Current Courses
MBA

RSM 1215: Decision-Making with Models and Data

This course provides students with an intuitive and non-technical introduction to data analytics in healthcare, and the importance of models in interpreting data. The key to effective analytics is a scientific approach to management. The course focuses on the thinking skills that managers must have in order to understand and, more importantly, influence the types, quality, and usefulness of the analytics carried out in an organization. The course makes the case that there is a difference between “what data says” (facts) and “what data means” (relationships). Facts provide information about “how the world looks” while relationships provide information about “how the world works”. Mistaking facts for relationships can result in misguided and potentially costly decisions. Furthermore, understanding the nature of a relationship in data is needed to assess whether recent advances in artificial intelligence will be helpful, or whether other analytical techniques are needed.

RSM 2521: Digital Marketing

Digital marketing leverages the ability to communicate and distribute information in bits, rather than atoms. Social media, search engines, mobile commerce, digital advertising, and online marketplaces are impacting competition for all firms, large and small. Drawing on some common themes across digital marketing platforms, we examine (i) how companies find and serve customers using digital tools, (ii) the kinds of digital products that companies offer, (iii) the role of distance in the customer-company relationship when information is digital, (iv) the locus of control of brand-related messages, (v) the concept of privacy, and (vi) the digital targeting of marketing tactics. Broadly, for each technological innovation, we will emphasize what is different, and what is not, for consumers, and for the production, distribution, and communication of goods and services.