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This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental techniques of using data to make informed management decisions.
In particular, the course will focus on various ways of modeling, or thinking structurally about, decision problems in order to enhance decision-making skills.
Rather than survey all of the techniques of management science, the course stresses those fundamental concepts that we believe are most important for the practical analysis of management decisions.
Consequently, the course focuses on evaluating uncertainty explicitly, understanding the dynamic nature of decision-making, using historical data and limited information effectively, simulating complex systems, and optimally allocating resources. The implementation of these tools has been facilitated considerably by the development of spreadsheet-based software packages, and so we will make liberal use of spreadsheet models.
The objective of this course is for students to become intelligent users of management science techniques. In that vein, emphasis will be placed on how, what and why certain techniques and tools are useful, and what their ramifications would be when used in practice, all in concert with the overarching goal to become better managers. This will necessitate some mechanical manipulations of formulas and data, but it is not our goal for you to become adept handlers of mathematical equations and computer software.
Course Objectives
This course is designed to introduce students to the fundamental techniques of using data to make informed management decisions.
In particular, the course will focus on various ways of modeling, or thinking structurally about, decision problems in order to enhance decision-making skills.
Rather than survey all of the techniques of management science, the course stresses those fundamental concepts that we believe are most important for the practical analysis of management decisions.
Consequently, the course focuses on evaluating uncertainty explicitly, understanding the dynamic nature of decision-making, using historical data and limited information effectively, simulating complex systems, and optimally allocating resources. The implementation of these tools has been facilitated considerably by the development of spreadsheet-based software packages, and so we will make liberal use of spreadsheet models.
The objective of this course is to students to become intelligent users of management science techniques. In that vein, emphasis will be placed on how, what and why certain techniques and tools are useful, and what their ramifications would be when used in practice, all in concert with the overarching goal to become better managers. This will necessitate some mechanical manipulations of formulas and data, but it is not our goal for you to become adept handlers of mathematical equations and computer software.
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