MBA Online

Principles of Management

In today’s environment, organizations are faced with high levels of international competition. They are looking for competent managers who show both the analytic skills and the interpersonal skills and knowledge necessary to successfully manage a diverse work force in complex environments. The purpose of this course is to assist you in acquiring such skills and knowledge by providing you with the framework and tools needed to manage, analyze, and lead the organization of the future. In this course, we will focus on “human behavior and management in organizations”, which is one of the key elements to understanding organizational management. The course applies knowledge from the study of organizational behavior to examination of some of the futures that are supposed to characterize the emerging “new” organizational form.

Money and Banking in Japan
This course deals with characteristics of the Japanese financial system, through discussions of “hot issues”. Problem loans are currently a hot issue. Consolidation of major banks if also a hot issue. Through the study and discussion of these issues, we can learn about the role of banks, the importance of the financial system, the relationship between banks and business corporations, and so on. In addition, this course provides a comparative analysis between Japan and the United States. Topics covered include the following: (1) The current situation of Japanese problem loans; (2) Comparative analysis of problem loans between the US and Japan; (3) The historical role of Japanese banks that promoted economic expansion in the old days and has resulted in serious problems today; (4) Unique aspects of Japanese business customs involving banks and their changes, including the so-called main-bank and cross-share-holding or “mochiai” and less effective securities markets; and (5) Reform of Japan’s financial system.

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

[Term 3] Service Management (Y. Fujikawa) (2009/Term 3&4 (Spring&Summer))

This course is designed for future business leaders who seek opportunities in the fastest-growing sector in the world economies. Today, the service sector accounts for 60-80% of the GDP among many developed countries, and services’ role is ever growing in many of the emerging economies in Asia and beyond. This global trend toward a service economy is driven not only by the growth of the service industries (including, but not limited to, education, entertainment, finance, health care, hospitality, IT-based, and retail) but also the expansion of service’s importance within non-service businesses (e.g., manufacturing, agriculture, forestry, fishing, etc.).

Services are different from goods in many aspects: among others, they are intangible (i.e., it is difficult to assess their qualities); perishable (i.e., they cannot be produced in advance and stored on inventory); simultaneously produced and consumed (i.e., buyers and sellers create value jointly); and heterogeneous (i.e., it is difficult to control qualities). Such unique properties pose distinct challenges and opportunities in managing service businesses. Using case materials, related readings, and individual/team assignments, this course intends to aid students in the following:
• Gaining an in-depth understanding of the unique challenges involved in managing service organizations
• Acquiring analytical skills for effective planning and execution of service businesses
• Fostering an active, constructively critical posture as customers of service businesses, with an aim to stimulate real-world service providers to improve service quality
Course Structure

Three management disciplines—Marketing Management (MM), Human Resource Management (HRM), and Operations Management (OM)—play central and interrelated roles in meeting customer needs in service businesses. Reflecting this interdependency among the three key functions, the course is structured as follows:

Module 1 introduces a few overarching frameworks of the course, such as the 7Ps of service management, strategic service vision, service profit chain, and gaps model of service quality. Module 2 lays out basic elements of service marketing by extending the 4Ps of marketing and CRM issues to service settings. Module 3 focuses on an additional P—people—by delving into HRM issues in service businesses. Module 4 moves on to two more Ps—process and physical environment—by examining process fundamentals of service operations. Throughout the course we will repeatedly visit the importance of aligning the three key disciplines of service management (MM, HRM, and OM).
Teaching Method

The primary teaching approach is the case method. In addition, there will be individual and team assignments.

Cases. Cases will be selected from a diverse set of business contexts: B2C and B2B, high-tech and low-tech, entrepreneurial and established, and East and West. Throughout the semester we will explore cutting-edge examples of service breakthroughs, many of which employ unique business models and technologies for innovative ways of addressing customers’ unmet needs. We will also discuss issues in the globalization of services, with particular emphasis on service businesses that attempt to expand from Asia to the world (and vice versa).

Individual Assignments (Letter Writing Campaign and POA Memo). Taking an active stance on the issue of service quality, you will be writing (and actually mailing) two letters to two different service organizations with which you have recently interacted as a customer: one letter is for complaining about a service failure, the other for extending congratulations on a service excellence. The purpose of this individual assignment includes providing you with an opportunity to apply your analytical skills in a practical situation, supplying valuable feedback to the service organizations, and learning from real-life examples about how organizations address customer complaints and act on letters of praise. More details will be provided on the first day of the course. In addition, you will be writing a POA memo for one of the cases to be discussed in class.

Team Assignments (To Be Determined). In order to facilitate the collective learning process among yourselves, you will be assigned to a team project. The details are still being explored at this moment (it also depends on how many of you are taking this course), but possibilities include running a service company in an electronic simulation program, conducting a short field project on a real-world example of service innovation or service globalization, and/or presenting a team analysis to lead a case discussion.

ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy

[Term 2] Problem Solving (Y. Ishikura) (2008/Term 1&2 (Fall&Winter))

In the real world, business problems do not always arise in the form of explicit, approachable, or appropriate questions. At the same time, although you might be able to find lot of (but unfortunately, often ultimately irrelevant) information, you would have, as always, limited time and resources to tackle and solve those problems. Therefore, one of the most critical business skills today is problem solving – how to solve problems in an efficient and effective way.

This problem solving is a “must have” skill for any internal or external consultant to an organization. You are asked to come into an organization to diagnose the problem, develop the best solution, and prepare a plan to ensure that the solution gets implemented. In many cases (but not always), the management of the organization feels that they know where the problem lies, and some may even have hypothetical solutions in mind. As the consultant, you need to dig to identify the real problem areas and think of various alternative solutions within a limited time. As internal or external consultants are evaluated (and paid) based upon the “value” they provide, you need to go beyond what is available and/or known within the organization, and are expected to bring new insights and solutions well supported by facts and good/insightful/creative analyses.

If the consulting business does not interest you, you can think of this course as “writing a case study and developing a teaching note” to some extent. Many case studies have been used in the ICS curriculum, but not much has been explained as to how to select a site for a case study, how to approach an organization to identify the problems, gather data, and write their issues in a format that students or business people can grasp without too much difficulty.

The authors of The McKinsey Mind claim that problem solving at a consulting firm consists of six elements: business need, analyzing, presenting, managing, implementation, and leadership. This course focuses on the second element, “analyzing,” with some reference to the third and fourth elements as time allows, because those are the most useful at almost any level job in any organization, but is rarely taught or practiced at most organizations.

This course is designed for and specifically targeted at a certain group of students who wish to build such skills. The objective of this course is to enable students to understand basic problem solving tools and concepts AND apply them to real business issues to develop application know-how. The course also exposes students to the basic requirements for effective and efficient problem solving, such as overview of the process, balancing the total picture and focused analysis, and the importance of the hypothesis and work plan. These basic concepts form the background for many frameworks introduced in other courses offered in Term 1.

In addition, the basic skills involved in putting together an analysis that provides a clear, brief, and coherent story and presenting it to an audience will be outlined.

In the course, we will use a few case studies prepared by the instructor, in addition to case studies developed elsewhere. The instructor will use cases she wrote so that the students will have some insights into Dos and Don’ts of problem solving in the real world, especially as an internal or external consultant.

By taking this course, students will be able to frame the problem with a structure and hypothesis, design the analysis needed to prove (or disprove, and thus change) a hypothesis, gather relevant data in the process (with a focus on interviewing skills), interpret the results, and develop/present solutions to stakeholders. This is what this course is all about.
Course Structure

The course is offered twice a week—on Tuesdays and Fridays—for six weeks. The course is structured in five modules, as follows:

(1) How to frame the problem
(2) How to design the analysis
(3) How to gather the data (with a focus on conducting effective interviews)
(4) How to interpret the results
(5) How to present your ideas

In each module, lectures introducing basic concepts, tools, and techniques are practiced with simple exercises and cases. Some examples of the tools are as follows:

(1) MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive)
(2) Logic tree
(3) Issue tree
(4) Work plan
(5) Pyramid principle

During the course, we will also touch upon the basic thinking behind frameworks and analytical techniques covered in other courses, such as Industry Structure Analysis, financial analysis, and other data analytical methods. Integration will be made with frameworks and tools introduced in other courses, so that students will understand what is behind specific concepts such as SWOT analysis, 4Cs, 4Ps, value chain, congruence model, and DuPont formula.
Teaching Method

Students will be asked to read some sections of the main textbook, as well as a case before almost every class. In the classroom, we will briefly discuss the concept in the textbook and spend more time on simple exercises and case exercises for better understanding. Simple exercises will give students the opportunity to apply concepts immediately after the lecture and encourage the practice of them in daily life. The case studies will give students a sense of what it is like to enter an organization, interview management to identify issues, conduct basic quantitative analysis, and frame problems. We will also spend some time to prepare and conduct an effective key person interview.

Group Project: (Preliminary)
There will be two group projects assigned in the course. The first (conducted earlier in the course) is the observation of sites in the field, to generate hypotheses. The second group project is on a bigger scale, through which, students can apply what they learn to frame issues, conduct analyses, and develop a preliminary recommendation in groups.

Individual Assignments:
There will be a few individual assignments, including write-ups and memo preparation.

Final Examination:
There will be a final examination (individual, 4-hour). It will be a case analysis with a recommendation, using the problem solving approach introduced in the course.

The Faculty offers a range of short executive education programmes tailored for today’s business executives through the Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management. Some of these programmes lead to the award of certificates and diplomas and may be conducted with local and international partners. Based at our campus in Hong Kong’s downtown Admiralty Centre, these programmes provide executives with a high impact learning experience that combines the latest management research with the best practice techniques. Its programmes attract executives looking for up-to-the-minute knowledge in areas such as e-business, risk management, logistics and supply chain management, management of change, and service marketing.

The Poon Kam Kai Institute of Management was established in 1990 through a generous donation to the University from Mr. Dickson Poon to advance management education.