Interdisciplinary MBA Courses
- BIND 2023—Katz Consulting Field Project—3.0 credits
- This course teaches management consulting in a real-world environment. Students are provided a unique opportunity to apply the analytical tools and concepts taught by Katz, and do so in a practical manner. Each project includes three to five students assembled as a team. Each project involves a single "client" organization, which may be an profit, non-profit, or governmental. Each client provides its assigned study team with a project of immediacy and an executive dedicated to working with the team. A faculty advisor is assigned to each team. Students schedule their own time, dovetailing with client schedules and that of their faculty advisor
- Students are further supported three Saturday consulting workshops led by consultants from the Pittsburgh office of McKinsey & Company, management consultants. An end-of-term competitive competition is also held, the winner being awarded the McKinsey Cup.
- Prerequisite: Students should have completed their first term at Katz. Following enrollment in the course, students should email their resume and a brief statement of career interest to Clinical Professor G.M. (Bud) Smith, budsmith@katz.pitt.edu. Based on this information and client needs, student teams are assembled prior to the beginning of term. In this way, students begin working with their team and their client immediately.
- BIND 2035—Application of Game Theory in Managing Decision Making—1.5 credits
- This course demonstrates how insights of game theory can be utilized by managers to address important decisions confronting the firm. The interaction of a business firm with its competitors, customers, and suppliers can be formalized as a game situation. The task of the manager is to identify the rules that govern the game, whether the manager can modify those rules to the company's advantage, the expected behavior of other players in the game, and the optimal reactions of the company given this expected behavior. The primary focus of the analysis is on understanding how other players form their strategies and expectations in order to identify one's own best response strategy. We will utilize game theoretic reasoning to analyze issues related to entry into new markets or exit from established businesses, investment in research and development, the extent of product differentiation and proliferation that is implied by competition, and strategies aimed at alleviating price competition among firms.
- Prerequisites: BECN 2401.
- BIND 2401—Competing in a Global Environment—3 credits
- This course gives participants a set of perspectives, concepts, skills, and tools relating to the ways in which firms define, increase, exploit, and sustain their competitive advantage. It focuses on the analytical tools and concepts organizations use to formulate strategies in a global context. At the end of the course, students should be able to do a strategic assessment of the firm and its environment, as well as to identify the various strategic choices a firm can make, given the strategic assessment.
- Prerequisites: BACC 2401 (Accounting), BMKT 2411 (Marketing), BECN 2401 (Economics), BOAH 2401 (Organizational Behavior), BFIN 2006 (Financial Management).
- BIND 2504—Global Research Practicum—3 credits
- This course will be tied closely to field study abroad. The main objectives are to challenge students to consider business issues from a global perspective and to expose them to actual business environments abroad. Requirements include an individual or team research project and a 10- to 12-day trip to various businesses in the selected region (Eastern Europe, Latin America, or Asia). Students develop a research question in their area of managerial specialization and draw evidence from the field study to support their project report. While abroad, each group visits selected organizations and/or companies, talks with management, and explores business practices. The trip provides hands-on experience in an unfamiliar culture. At the final class session after the trip, projects will be presented in both written and oral forms. For more information, contact Patricia Hermenault (412-383-8835).
- BIND 2526—Business Process Redesign—1.5 credits
- After a brief introduction and presentation of basic concepts, the course explains the tools and techniques for business process redesign. Next, the course covers process diagnostics and the identification of critical process problems. Then the course covers business process redesign implementation and the organization of business process redesign teams. Later, cases and experiences in several companies are presented. The course ends with the analysis of political factors that accompany redesign efforts, and a short annex that discuss the relationship between process redesign and technical norms.
- Prerequisite: none.
