Best Free Business MOOCs In February

Scaling Operations: Linking Strategy and Execution

School: Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: November 6, 2017 (5 Weeks)

Workload: 2-4 Hours Per Week

Instructors: Gad Allon and Jan A. Van Mieghem

Credentials: A member of Poets&Quants’ Top 40 Professors Under the Age of 40, Allon is a professor managerial economics and decision science at Kellogg, where he teaches courses in operations management, operations strategy, scaling operations in the full-time program (and strategic decision-making and supply chain management in the executive MBA program). A decorated teacher, Allon was named the 2014 Alumni Professor of the Year at Kellogg (after earning the school’s Outstanding Professor of the Year in 2009). In addition, Allon is a recognized researcher and author, whose peer-reviewed work has been published in Management Science, Manufacturing and Service Operations Management, and Operations Research. He holds a Ph.D. in management science from Columbia Business School.

At Kellogg, Van Mieghem teaches operations management in the full-time and part-time MBA program sand operations management, supply chain management, and new product innovation in the executive MBA program. A former senior associate dean and chair of the managerial economics and decision sciences department, he is currently the academic director for the executive MBA program. Like Allon, Van Mieghem is a distinguished researcher, with over 40 academic papers published, including one piece he co-wrote earning the best paper award from the Management and Service Operations Society. He holds a Ph.D. from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Graded: Students can receive a verified certificate for successfully completing the course for $49.

Description: Operations is becoming the new marketing, with firms differentiating themselves through speed, cost containment, and partnerships. In this course, students will learn how to turn operations into a strategic advantage, helping them maximize their existing processes, capabilities, and investments to drive strategy, increase market share, and establish new markets. In addition, they’ll be exposed to new operational trends, financial models, and analytical tools and to expand their competencies, better leverage their suppliers, and better benchmark their progress. Each week, students will be exposed to a major case study, which will be supplemented by lectures and discussions. They will also receive real company data, so they can better understand how course tools can impact real operations – including their own. Students will be evaluated through quizzes, homework and a final project or exam.

Review: “This course is a strategic level survey of Operations Strategy. Little to no math is required and the projects focus on 4 mini-cases and applying the concepts the two profs cover in the lectures (there is also the option to use your own enterprise for the projects or as an additional/extra credit project).

The lectures are very short so much of the learning is down in the Discussion Forum if you are not already familiar with the topics. There is also a text book but it is costly (US$100) and it goes into much more depth than the course (I did purchase it and it is excellent but I know most students won’t have access to it). Perhaps some selected pdfs of the test would help the course.

Gad and Jan are experts in the area of Operations Management (they are two of the top profs at Kellogg GSM and Gad is known among students there as “The God of Ops”). Even if you are experienced in this area this course will help you challenge some assumptions and think about your enterprise in new ways. Overall, a great course.” To read additional reviews, click here.

Additional Note: The authors have also co-authored a textbook on this topic called Operations Strategy: Principles and Practice.

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