MBA & Sloan Operations, Information, and Technology Electives: Stanford GSB

MBA and Sloan Elective Courses: Operations, Information, and Technology

OIT 245. Modeling for Quantitative Analysis

This course provides basic skills in quantitative modeling, using Excel as the instructional medium. Particularly, the course teaches model building, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation and the interpretation of results.

OIT 247. Modeling for Quantitative Analysis—Accelerated

This course is aimed at students who already have background or demonstrated aptitude for quantitative analysis, and thus are comfortable with more rapid coverage of these topics: (1) modeling in a spreadsheet environment, (2) optimization modeling, and (3) Monte Carlo simulation. The emphasis is on model formulation, and analysis and interpretation of the results. The applications covered will draw from several areas including operations, finance and marketing. Examples include production and capacity planning, investment management, and portfolio optimization. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 258. Technology Management

This course is intended to provide students who do not have significant background in technology with an appreciation for managerial issues related to Informational Technology (IT) within a typical firm, not necessarily in the technology sector. The course discusses how value is delivered by IT solutions, what must be done by a firm to realize this value, and whether an advantage bestowed by technology is sustainable. On the technical side, students are introduced to complexity, reliability, security, and scalability via some common IT solutions. On the organizational side, risks, costs of adoption, difficulties with implementation, and decision architectures enabled by IT are studied.

OIT 261. Technology Concepts for Managers

OIT 262. Operations

This course focuses on basic managerial issues arising in the operations of both manufacturing and service industries. The objectives are to familiarize students with the problems and issues confronting operations managers and to introduce language, conceptual models, and analytical techniques that are broadly applicable in confronting such problems. The spectrum of different process types used to provide goods and services is developed and then examined through methods of process analysis and design.

OIT 263. Business Process Design

This course focuses on the business processes through which real work is accomplished, such as product development, order fulfillment, and customer service. We will discuss fundamental concepts embodied in the total quality, time-based competition, business process reengineering, and lean manufacturing movements. Specific topics include: capacity management, the impact of variability on process performance, project management techniques, and dynamic flow management (priority scheduling, triage, multi-tasking). Cases and exercises are drawn from a variety of industries, including services (e.g., back-room operations in financial services), design, manufacturing, and health care. Class members should be comfortable with modeling techniques. About one-third of the material is related to tools of process analysis, including several computer assignments involving simulation software.

OIT 264. Global Operations

Globalization of businesses has resulted in companies having to manage global networks of suppliers, integrators, contract manufacturers, logistics service providers, distributors, and service support operators in geographically dispersed locations. The customer network is also globally distributed. This course will focus on (1) how global and international companies can overcome the geographical, cultural, and organizational barriers, and leverage the strengths of the network to create values, and (2) how these companies may use different ways to manage operations in different regions to take full advantage of the local strengths and limitations. The course will be based on cases, mostly developed in the last two years, on innovative strategies and tactics used by global and international companies. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 265. Data and Decisions

This course introduces fundamental concepts and techniques for analyzing risk and formulating sound decisions in uncertain environments. Approximately half of the course focuses on probability theory and decision analysis including decision trees, decision criteria, the value of information, and simulation techniques. The remainder of the course examines statistical methods for interpreting and analyzing data including sampling concepts, regression analysis, and hypothesis testing. Applications include inventory management, demand analysis, lotteries and gambling, portfolio analysis, insurance, auctions, surveys and opinion polls, environmental contamination and failure analysis. The course emphasizes analytical techniques and concepts that are broadly applicable to business decisions.

OIT 267. Data and Decisions—Accelerated

This course is a first-year MBA course in probability, statistics, multiple regression analysis, and decision trees for students with strong quantitative backgrounds. Probability provides the foundation for modeling uncertainties. Statistics provides techniques for interpreting data, permitting managers to use small amounts of information to answer larger questions. Regression analysis provides a method for determining the relationship between a dependent variable and predictor variables. Decision tree analysis consists of quantitative approaches to decision making making under uncertainty. Additional topics such as advanced multiple regression analysis (e.g., correction for autocorrelation), two-group discriminant analysis, ch-square analysis, and stratified random sampling are included in the accelerated version of Data and Decisions. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 333. Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability

This course is a Bass Seminar and the first element of two-quarter project course for graduate students to apply engineering and business skills to design comprehensive solutions for challenges faced by the world`s poor. Student teams collaboratively design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. Jointly offered by School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business. Topics include user empathy, design thinking, rapid prototype engineering and testing, social entrepreneurship, detailed business modeling, and project management. Students work in small teams to brainstorm, research, design, build, and field-test critical aspects of both the product and the business model. Visit the website for details.

OIT 334. Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability

This course is a Bass Seminar and the second element of two-quarter project course for graduate students to apply engineering and business skills to design comprehensive solutions for challenges faced by the world`s poor. Student teams collaboratively design product prototypes, distribution systems, and business plans for entrepreneurial ventures in developing countries. Jointly offered by School of Engineering and Graduate School of Business. Topics include user empathy, design thinking, rapid prototype engineering and testing, social entrepreneurship, detailed business modeling, and project management. Students work in small teams to brainstorm, research, design, build, and field-test critical aspects of both the product and the business model. Several design reviews during quarter, final course presentation. Intensive hands-on, project-based course. Visit the website for details.

OIT 338. Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers

Students will learn the fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy systems, by building decision-support models for managing these systems. In so doing, students will develop widely-applicable skills in model representation in a spreadsheet, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation.

OIT 339. Environmental Science for Managers and Policy Makers—Advanced

Fundamental science of ecosystems, climate and energy. Spreadsheet modeling, optimization, and Monte Carlo simulation applied to resource management and environmental policy. Similar to OIT 338, but allocates more class time to environmental/energy science and implications for management and policy, and less class time to fundamentals of modeling/optimization/simulation.

OIT 342. Revenue Optimization

Systems for revenue optimization, also called yield management or revenue management, combine the use of information technology, statistical forecasting, and mathematical optimization to make tactical decisions about pricing and product availability. A familiar example is the passenger airline industry, where a carrier may sell seats on the same flight at many different fares, with fare availability changing as time advances and uncommitted capacity declines. Revenue optimization practices have transformed the transportation and hospitality industries, and are increasingly important in retail, telecommunications, entertainment, health care and manufacturing. In this course students learn to identify and exploit revenue optimization opportunities in different business contexts. The main focus is on classical revenue management, where capacity is fixed and perishable, but closely related topics like markdown management and customized pricing are also covered. Legal issues related to revenue optimization and customer perceptions of fairness are discussed, and current practices in different industries are surveyed. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 355. Data Based Decision Making

This course will focus on collecting, organizing, and using data as an aid to making managerial decisions. It has two related threads. The first focuses on advanced statistical and machine learning techniques for data analysis. The second is concerned with business data base organization and construction, including data collected from web site visits. Students will manipulate and use large data sets that they will collect from corporate sources, field projects, or library files. Topics include: advanced regression analysis, analysis of time series, forecasting, discriminate analysis, classification trees, clustering, neural networks, relational data bases, data mining, and data warehousing. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 356. Electronic Business

This course is about the intersection of business, electronic commerce and information technology, with an emphasis on strategy and business issues. It focuses on ways you can take advantage of new technology opportunities and how they change the structure of firms, industries and value chains. For a typical class, you will prepare an in-depth case study, and the class discussion will start from the business problems presented by the case study, how one might address them, what is the role and impact of the enabling technologies, and what are some general lessons one can draw beyond the problems presented by the case.

OIT 357. Value Chain Strategies

This course addresses how the increasingly large number of firms that use or provide outsourcing and "offshoring" can create a sustainable competitive advantage. Students who complete the course will have a framework and a set of concepts that can be used to position a firm for strategic advantage in these supply networks. Positioning in and strategic analysis of product markets is covered in a variety of courses and books. A distinguishing feature of this course is that it addresses positioning and strategic analysis for firms operating as part of a network of providers, sellers and buyers... the factor markets. The course takes a general management perspective and provides examples through cases and discussions with visitors. The major theme of the course is that these firms must carefully consider how they position themselves in both the product and factor markets. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 361. Technology Concepts for Managers

Electronics, computing, networks and software applications have become an integral part of business, and knowledge of technology is now a prerequisite for a successful manager. Rapid changes in technology can quickly render today's "hot" topic discussions obsolete. The course thus stresses fundamentals and trends, rather than just a too-brief snapshot of different technologies. The general flow of the course focuses on four areas, Fundamental Electronics and Computing, Communications including Networking and the Internet, Software and Software Development issues, and the Web. Not offered in 2009-10.

OIT 362. Supply Chain Management and Technology

Firms in many industries are scrambling to develop innovative ways to move products from raw materials through manufacturing to customers more quickly and efficiently. Some are responding by necessity to competition, both domestically and internationally. Others are capitalizing on the continuing stream of dramatic improvements in information technology. They redesign their supply chains to gather, process, transmit, share, and exploit vast amounts of information quickly and cheaply. Still others are applying the radically different philosophy of seeking a cooperative approach among all the players in the supply chain. Huge improvements have been enjoyed by firms able to optimize over their entire supply chains and figure out how to share the resulting gains while breaking down the traditional adversarial relationships. Some redesign their chains to bypass unneeded stages. Other innovations derive from deregulation and lower tariffs. This course examines many of the recent innovations in this area with an emphasis on technologies. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 364. Global Operations

OIT 374. Supply Chain Management and Analytics

Supply chain management is about the coordination of information, material and financial flows from suppliers to consumers. It involves the integration of multi-organizational interests, and is now generally viewed as a source of great competitive advantage. The advances of information technologies and the increasingly availability and accessibility of data have created great opportunities to increase the performance and efficiency of a supply chain. This course is focused on: 1) Analytical methods and models that have been developed to make use of data to intelligently operate the supply chain; and 2) Analytical methods and models to evaluate, through the quantification of the costs and benefits of, supply chain improvement initiatives or supply chain restructuring opportunities. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 384. Biodesign Innovation: Needs Finding and Concept Creation

This is the first quarter of a two-quarter course series (OIT 384/OIT 385). In this course, students learn how to develop comprehensive solutions (most commonly medical devices) to some of the most significant medical problems. The first quarter includes an introduction to needs finding methods, brainstorming and concept creation. Students learn strategies for understanding and interpreting clinical needs, researching literature and searching patents. Working in small entrepreneurial multidisciplinary teams, students gain exposure to clinical and scientific literature review, techniques of intellectual property analysis and feasibility, basic prototyping and market assessment. Students create, analyze and screen medical technology ideas, and select projects for future development. Final presentations at the end of the winter quarter to a panel of prominent inventors and investors in medical technology provide the impetus for further work in the spring quarter.

OIT 385. Biodesign Innovation: Concept Development and Implementation

This course focuses on the concept development and implementation as well as early factors for success. Other topics include: how to prototype inventions and refine intellectual property, strategic planning, ethical considerations, new venture management, financing and licensing strategies, cash requirements, regulatory (FDA), reimbursement, clinical, and legal strategies, and business or research plans.

OIT 520. Modeling Health Care Systems

Both the public and the private sector are now investing considerable resources and capital in the development of models for the health care system. The hope is that these models will result into more effective usage of scarce clinical resources, more efficient drug development and discovery, and in general better quality of care and lower costs. This second year seminar will explore the recent developments in health care systems modeling by discussing the following questions:

What are the main drivers behind the increasing interest in models for health care systems?
How does one determine which problems in health care can be addressed effectively by mathematical and computational models?
What are the main challenges in the development of these models?
What does it take to make the transition from the computational model to real life?
Can mathematical models improve the delivery of medical care and catalyze the discovery of new treatments?
Will others be able to replicate the success of companies like Entelos, or is Entelos the lucky child of the bubble?
What does the future hold for health care modeling?

The seminar will discuss these questions by reviewing evidence presented in industry reports, in the academic and in the popular press. Industry leaders in this high-potential space will be invited to join in the discussions.
Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 522. Field Trips to Grassroots Innovators in Health Care: Improving Access and Outcomes for the Underserved

Some of the most impressive innovations in health care are developed at hospitals and other non-profit organizations by dedicated health care professionals (doctors, nurses, administrators) who are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and work hard to solve an important health care problem they face in their everyday patient encounters. Because of limited financial resources and because they often target underserved market segments, these innovations lack a validated business model and commercialization pathway. In this seminar students will gain hands-on experience of some of these grassroots innovations through field trips to a local public hospital and a non-profit product incubator (hopelab.org).Students will then work in teams to identify and address the main barriers to commercialization for two specific innovations presented in these field trips: An electronic referral system to promote access to specialist care in underserved communities; A video game to promote healthy lifestyles in at-risk youth. Students will learn and apply the brainstorming approach to come up with innovative solutions to overcome these barriers. On the last day we will meet key executives in both organizations to present our recommendations.

OIT 530. Advanced Modeling Seminar

Modern spreadsheet and simulation software now makes it possible for general managers to model complex and uncertain business situations. This seminar will consist of hands-on experience with more advanced applications for modeling business situations that include abrupt, discontinuous change. Models of such situations often are called "ill-behaved" because they defeat the traditional tools of analysis. Recent advances in software and the speed of modern PC's have produced easy-to-use tools for building and analyzing such ill-behaved models. Using these new tools and working with the instructors as coaches in a laboratory setting, each day students will build and analyze optimization and simulation models of these more-realistic business situations. The tools covered include a more advanced version of the Excel Solver add-in, called Evolutionary Solver, the use of evolutionary optimization in Monte Carlo models involving Crystal Ball, and the introduction of Extend, a graphical tool for constructing and analyzing discrete event simulation models. Examples of such applications include optimizing for risk in financial statement projections, capacity expansion plans involving real options, customer service and manufacturing workflow systems, and in the public sector, the effects of courtroom scheduling and airport security policies.

OIT 542. Price and Revenue Optimization

In this course students learn about the model structures and modeling techniques that underlie systems for price and revenue optimization. Two topics are given roughly equal emphasis: model-based tactical pricing, including customized pricing and retail markdown management; and classical revenue management, where automated logic is used for booking control (that is, to make yes-or-no decisions in response to booking requests from customers), rather than to set prices explicitly.

OIT 556. Electronic Business and Commerce

Beyond the hype surrounding the rise and fall of "dot-com" businesses, Information Technology has fundamentally changed the costs of transactions and communications, affecting the ways firms are internally managed and the ways they deal with customers and business partners. This course focuses on approaches to value creation using Information Technology and their application to a variety of business settings. It explores ways in which firms can use electronic business to create value, and strategies for capturing a portion of that value. The course will examine such issues as: how Information Technology affects information flows within the firm; electronic commerce; applications and pitfalls; how electronic business is likely to change traditional supply chains, logistics and payment systems; and the impact of electronic business on established industries and companies. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 561. Technology Concepts for Managers

The goal of this course is not to turn art historians into engineers. Rather, the goal is to provide a basic understanding of the concepts behind computing and communication technology. The course is designed for students from diverse, non-technical backgrounds, with an orientation towards the prospective manager. Technology concepts are discussed using business contexts. The need for a particular technological solution is established in the business context. Then, feasibility, complexity, scalability and cost of possible solutions are compared, and thus an understanding of the basic concepts behind the technology is obtained. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 562. Supply Chain Management and Technology

OIT 563. Technology and Markets

This course covers the role of technology in today's market environments. The focus is on the function of technology as an enabler of markets and as a tool that increases the efficiency of markets. Some topics covered are the role of technology in consumer-to-consumer markets, electronic clearing mechanisms, technology enabled methods for improving business-to-consumer market efficiency, the effect of Internet based systems on markets for procurement and the use of information systems in today's financial markets. In the end of the course, the students are expected to have an understanding of how to use technology as a strategic tool in competitive environments as well as the current state of technology applications in markets from a general manager's point of view. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 571. Homeland Security: Operations, Strategy and Implementation

This Bass Seminar covers a variety of topics in homeland security: bioterrorism (attacks with contagious agents such as smallpox or non-contagious agents such as anthrax, and attacks on the food supply), pandemic influenza, nuclear security at ports and around cities, the biometric aspects of the US-VISIT Program, the intersection of homeland security and immigration, and suicide bombings. Not taught in 09-10.

OIT 581. Biodesign Innovation Core, Winter

OIT581 is a two-unit version of the Biodesign Innovation course (OIT384). In this course, students learn how to develop comprehensive solutions (most commonly medical devices) to some of the most significant medical problems. In OIT581, students learn the basic principles of biodesign innovation: methods of validating medical needs; techniques for analyzing intellectual property; basics of regulatory (FDA) and reimbursement planning; early market analysis; design principles; brainstorming and early prototyping. Course format includes expert guest lecturers and faculty-led practical demonstrations. Students apply the concepts learned by serving as "commercialization and marketing consultants" to multidsciplinary teams of students in the four-unit course (OIT 384). Consultants interact with their teams on a regular basis and provide a consulting report on market analysis and competitive dynamics.

OIT 582. Biodesign Innovation Core and Project, Winter

Students work in multidisciplinary teams at the intersection of medicine, engineering and business to develop a comprehensive solution to an important medical need of their choice. With coaching from faculty and real-world experts, the teams identify an important medical need and through brainstorming they develop several potential conceptual approaches to solving the need and pursue initial prototyping, along with planning for regulatory and reimbursement pathways. The project culminates with a presentation to a panel of venture investors and entrepreneurs. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 583. Biodesign Innovation Core, Spring

Two quarter sequence (continuation of OIT581, two unit version of Biodesign Innovation). The second quarter focuses on how to take a conceptual solution to an important medical need forward from early concept to technology translation, development and possible commercialization. Students expand on the topics they learned in OIT581/OIT384 to learn about prototyping; patent strategies; advanced planning for reimbursement and FDA approval; choosing translation and commercialization route (licensing vs. start-up); marketing, sales and distribution strategies; ethical issues including conflict of interest; fundraising approaches and cash requirements; financial modeling; essentials of writing a business or research plan; strategies for assembling a development team. Students apply the concepts they learn by serving as "commercialization consultants" to a team in OIT385.

OIT 584. Biodesign Innovation Core and Project, Spring

Students work in multidisciplinary teams at the intersection of medicine, engineering and business to further develop and refine the solutions they identified in OIT582. The focus this quarter is on implementation. The teams select the most promising solution from the concepts of the first term and move forward into prototyping and project planning. Teams develop specific strategies for patenting, FDA submission, commercialization and third-party reimbursement, along with funding strategies (e.g. licensing agreement or launching a start-up). The project culminates with a presentation to a panel of venture investors. Not taught in 2009-10.

OIT 586. The Future of Health

This seminar will examine the major factors that will shape the future of health care over the next five years. Three broad categories of such factors will be considered:

Demographics: The aging of the baby boomers accelerates the demand for health services.
Technology: Technological innovation expands the array of medical treatments available for conditions that were otherwise untreatable. Technology is expensive.
Consumerism: Health care is a classical experience good whose cost is subsidized by health insurance. The role of consumers in shaping the demand of this product is confounded by the presence of insurance coverage and by the experience nature of the products.

This seminar will examine the specific forces affecting each of these factors and the implications of these on the overall health care system, the payers, the providers, the innovators, and the consumers. In particular, we will examine how each of these factors contributed to the deceleration of health cost growth in the early 90s and in the subsequent acceleration in the late 90s. Not taught in 2009-10.

Research