Insegnamento a.a. 2024-2025

20939 - DECISION MAKING IN COMPLEX BUSINESS REDESIGN

Department of Management and Technology

Course taught in English

Student consultation hours
Go to class group/s: 31 - 32 - 33
IM (2 credits - II sem. - OBS  |  SECS-P/07)
Course Director:
ALBERTO GRANDO

Classes: 31 (II sem.) - 32 (II sem.) - 33 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: ALBERTO GRANDO, Class 32: ALBERTO GRANDO, Class 33: SILVIA ZAMBONI


Suggested background knowledge

No specific requirements

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

This course aims at developing decision making capabilities in complex business situation. Specifically, this highly interactive and hands-on course intends to develop students’ management skills, to enhance their leadership attitudes, and to strengthen their ability to make and execute managerial decisions within a highly interdependent organizational setting. The course is based on the in-depth analysis of a real business case from a multi-functional perspective. The Prysmian Group case describes its growth strategy and the decisions to be taken from several points of view: strategy, organization, project planning, risk analysis and project execution. Students are exposed to a series of scenarios and decisions to develop a growth strategy and to implement it.

CONTENT SUMMARY

Through the course sessions, several questions will be addressed. Among the others, students will analyze the following:

 

(1) Stimulate corporate entrepreneurship strategies: how can we enhance and use the entrepreneurial drive in the entire group to generate new growth options without losing the grip on costs and efficiency?

 

(2) Project management: what are the most influential variables in a project environment? What are the tools and techniques that companies can leverage in order to plan and control complex projects?

 

(3) Manufacturing Foot-print redesign: how can a company properly plan this complex project? Which kind of risks can be forecasted and related mitigation actions implemented? How can a company keep its plan under control?

 

(4) Financial and operational performance: what are the possible performance implications of a manufacturing footprint redesign? What KPIs, measures, and performance-measurement systems may allow us to capture the performance implications of the company operations redesign?

 

This short course is structured into 4 parts. Please note that the sequence of the small group sessions is not the same in all sub-groups.
    Small group session 1: setting corporate entrepreneurship strategy
    Small group session 2: creating a project management organization
    Small group session 3: identifying the major risks and related mitigation actions of a  manufacturing footprint redesign
    Small group session 4: executing the footprint redesign and measuring economic and operational  performance


Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

- Understand the need for a holistic approach to the analysis of corporate, business and functional strategies as well as the organizational and project management design;

- Identify the way of approaching a complex process related to manufacturing and operations management decisions;

- Illustrate the main risks related to a complex project planning and execution;

- Select the most relevant operational and financial KPIs to monitor a complex decision making process.

 

 

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...

- Develop Team working abilities;

- Apply some decision making and communication skills;

- Assess the relevant risk in manging a complex project;

- Develop a project planning applied to a real case;

- Evaluate the main management decisions in project execution phase;

- Design a control system to monitor the relevant performances related to the specific project analyzed.

 

The course is designed as a “Learning Lab” in which students can develop several managerial skills such as team working, problem solving, critical thinking, creativity, and effective presentation.


Teaching methods

  • Practical Exercises
  • Collaborative Works / Assignments
  • Interaction/Gamification

DETAILS

The course is designed as a learning lab in which students are required to work in group and analyze a complex project related to a real case study.

In developing their decision making process, students will:

- discuss the main strategic and organizational choices using the information reported in the reading package;

- elaborate a project planning and control process, using Excel worksheet and simulation tools;

- utilize a simulation platform to analyze several scenarios and options event-based;

- report out the outcomes of each process phase, by providing specific group assignments. 


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Collaborative Works / Assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
x    
  • Business game results
x    

ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students are required to attend classes in person.

For each of the four modules, students will be required to deliver a short group assignment (3-4 PowerPoint charts in each assignment). Instructors will manage the assignment through the Blackboard platform.

 

Given the strong integration of contents, while presence in all sessions is suggested, a minimum of 75%  out of the total sessions is required to reach the status of attendee. Attendance will be detected through the “attendance” system developed by Bocconi. All attendance PINs required by professors must be entered in full and ontime.

 

Students that fail the course (due to absence or to insufficient performance in the assignments) will be required to attend the course next year or to elaborate a detailed report, following the instructions uploaded on Bboard (see Course Business Game -> Course content -> Assignment rules for Non attending students)..

 

Please remember that in order to get the credits, the registration to the exam is mandatory.

 


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

For not-attending students an individual assignment is required on the basis of specific intsructions will be uploaded on BBoard at the beginning of the course.

(see Course Business Game -> Course content -> Assignment rules for Non attending students).

 

Please remember that in order to get the credits, the registration to the exam is mandatory.

 


Teaching materials


ATTENDING STUDENTS

Attending students will be provided by a reading package containing the Prysima case study, some additional readings, the relevant texts for each session and the instruction for the simulation.

During the different sessions, Teachers will provide some slide sets.


NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

Not-attending students are required to develop an individual assignment, following the instructions published on Blackboard at the beginning of the course. The assignment is based on information each student will be required to collect, focused on a selected company.

Last change 21/05/2024 16:01