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Consulting concentration

The consulting industry represents a diverse portfolio of professional services firms that help their clients improve performance by providing objective advice and assistance related to the strategy, Information Technology, Financial Resources, Talent and Human Resources, and Operations of an organization.

Critical to the success of a consultant is not only the ability to develop the content expertise in one or more of these areas, but also the ability to utilize skills in relationship building and negotiation to become a trusted advisor. Consultants are typically assigned to work on specific projects, often executed in a team-based setting working alongside their clients. With a Full-time MBA area of emphasis in Consulting, you will develop both the hard and soft skills required to be client-ready Day 1.

Required courses

You must complete the following required courses plus at least one course from the list of electives in order to complete the concentration in consulting.

MGT 591: Management Consulting — Essential Skills

Builds on the knowledge gained in prior courses and applies it to ambiguous and volatile problems and issues. Outcomes include developing a personal statement of purpose and unique leadership point of view, applying an appropriate strategic analysis tool to evaluate alternatives to solve complex business problems; and utilizing design thinking to recommend solutions for common challenges.

MGT 530: Mastering the Art of Influence and Negotiations

Builds the knowledge and skills necessary to excel at the art of negotiation by gaining experience in bargaining and negotiation. Through experiential learning — exercises, negotiation simulations, and negotiation-based cases — you will establish a fundamental understanding of what it takes to be an effective negotiator.

MGT 591: Management Consulting in Action

Focuses student teams on consulting projects to develop strategies, business plans, or components of business plans for entrepreneurial businesses in the Valley. During the course, teams will interact with company representatives, collect information, and prepare reports for the client and class.

MGT 591: Management Consulting — Driving Organizational Change

This course provides a broad overview of the significant complexity inherent in guiding an organization (whether an entire enterprise or a specific division) through change. Given that complex organizational change has large, costly, and often risky, people-related components, the focus will be on managing the human side of complex change.

Electives

CIS 510: Business Process and Workflow Analysis

Builds the foundation for process analysis by focusing on information, documents, people, roles, and business rules. Provides an introduction to various techniques and tools of process analysis, including an understanding of organizational issues in rolling out change initiatives.

CIS 560: IT Services and Project Management

Focuses on key aspects of commoditization of hardware, software, and business processes. Introduces the IT product development and service delivery processes with sound management principles for on-budget and on-time projects that meet end-user needs.

ECN 503: Global Business Environment

Details coming soon.

ECN 503: Perspective on the Global Economy

Details coming soon.

MGT 591: Entrepreneurial Management

Entrepreneurial Management deals with issues encountered after the start-up, although it also acts to solidify your understanding of early stage ventures. As such, Entrepreneurial Management exposes students to what it takes to build/acquire, manage and harvest a business after the start up stage.

MGT 591: Global Immersion Project — Peru

Details coming soon.

Additional fees apply

SCM 515: Decision Models for Supply Chain Management*

Covers decision modeling approaches for supply chain management such as optimization, simulation, and decision analysis. Emphasizes modeling using spreadsheet-oriented approaches.

SCM 517: Data-driven Quality Management

Addresses the use of analytics tools and techniques to enhance the ability of quality management approaches to improve processes. Introduces modern quality management approaches including Six Sigma and design for Six Sigma. Covers the Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control (DMAIC) improvement cycle: the core process used to drive Six Sigma projects.

SCM 518: Analytical Decision-making Tools I*

Focuses on mastering quantitative modeling and optimization techniques for contextual business decision-making. Applies linear, nonlinear, integer programming, and network models to a wide range of business scenarios, including marketing, investment strategy, financial planning, production, and transportation, and also serves as a foundation for stochastic optimization.

SCM 519: Analytical Decision-making Tools II*

Addresses the skills and knowledge necessary to model situations where uncertainty is an important factor. Covers models including decision trees, simulation, and stochastic optimization, along with application for solving a wide variety of common business problems. Requires implementation of these models using Excel and stand-alone software.

WPC 591: Global Intensive Trek — Japan

Visit Tokyo for 7 to 10 days and participate in company visits, policy meetings, and cultural experiences. The trip is geared towards companies operating in the supply chain and marketing space. The class will emphasize discussion, presentations by students and written research papers.

Additional fees apply

Career paths

  • Business analyst
  • Consultant
  • General management
  • Decision analyst
  • Leadership development and rotational programs
  • Marketing and analytics consultant
  • Operations analyst

Notable employers

  • Amazon.com Inc.
  • JPMorgan Chase and Co.
  • Intel Corp.
  • General Motors Co.
  • A.T. Kearney