MBA in Product Management for Footwear & Apparel

This course considers the key aspects of what it means to be a leader in our ever-changing global business environment. Best practices and key considerations for developing global strategy, driving change around the world, managing multicultural teams, addressing the intricacies of a global supply chain, and the challenges we face from macro trends, such as climate change and sustainability.

This course presents the conceptual foundations of information technology and examines the development, application, and advances of information technology resources in organizations. With a focus on the managerial perspective, students investigate issues related to the development of contemporary systems development approaches

This course focuses on the essentials of project management. It approaches project management from the standpoint of managing a single, stand-alone project that is small to medium in size. The course takes attendees through the project life cycle in the same sequence they would face when managing a real project in the workplace. Topics covered include the product and project life cycles, including initiation, planning, executing, controlling, and closing.

This course examines the staffing function of management including planning, recruiting, selection, training, motivation, appraisal, compensation, labor laws, and organizational development. The course also addresses the current issues affecting the human resource manager including the changing work force and need to increase productivity as well as changes in the areas of unions and affirmative action.

This course provides an overview of data-driven strategic marketing; the management, planning and control of the function and the process. Designed as a foundation course for the Masters in Marketing, an emphasis is placed on developing the skills to lead, plan, implement and measure strategic marketing initiatives within the dynamics of today’s organization.

This course covers basic statistical techniques in a managerial setting featuring case studies and conceptual exercises. Statistical topics include effective use of numerical and graphical summaries, estimation and confidence intervals, hypothesis testing and regression. A few more advanced topics such as data mining, the Bayesian paradigm and principles of model building may be encountered during projects.

Managerial Economics is the application of economic theory and methodology to managerial decision making problems within various organizational settings such as a firm or a government agency. The emphasis in this course will be on demand analysis and estimation, production and cost analysis under different market conditions, forecasting and decision making under uncertainty. The course provides an understanding of the microeconomic forces that influence firm decision making. Topics include competitive markets and market failure, benefit-cost analysis, demand estimation and forecasting, decision making under risk and uncertainty, production and cost estimation, and market structure analysis

As the language of business and the cornerstone of our capital markets, accounting provides terminology, frameworks, and concepts with which to analyze and understand the financial consequences of business activities. This course explains the basics of accounting, links accounting to financial statements, analyzes financial statements and works through economic analysis of investments. As these activities have become increasingly complex and global, the task of presenting timely, relevant, and reliable financial information to interested internal and external users has become more challenging. The course highlights how managers use cost, cash flow and financial reporting information in their decisions. Pre-requisites: MGMT768 or MGMT769 & MGMT770

The primary purpose of this course is to help you develop a high degree of financial statement, financial analysis, and financial management expertise in order to enhance your capabilities as an informed manager and decision maker. In addition, this course has a global perspective which examines the operation of the foreign exchange markets, foreign exchange risk management, sources and instruments of international financing, foreign direct investment and the management of political risk, multinational capital budgeting, and financing control systems for the multinational firm.

Entrepreneurship is the process of creating and growing new businesses and is fundamentally concerned with the identification and exploitation of opportunities for wealth creation (profit). Successful entrepreneurs generate wealth by identifying opportunities for value creation and then develop competitive advantages to exploit them. The broad objective of this course will be to apply insights from the fields of strategic management and economics to the process of entrepreneurship in order to understand what differentiates successful from unsuccessful entrepreneurial firms.

Ethical Management in Fashion is a general introduction to ethical decision-making and management within the fashion industry. Varied methods of assessing and addressing ethical considerations in management practice are addressed, as examined through the perspective of ethical theories and frameworks. The course addresses these elements through in-depth research, analytical methods, and problem solving of case studies to generate solutions to current issues within our clothing industry. Students develop a relevant and decisive understanding of various ethical dilemmas facing modern apparel businesses. The majority of topics surround non-profit national and global business models, accountability of human rights and fair-trade issues, environmental impact, and exploitative marketing images. We unveil big brands appropriation disputes, social justice and responsibility needs and the activism of new technology supporting these efforts.

Gain knowledge and experience relating to the product development process; including footwear and apparel basics, lasts, shell patterns, tooling, components, tech packs, BOM creation, product calendar, new materials research, costing, factory communication, product prototyping, testing, commercialization, customization, sustainability, production, advanced manufacturing and quality control. This course will challenge students to effectively manage a multitude of products though the creation process and identify issues and solutions related to product development and manufacturing. This class will present a comprehensive view of product management essentials from a footwear perspective however, apparel examples, activities and assignments will be included.

Dive deep into the intricacies of product management and the everyday decisions that propel or hinder products from hitting the market. Every day, hundreds of decisions across the supply chain are made that either make or break a product, from analyzing a cost breakdown sheet to improve profitability, selecting appropriate material vendors based on location, past performance and duties, minimizing material loss, improving the defective rates at a factory, increasing product sustainability to risk analysis of products in the market. This course will challenge students to use their critical thinking skills to analyze real-world situations and develop informed decisions.

Students will engage in a Capstone experience either an internship and/or problem of practice with an Apparel or Footwear partner to gain professional development and further enhance their skills in a real work setting. The student holds primary responsibility for obtaining a field experience site or proposing a problem of practice that will be overseen by a Supervisor who is an employee of the organization or company at which the Capstone takes place. The instructor of the Capstone course will provide ongoing guidance and feedback throughout the semester and will complete a final internship evaluation that reflects the student’s performance.

The internship is a hands-on working experience in the student’s field of concentration requiring a minimum of 150 hours of placement under the supervision of both an employer and a faculty member. Beginning in the semester preceding the internship placement, the student identifies what type of organization they desire for their internship. The student holds primary responsibility for obtaining a field experience site and is responsible for setting up interviews with prospective internship sites Students may not perform internships at their current place of employment without prior consent of the Dean of Graduate and Professional Studies. This course is taken during the student’s final graduate semester