices for strategic global supply chain management
• How to integrate global supply chain functions
• Strategic benefits of global supply chains

Implications of Industry Globalization Drivers for Supply Chains

• Ways to identify key market global drivers
• Knowledge of how market globalization drivers influence supply chains
• Exploration of the declining role of governments as producers and customers, and how their new role adds value for global supply chains
• How competitive globalization drivers better facilitate global supply chains
• The influence of competitive globalization drivers, including the increase in world trade levels, increased “born-global” companies and the growth of global networks.

Evaluating Global Supply Chain Infrastructure

• Analysis of transportation, communication, utilities and technology infrastructure
• Supply chain security, risks and value
• Legal considerations, international contracts and insurance issues
• Commercial documents and customs clearance
• International commerce terms (incoterms)

Leveraging Logistics in Global Supply Chains

• How to design a global logistics strategy
• Managing global inventory
• Global packaging and materials handling
• Understanding of global distribution centers
• Ocean, air, land and intermodal transportation

Purchasing in Global Supply Chains

• Key elements of a global purchasing strategy
• How to move from international to global purchasing
• Types of global purchasing strategies
• Strategies for outsourcing and offshoring
• Selecting suppliers and designing global supplier networks

Maximizing Operations in Global Supply Chains

• How to create a global operations strategy
• Strategic make or buy decisions in global supply chains
• Total cost analysis in global supply chains
• Process-based quality standards
• Comprehension of the Supply Chain Operations Reference Model
• Using a first-party logistics (1PL), 2PL, 3PL, 4PL, 5PL supplier

Managing Market Channels in Global Supply Chains

• Creating a global market channels strategy
• Customer value-creating global processes
• International market entry modes
• Expertise in international wholesaling, retailing and franchising
• How to go global online
• Using globalEDGE diagnostic tools for global market channel partners

Managing Global Supply Chains

• Value of managing global supply chains
• Coordination mechanisms in global supply chains
• Inter-organizational relationships in global supply chains
• Knowledge of stakeholders and global supply chain sustainability
• Guidelines for managing global supply chains

Building on the fundamentals introduced in Supply Chain Management I, this course provides you with the tools to master integrated supply chain management and determine the best supply chain design for your operations. From the big picture down to the details, you’ll identify the characteristics and objectives of inventory, transportation, warehousing and material handling.

Explore SCOR processes, metrics and best practices and gain the skills necessary to apply supply chain integration principles to activities within the service sector. You’ll also learn how to look back to measure and assess your practices for continuous improvement, then look ahead to the evolving responsibilities of supply chain professionals.

What You’ll Learn

Supply Chain Integration

• Ways to meet customer needs through an integrated operation
• How to create a network of distribution centers and transportation to serve individual customers
• Postponement strategies for effective supply chain globalization and integration

Inventory

• Types of inventory and factors affecting inventory levels
• How cycle and safety stock inventory interact to influence customer service
• Inventory costing and sample carrying cost percents
• Repairable inventory management

Transportation Management

• Economic, environmental and technology characteristics of the different transportation modes
• Infrastructure in the transportation industry
• Four significant global changes impacting transportation

Warehousing and Distribution Centers

• Two key objectives of warehousing and distribution centers
• Economic and service benefits of warehousing

Material Handling and Packaging

• Material handling systems and the role of packaging
• Overview of handling technologies
• The rationale and impact of packaging in the supply chain

Logistics

• Functional perspective on logistics measures
• The direct reflection of logistics performance
• Measurable benefits of using third party logistics provider (3PL)
• Success factors in optimal 3PL relationships

Performance Measurement

• Benchmarking and assessment and analysis practices
• Six specific measures providing insight into supply chain operations
• Three accounting tools critical to overall performance of the supply chain

Services and Supply Chain Management

• Scope of supply chain management and application to services
• How to compare traditional and service-based supply chain management
• Specific capabilities of supply chain managers that can be applied in the service environment
• Economic and societal trends driving services

Supply Chain Risk Management

• Evolving responsibilities of supply chain professionals
• Examples of security best practices
• Dimensions of a sustainable supply chain strategy
• Changing dynamics of supply chain management

Supply Chain Career Paths & Talent

• How to compare a traditional supply chain career path vs. supply chain management path
• Job titles and associated criteria
• Organizational priorities, gaps, and opportunities clarifying the requisite skills and competencies needed in supply chain professionals

Who Should Register?

Designed for those who have completed Supply Chain Management I, this course illustrates how to apply key integrated supply chain principles in both the manufacturing and service sectors. Whether your expertise is in logistics, operations or procurement, Supply Chain Management II will enable you to continuously improve your supply chain, as well as your job performance – which can make you more visible and valuable within your organization.

Strategic sourcing enhances efficiency and value, ultimately impacting the profitability of your entire organization. In this essential course, you’ll learn how to develop and implement a procurement strategy that aligns with your overall competitive strategy.

Real business case studies and best practices provide practical applications you can use on the job immediately. As you progress through the course, you’ll acquire the key skills to negotiate effectively, structure your purchasing department, evaluate and select suppliers using an analytical hierarchy process, and manage cost across the entire supply chain.

What You’ll Learn

Setting the Stage

• Scope of strategic sourcing
• Strategic sourcing’s importance and potential to drive competitive differentiation
• Evolution of sourcing
• Sourcing’s objectives and responsibilities
• Current sourcing pressures and challenges
• Cost-based to value-based procurement
• Buyer-supplier relationship quality
• Benefits of a balanced sourcing approach
• How to build deep supplier relationships

Organizational Structure and the Purchasing Process

• The importance of alignment with a firm
• Information sharing
• Centralized vs. decentralized structures
• Drawbacks of measuring a buyer’s performance
• Group Purchasing Organizations
• Purchasing process and reasons why it had been neglected for so long
• Potential of an IT-enabled purchase-to-pay (P2P) system
• Best practices on how to best design and manage the purchasing process

Category Management

• Rationale and importance of category management
• Properties of a successful category strategy
• Spend analysis
• Purchasing portfolio analysis
• Category strategy development process

Supplier Evaluation and Selection

• Recognize that supplier selection is not a trivial undertaking
• Criteria for supplier evaluation and selection
• Four competitive priorities into supplier evaluation and selection
• Appropriate supplier selection strategies for different supply chain designs
• Application of the Analytic Hierarchy Process to the supplier selection problem

Negotiations, Legal Issues and Ethics 

• Negotiation strategies
• PRAM model
• Negotiation strategies based on “Getting to Yes”
• Recognize various forms of power and the responsibility that comes with it
• Laws of agency
• Basics of contracting
• Legislation impacting sourcing
• Importance of ethics and how to ensure it in sourcing

Supplier Performance Management and Cost Management

• The importance of performance management to drive supplier behavior
• Importance of supplier site visits
• Properties of good measures and measurement system characteristics
• Performance rating methods
• Communicating supplier performance via scorecards
• Valuable lessons from quality management for supplier (performance) management
• The power of cost and price analysis
• Manage costs in new product development
• Various cost management approaches
• Supplier price and cost strategies

Risk Management and Global Sourcing

• The importance of risk management
• Approaches to risk management, including proactive and reactive strategies
• The risk management process
• Motivations and barriers to global sourcing
• Strategies to overcome global sourcing challenges
• Recognize the importance of culture
• Benefits that international purchasing offices and other intermediaries can provide
• Recognize critical success factors for global sourcing
• Become familiar with contertrade approaches

Electronic Sourcing

• Recognize the importance, potential and impact of electronic sourcing
• Online reverse auctions
• The help offered by third-party providers
• The potential of blockchain, big data analytics, data visualization, and artificial intelligence and cognitive computing for strategic sourcing

Who Should Register?

This eight-week, 100% online course is ideal for procurement and sourcing professionals in any industry who are responsible for creating competitive environments and identifying cost savings opportunities. It is also a must for managers and executives who are responsible for supply chain processes and developing initiatives to support supply chain performance. Students may find it helpful to have some familiarity with the fundamentals of an integrated supply chain, which are covered in the Supply Chain Management I and II courses.

Examine advanced supply management theory and practices from both academic and real-world perspectives. Gain the skills to assess and create new opportunities, relationships and supply channels, while exploring the entire domain of supply and the ways supply management can deliver sustainable competitive advantage.

In this course, you’ll investigate best practices for achieving long-term value in supply management through exemplar industry trends. Plus, you’ll discover ways to enhance buyer-supplier relationships, overcome supply management challenges and provide the strategic positioning and risk management your organization needs.

What You’ll Learn

Introduction to Strategic Supply Management

• Supply management terminology, trends, and themes
• Ways to evaluate new opportunities and overcome challenges
• The difference between tactical and strategic efforts
• How to transition from leveraging volume to leveraging ideas
• Strategies for creating lasting value and sustainable competitive advantage

Relationships

• The keys to exceptional supplier relationship management
• Ways to evaluate and enhance supplier performance
• How to integrate continuous improvement
• Why loyalty matters and how to measure it
• Game Theory implications for strategic supply management
• Empathy and right brain thinking in building relationships
• Deliverables and outcomes of trust

Scope and Metrics

• Cost concerns and total cost of ownership
• The evolution and purpose of supply management metrics
• Ways to use different metrics and perspectives to optimize your supply base
• The most important (and often neglected) supply management concerns

Process Map

• Definition, scope and elements of supplier base management
• Overview of the sourcing strategy process
• How market characteristics frame the strategy
• Formal supply management strategy methodology
• Six strategic outcomes of supplier base management and their implications
• Ways to assess, identify and prioritize opportunities for various goods and services

Implementing and Measuring Supply Management Strategy

• How to identify the type of supplier relationship needed to support the strategy
• Ways to develop a shared commitment with intended sources
• Methods for monitoring supplier-based risk on a continuous basis
• Ways to evaluate suppliers and sources and complete agreements with them

Robust Cost Knowledge

• Why robust cost knowledge is a game-changer
• How traditional supply chains have evolved into integrated supply networks
• How routine strategy positioning limits opportunity
• Cost modeling, cost drivers and cost elimination

Risk and Sustainability

• Multiple dimensions of supply chain risk
• Supply management’s role in corporate social responsibility and sustainability
• The three dimensions of the “triple bottom line”
• Sustainable procurement metrics
• How to build resiliency, innovation and speed to market into your supply chain

The way you choose to source the various products and services needed to support your business’ operations can have a significant impact on business performance, affecting quality, speed, and your business’ ability to innovate. In other words, sourcing has a great deal to do with the success or failure of your broader business strategy. If you’re not actively evaluating your suppliers, monitoring costs and metrics, expanding your supplier network, and vetting potential new opportunities and sources, you’re not creating the kind of sustainable competitive advantage that benefits your organization and your career.

Discover how to foster collaborative supplier relationships, develop the skills and knowledge base to optimize your supply base and effectively manage supply risks through this engaging Supply Base Management course, featuring:

• Advanced supply base management applications
• Newly enhanced course and video content
• Expanded live sessions
• Enhanced interaction in an online learning environment

Learn from Experts in the Field

Experience thought leadership in supply base management, design and optimization with Professor Anand Nair, Supply Base Management Course Instructor and graduate-level faculty in MSU’s top-ranked supply chain management program.

What You’ll Learn

Supply Base Design and Management

• Which supply base design best suits your needs
• How to identify, evaluate and enhance the performance of suppliers
• Ways to compare existing suppliers to potential suppliers
• The characteristics of effective assessment systems
• Ways to create resiliency and market responsiveness for your organization

Supplier Selection

• Best practices for locating and vetting potential suppliers
• How to link sourcing strategy to selection criteria
• What site visits and financial analysis can tell you about suppliers
• Why the right mix of suppliers opens the door to innovation

Supply Base Optimization

• How supply base optimization creates sustainable competitive advantage
• Different approaches and real-world examples of supply base optimization
• How to establish a supply base profile

Supplier Development and Relationship Management

• Reactive vs. proactive approaches
• How to determine the right type of relationship – portfolio approach
• Keys to collaborative supplier relationships
• How to improve supplier contributions and performance

Cost Management and Cost Modeling

• Ways to work with suppliers to drive the lowest cost solution
• Cost terminology and cost classification
• Supplier pricing and basic cost models
• Cost reduction and cost avoidance
• Ways to manage changes in your cost structure
• The strategic profit model
• Total cost of ownership/life cycle cost models
• Targeting cost and early supplier involvement

Supply Risk Management

• Which factors contribute to supply risk
• What to do about supply disruption
• How to manage cost/price volatility
• Ways to create supply chain security
• How to address sustainability and corporate social responsibility

Overview

Negotiations aren’t limited to sales, contracts or interviews. The ability to negotiate effectively is a foundational skill for professionals of every type and industry. We negotiate frequently with internal and external customers, suppliers, employees, department leaders, bosses and more. Those who work in supply chain management negotiate the best deals for procurement and sourcing needs. Change managers must gain support for new ideas. And we all use negotiating skills and their counterpart, conflict resolution, to navigate the ups and downs of various kinds of relationships and situations.

In this 100% online course, you’ll strengthen your skill sets in intra-organizational, team, multi-party and cross-cultural negotiations. You’ll learn how to identify negotiation opportunities, address conflicts and gain an understanding of the unique challenges that exist when individuals, groups and organizations face potential or existing conflict. Through participation in role-playing negotiation exercises with your peers in class, you’ll explore a broad spectrum of negotiation strategies, new tactics to solve ongoing differences and models for securing cooperation and agreement in competitive environments.

What You’ll Learn

Negotiations Basics and Negotiation Styles

• Identify what constitutes negotiation and which negotiations to engage in or avoid
• Define fundamental concepts and explain how they relate to each other: BATNA, issue, position, resistance point, and zone of agreement
• Apply the best negotiation styles to employ in a given negotiation context

Distributive Negotiations and Hardball Tactics

• Describe how information is used in distributive negotiations
• Identify sources of leverage for both sides and set an appropriate target by considering relative leverage
• Determine when and how to make first offers and concessions
• Identify and respond to different hardball tactics

Integrative Negotiations

• Identify potential ethical issues in negotiations and discuss moral reasoning to guide decision making on ethical issues
• Know the legal criteria used to assess fraud
• Recognize the challenges in detecting deception and describe potential responses to someone you suspect is being deceptive
• Identify and define biases in perception and cognition and describe how biases can affect negotiations
• Contrast effects of positive and negative emotions on negotiations and describe how emotions affect memories of a situation

Planning Process and Evaluating Success in Negotiations

• List the components of negotiation planning and create a structured plan for a negotiation
• Identify various measures of success in negotiation

Ethical Issues, Cognitive Biases, and Emotion in Negotiation

• Identify potential ethical issues in negotiations and discuss moral reasoning to guide decision making on ethical issues
• Know the legal criteria used to assess fraud

Communication and Conflict Management

• Describe best practices for communicating in negotiations
• Identify common missteps in communication and evaluate the effectiveness of different communication modes
• Describe the components of Ury’s Barriers and Breakthroughs model and apply breakthrough strategies to a specific negotiation
• Distinguish between third-party options and describe the pros and cons of each; apply third-party principles to mediate conflicts between employees

Teams and Multiparty Negotiations

• Explore the complexities that arise when moving from two-party to multiparty negotiations and explore the role of coalitions in group negotiations
• Discuss the pros/cons of voting rules

Cross-Cultural Negotiations

• Identify cultural dimensions and their impact on negotiations
• Review Weiss’s familiarity-dependent strategy for cross-cultural negotiations
• Review course content to identify relevant and useful lessons for the future

Who Should Register?

The Strategic Negotiation course is relevant to a wide spectrum of professionals who seek to maximize their outcomes and build partnerships in a variety of business situations. The program is open to anyone interested in gaining and improving their negotiation tools and skills. The course is a required course for completing the Master Certificate in Advanced Procurement Management. It is offered as an elective or add-on for other certificate programs as well.

While most firms have given a great deal of thought to logistical design and management, very few focus their attention on market distribution. In fact, there is considerable evidence that this critical arena of business strategy is simply treated as a given in most firms and not subject to the same rigorous analysis as other aspects of strategy. Firms have even changed, added, or modified market distribution structures with little consideration of the impact on overall business performance and the logistical consequences of such changes. Distribution Fulfillment covers the critical topics to help you learn how to develop, implement and manage a market distribution strategy for your logistical operations.

Throughout the eight weeks of this course, you’ll identify the interrelationships between “marketing channel structure” and “logistics distribution structure” Historically, they’ve been known as two independent areas of decision-making, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that these two topics are indeed closely related to one another.

What You’ll Learn

Distribution Roles & Channel Structure and Function

• How to identify the role of distribution in your marketing strategy
• Ways to develop positioning, promotional efforts and pricing strategy
• Typical channel structures, flows and functions
• Process for effective channel design

Supply Side Analysis & Distribution Channel Participants

• Value of merchant wholesalers for manufacturers and customers
• Best practices for retail structures and non-store retail formats
• How to classify types of merchandise, ownership and control

Distribution Channel Selection

• How to evaluate channel design and map channel functions, flows and tasks
• Ways to identify objectives and constraints
• Use of the channel decision matrix

Evaluating Channels: Cost & Profitability

• How to apply cost and profitability analysis concepts, tools and techniques
• Importance of activity-based approaches to financial analysis

Evaluating Return on Investment

• How to compare and analyze common strategic profit models
• Supply chain response time, dwell time, days of supply and other metrics
• Best practices for benchmarking

Channel Relationships

• How to analyze types of power and develop channel power
• Techniques for managing conflict in channels
• Risks and rewards of channel alliances
• Stages of relationship development and critical success factors for alliances

A Comprehensive Case

• How to analyze the opportunity for vertical integration
• Application of the channel analysis framework to a comprehensive case

Other Considerations in Channel Analysis

• Understand the role of franchising
• How to evaluate service channel opportunities
• Legal constraints on channel policies

Who Should Register?

Michigan State’s Distribution Fulfillment training is essential for logistics professionals responsible for maintaining high standards of customer service and quality, while minimizing costs and streamlining their supply chain. It also contains valuable insights for managers and executives, who define, create, implement, and integrate supply chain strategies. Students should have a working knowledge of supply chain function integration, which is addressed in the Supply Chain Management I and II courses.

With the global marketplace constantly changing, it is crucial that your Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) system evolve to stay current with technology, product and market conditions. This course is essential if you are working in any capacity of operations in the supply chain because you’ll gain a thorough understanding of Manufacturing Planning and Control key elements. You’ll also master a variety of decision tools that can assist you in effective planning and execution.

Regardless of what industry or business you work in, understanding all the various systems involved in Manufacturing Planning and Control is ideal if you’re looking to advance your career and increase your organization’s bottom line.

What You’ll Learn

Introduction to Manufacturing Planning and Control (MPC) and Forecasting

• Key Modules of MPC
• How to identify the process of forecasting and characteristics of forecasts
• How to determine the right supply chain for your product
• Ways to develop causal forecasting models using regression approach
• Expertise in forecasting error measures

Causal, Static and Adaptive Forecasting

• How to compare and contrast static and adaptive models
• Ways to develop moving average, exponential smoothing and Holt’s models
• Ability to select the appropriate forecasting tool for your operations

Forecasting and Aggregate Production Planning

• How to identify the differences between chase and level strategies
• Formulation of aggregate planning models using optimization techniques
• How to solve and interpret aggregate planning models using optimization methods
• Ways to make pricing and aggregate planning decisions

Aggregate Planning and Cycle Inventory

• Economic order quantity and aggregation models
• Strategies for cycle inventory reduction
• Formulation and solution of inventory models

Cycle and Safety Inventory

• Implementation of continuous and periodic review policies
• How to set safety stocks for different inventory policies
• The effects of demand and supply uncertainty
• How to understand and develop inventory pooling models

Safety Inventory and Network Design in Supply Chains

• How to make network design decisions
• E-procurement tools that yield the greatest benefits
• Application of transportation and transshipment models
• Ways to formulate network models and obtain solutions

Network Design and Material Requirement Planning & ERP Systems

• Optimization models for supply chain network design
• How to identify the differences between independent and dependent demand items
• Effective implementation of MPS and time fences

Material Requirement Planning & ERP Systems

• MRP: Table, definitions, inputs and outputs
• How to perform MRP calculations
• When and how to use ERP and APS systems
• Concepts of JIT and Lean Systems

Who Should Register?

Michigan State University’s Manufacturing Planning and Control training will benefit supply chain management professionals in any area of operations. It is especially valuable for managers and executives who are ultimately accountable for running a cost effective operation and balancing production and inventory levels with demand to support customer service levels. Students may find it helpful to have some familiarity with the fundamentals of an integrated supply chain, which are covered in the Supply Chain Management I and II courses.