11 New Courses at Kellogg School Address Global Business Issues
Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management launched 11 new courses for the 2016-17 academic year, with topics that range from the business of social impact to leading startups to the human-machine partnerships of the future.
“With increasingly complex problems facing our rapidly changing business environment, curriculum innovation in the MBA program is key,” says Therese McGuire, Senior Associate Dean of Curriculum and Teaching. “As we train the future business leaders of the world, it’s critical to create new courses that foster innovation and take our students to the forefront of knowledge in their respective areas.”
Here’s a glimpse of what the new course offerings, which incorporate applied learning applications and guest speakers, include:
Human and Machine Intelligence (Adam Pah, Spring 2017)
Human and Machine Intelligence delves into new research findings on artificial intelligence and the applications for modern business leaders. Using sophisticated AI programs like IBM’s Deep Blue and Google’s AlphaGo, this course will develop students’ data science skills and teach them to apply “human+machine thought partnerships” to grow businesses.
“While there are many examples of machines outperforming humans at some tasks, its less clear when machines can augment human decision-making and creativity,” says Adam Pah, Clinical Assistant Professor of Management & Organizations.
“We will focus on how students can leverage machine intelligence, while discussing the possibility and limitations of machine-learning to enhance their output and performance beyond a human or machine alone.”
Launching and Leading Startups (Brad Morehead, Winter 2017; Carter Cast, Spring 2017)
Launching and Leading Startups examines some of the most challenging and pervasive problems faced by entrepreneurial CEOs – including evaluating markets, developing products, mitigating risk, and creating effective go-to-market strategies while leading teams and managing boards from the CEO “hot seat.”
“Our Kellogg Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative leadership team realized there was an opportunity to offer a broad survey course for innovative, entrepreneurially-minded students who want to gain exposure to entrepreneurship,” said Carter Cast, Clinical Professor of Innovation & Entrepreneurship.
“This will be a good class for students who are curious about entrepreneurship and who think they may pursue an entrepreneurial endeavor in the near future, whether through starting their own business, acquiring a business or joining an early-stage startup.”
Business of Social Change (Megan Kashner, Winter 2017) Business of Social Change studies a singular social issue to help students understand the causes, measurement, levers and outcomes inherent to the business of social change work. With this term’s focus on uneducated and unemployed American youths, students will hear from guest speakers including policy experts, large-scale employers of youth, impact measurement experts and experts on labor, detention and workforce development.
“We’ve added this new course to provide students with the foundational tools and approaches to follow a social or sustainability challenge from etiology to measurement to levers for change and impact,” says Megan Kashner, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Kellogg Public-Private Interface. “Students will complete this course with the skills to determine the roots of a problem and the paths to large-scale and market-driven change.”
Consumers, Culture and Leadership (Greg Carpenter, Fall 2016)
Consumers, Culture and Leadership explores how firms develop a deep understanding of customers, how leaders can create more agile, innovative organizations and how leaders can create new markets, redefine existing ones and deliver value to demanding buyers.
“Much of the thinking behind customer centricity was developed at Kellogg and remains central to our distinctive approach,” says Greg Carpenter, James Farley/Booz Allen Hamilton Professor of Marketing Strategy. “The timing seems right to offer a new course to more formally explore the rising influence of consumers, how organizations are transforming their culture to focus more on consumers, and successful leadership models for customer-centric firms.”
Other new courses for the 2016-2017 academic year include:
- Accounting: Global Financial Management and Reporting, Mark Finn, Spring 2017
- Finance: Capital Markets, Phillip Braun, Fall 2016; Ian Dew-Becker, Winter 2017
- Health Enterprise Management: Health Analytics, Eric Barrette, Spring 2017
- Kellogg Public-Private Interface: Sustainability Across The Enterprise, Klaus Weber, Spring 2017
- Managerial Economics: Thought Leadership Seminar: Issues in Developing Countries, Nancy Qian, Fall 2016
- Marketing: Mastering Marketing Technologies, Jonathan Copulsky, Winter 2017
- Marketing: Digital Marketing Strategy, Garrett Adam Johnson, Spring 2017
As the Kellogg School of Management continues to roll out new courses such as these, which emerged from cross-disciplinary strategic initiatives and academic departments, the school appears to be making good on its intentions to educate brave leaders and prepare its students to meet the real-world business challenges of tomorrow.
