Looking for Spring Courses?

Georgiana Pascanu | Posted on October 13, 2013

There are many exciting courses being offered next semester. Check out the list below and sign up today! Spots are filling quickly!

4 Credit Courses

IDS 500: Information Systems
Saturdays 9-11:30 A.M.
*appx. 7 on-line classes

Information technologies are an integral part of the corporate and industrial world today They are being used in organizations for such purposes as: providing products and services; creating competitive advantage; managing global corporations; developing and implementing global sourcing strategies. Moreover, new strategies, business models and whole new industries are emerging as information technologies become more integrated into the activities of organizations as well as society. Understanding, managing, and leveraging these changes requires examining the information system, which includes the technology as well as processes, people, and structures.

Course Objectives

  • Gain understanding of how to design and implement successful information systems
  • Learn how to troubleshoot problematic information systems implementations, e.g., CTA Ventra card roll-out, Healthcare.gov
  • Examine the latest trends in information technologies and systems, such as public social media platforms, cloud computing, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), mobile computing, and internal social platforms such as Jive or MS Communicator.
  • Analyze a number of business cases to examine and illustrate course concepts. We will examine the organizational, competitive, and technological strategies of such companies as Zara, Hilton Hotels, and Carnival Cruise Lines
  • Work in teams to investigate an emerging technology trend that has significant business and organizational implications.

MGMT 494: Managerial Consulting
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 3:30-4:45pm
Professor Don Kluemper

The course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and critical skills necessary for operating effectively as internal or external management consultants. At the heart of the course is an applied experience in which students learn job-related skills by functioning as a consulting team. In the spirit of the applied nature of the course, the students function as if they are employees at a consulting firm. Students will be involved in projects related to the implementation of management initiatives and solutions in organizations.
The company that will be the focus of the course this Spring is a large public sector employer with over 22,000 employees. The class will form teams and work on consulting projects of interest to the head of human resources and ultimately produce “deliverables” and present them to administrators at the organization. The project currently being explored is the development of a performance management system. Due to the anticipated interest in the class, you must have the instructor’s authorization to enroll. Please email Don Kluemper for permission.

MGMT 594: Leading for Impact
Mondays, 6-­8:30pm (CRN: 31293)
Professor Shelley Brickson

Organizations are the world’s most powerful actors.  As such, those at their helm, leaders, have enormous potential to make an impact.  Most leaders want to have  a positive impact of some kind, but doing so effectively is not easy.  It requires  keen awareness of two things – how to have an impact through organizations and what kind of impact one wants to have.  First, leaders need to understand key levers for generating positive outcomes through organizational structures and relationships. Second, plotting a coherent course requires an understanding of distinct types of impact that one might have as well as insight into one’s their own personal strengths, values, and objectives. Alignment with one’s own values  enables people to plot a course that is both meaningful to themselves and maximally  consequential to others.In this class, we will explore each of these two topics in depth.  We will  analyze major levers for making an impact, and then examine how each is used to generate distinct types of impact.  Students will gain  appreciation for how these paths differ and for what factors lead each to be  effective. They will also come to more deeply understand themselves, their unique strengths, and their preferred ways of having an impact.  By the end of the  class, students will be equipped with the necessary analytical and self­ reflection  tools to begin to chart their own desired course as leaders.  The class should leave  participants more capable in their careers and more energized about their futures.

Who should take this course?

Anyone interested in leading organizations or helping them make important decisions,  whether strategic or managerial, should benefit from this course.  Because we address a  number of different avenues for making an impact, it should appeal to students with  diverse skill sets and philosophies. The course should resonate with those expressly  committed to having a positive social impact. At the same time, it is designed to enhance  leadership ability generally. As we will discuss in the class, effective organizations are  inherently impactful. Please note although listed under MGMT 594, this course can be used towards a  Management OR an Entrepreneurship concentration. You may also petition to use this  course towards a self­directed concentration along with other courses from the Social  Innovation and Leadership course series.  If you are interested in a self­directed  concentration, please contact UIC Liautaud Student Services careers and more energized about their futures. We will draw from a wide range of teaching methodologies in this course. These will include cases, videos, activities, discussions, andstudents will come away with a deeper understanding for a) levers for having an impact, b) distinct Pedagogical Approach and Take­aways cutting­edge thinking and research. Through these different means, types of impact that might be achieved through those levers, and c) personal strengths and objectives to draw upon when charting an impactful career.

2 Credit Courses

MBA 590s

Managing Enterprise Data and Analytics
Wednesday 6:00 – 8:30pm
1st half of the semester

Enterprises are increasingly turning their attention from the capture and maintenance of business data to a focus on very sophisticated analysis of that data. This shift is motivated by a belief that the vast quantities of data created through transactional, operational, web, and other sources contains valuable insights into customer behavior, market trends, and new operational efficiencies. This course will provide a survey of the emerging practice of business analytics, covering topics including: business data, its sources, its potential, and its challenges; a comparative view of analytic practices and maturity across industries; and critical considerations in the management of analytics within a business.

Web Analytics
Monday 6:00 – 8:30pm
2nd half of the semester

Modern firms rely heavily on the Internet to promote their products. Their own websites are especially important, since visitors can reveal their interests by their browsing behavior. Web analytics gathers and processes this information to learn more about their customers. This analysis allows assessing a website’s effectiveness along metrics like web traffic and how long customers spend at pages. Web analytics offers a source of competitive advantage for both gaining new customers and keeping existing ones. This course will introduce students to the fundamentals of web analytics. Students will learn to use Google’s online and offline software tools. The course will emphasize how these tools help inform marketing decisions. Course topics include:

  • Key concepts and terms and their usage
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and their importance
  • Visitor behavior analysis
  • Developing and aligning KPIs with strategic objectives

Chicago Exchanges
Thursday 6:00 – 8:30pm
2nd half of the semester

Venture Process
Monday 6:00 – 8:30pm
1st half of the semester

Applied Consulting
Thursday 6:00 – 8:30pm
2nd half of the semester

The Applied Consulting course is an introduction to the client-consultant engagement process typically
used by consulting and professional services firms. Students who aspire to go into the consulting
industry will particularly benefit from this course, as will those who intend to serve as an internal
consultant or operations analyst within any public or private sector organization. However, since most
public and private sector management personnel end up working on projects for their organizations at
some time in their careers , this course will be of interest to all MBA students.
The class will be conducted as a guided workshop for students to work in a professional consulting role
to address a real life client problem as a case study. Each student will work in a team with some other
students (depending on the number of students enrolled) working as consultants to create, manage and
execute a client engagement that addresses their problem. Each week, each team will work on
producing some interim deliverable, such as they would to a real client. Each team will then produce a
final project report with recommendations, which they will present during the last class

Creating Careers that Count
Tuesday 6:00 – 8:30pm
1st half of the semester

In a highly dynamic, well-educated and globally competitive marketplace, relevance has replaced loyalty
as a basis for relationships—which includes the contract between employee and employer. Since the
marketplace dictates what is relevant, you are free to create a career that really counts for you as long
as it counts for the marketplace. This eight-week course will explore the three steps to creating a career
that counts for you and for the marketplace:
  • Defining your difference-making strategy
  • Discovering your marketplace relevance
  • Demonstrating and delivering your difference-making capability with highly relevant impact.

Social Entrepreneurs Leading Change
Wednesday 6:00 – 8:30pm
1st half of the semester

This course focuses on the integration of social enterprise tools into traditional business curriculum, an essential component of a business school curriculum: some students will pursue direct employment in this area; others will remember the curriculum as they decide to join a nonprofit board or serve as the director or chief operating officer of a service delivery organization. This eight-week course is one that looks at integrative leadership, the development of business skills with public policy and philanthropy skills, which support cross-boundary, multi-sector entrepreneurship and enhance our ability to build teams and attract investment.

Improv and Leadership
Tuesday 6:00 – 8:30
both  halves of the semester

Modified on October 01, 2021