Advanced Supply Management - (M)

Looking back over the past years, competitive sourcing created significant value for companies by driving substantial cost savings directly to the bottom line and creating value in the supply chain. However, procurement needs to move beyond well-established approaches in a changing world. Recent political turmoil, growing environmental and societal concerns, technological advances, macroeconomic forces, and global competition have created an even more turbulent and uncertain business environment. This course will familiarize you with advanced supply strategies that aim to create value beyond cost, e.g., effective risk management, smart outsourcing/insourcing decisions, and managing CSR in the supply chain. You will be able to understand decision schemes behind these concepts both from a theoretical/scientific and managerial perspective. Real-life relevance is a key objective of the course. The course features a combination of study formats:

• We will go deeper into specific, highly current supply management issues by discussing relevant, complex case studies
• Practitioner guest sessions will provide insight into latest industry developments
• You will work with scientific journal articles as well as managerial literature and prepare a “mini lecture” on an assigned topic. Teams will present their lecture to share their insights with the other participants. This will strengthen your understanding of theories and research approaches in supply management, as well as their implications for managerial decision making

 

The learning objectives are:

1. Acquire in-depth knowledge of various supply management strategies
2. Gain an understanding of the frameworks and paradigms that build the foundation of advanced supply management research and practice
3. Get new perspectives on purchasing/supply management issues from class discussions with fellow students, academics, and industry experts sharing their work experiences
4. Get “Ph.D.-ready”: Further develop the ability to work scientifically in the realm of supply management and gain first-hand teaching experience by holding a “mini lecture”

This course will familiarize participants with advanced supply strategies that aim at creating value beyond cost. These include effective risk management, smart outsourcing/insourcing decisions, and managing CSR in the supply chain. You will be able to understand decision schemes behind these concepts both from a theoretical/scientific and managerial perspective. Real-life relevance is a key objective of the course.

Required and optional readings will be specified in the course syllabus.

Interactive class discussion, case-based group work, group presentation and guest speakers

Class Participation (15%), Pre-class Polls (5%), Project(25%), Exam (55%)

150