OPERATIONS STRATEGY
GENERAL COURSE INFORMATION:
Faculty name/title: Janet Bumstead, Adjunct Instructor
Faculty NYU email address: jb5834@nyu.edu
Course number and section: INTG1-GC2115 – Section 3
Credits: 3
Semester/Year: Fall, 2019
Class day/time: Mondays, 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Class dates: 09/09/2019 – 12/09/2019, refer to course outline for additional specifics.
No class: 10/14/2019 for Columbus Day; Legislative Day: 10/15/2019
Class meeting location: MIDC, Room 528
Office Hours: Online office hours: Mondays 11am – 1pm ET; individual appointments can be made via
email for Google Hangouts. Requests for individual appointments need to be made via email at least 48
hours in advance.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course enables students to manage the interface between marketing and a company’s operations,
in areas such as the delivery of products, services and customer support, which helps ensure that
marketing is able to effectively support a company's growth strategy and competitive position. This
course prepares students in the operational and customer-service aspects of business to ensure that
marketing and operations are properly aligned to meet customer expectations. Students evaluate how
the efficiency and effectiveness of these processes can make or break a marketing strategy, influence
lead conversion, affect customer loyalty and impact Customer Life-Time Value. In this course, students
assess how operations create competitive advantage and master how to improve the effectiveness of a
company's operations, including usability in e-commerce, outsourcing, and CRM.
COURSE PREREQUISITES:
None.
COURSE STRUCTURE/METHOD:
The course will be an in-person course held weekly and be a combination of in-class lectures, group and
independent exercises and discussions, reading and writing assignments. Students will learn to apply
the topics through a series of interactive projects and case studies throughout the course.
1
Students must check NYU classes for these materials, as well as current news and research articles that
will be posted to NYU classes. Each class will have an agenda posted on NYU Classes in advance
outlining the class agenda as well as for current news and research articles and instructions for any
assignments. Students are expected to prepare in advance for each class, participate in class, give class
presentations, and complete the assigned case studies and assignments. Students should expect to
spend 3-6 hours outside of class each week to read and reflect on the assigned materials, find and read
additional materials, complete assignments, and prepare for class sessions.
The class content will be supplemented with outside information (current news/articles) and personal
business experience. However, in addition to this material, the course will include discussions of
articles on “current events” related to operations strategy. The articles will be posted in NYUClasses.
You are expected to review these articles for class discussion purposes.
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

Assess operations for their effectiveness in driving competitive business advantage

Evaluate different operational strategies to improve ROI, employed by a range of companies
from startup to maturity

Design a user experience leveraging insights from usability studies and analysis of operations, to
drive customer satisfaction and loyalty

Align marketing strategies and tactics with effective operational practice to deliver a complete
user experience

Evaluate potential operational risks while improving customer experience
COMMUNICATION POLICY:
Email Address: jb5834@nyu.edu
While NYU email can be utilized for course communication, the preferred method of communication for
this course is through NYU Classes. If you have a question(s), there is a strong likelihood that one of
your fellow students has the same question; greater discussion and sharing of information will occur if
all questions are posted on NYU Classes. Emails/course-mail will usually be answered within 24 hours,
but at maximum within 2 business days.
COURSE EXPECTATIONS:
2
Attendance:
Students are expected to attend all classes. Excused absences are granted in cases of documented
serious illness, family emergency, religious observance, or civic obligation. Recruiting activities, job
interviews and incompatible travel plans, for example, are considered unexcused absences even if
notification is given in advance. In the case of religious observance or civic obligation, this should be
reported in advance. Unexcused absences from sessions may have a negative impact on a student’s
final grade. Students are responsible for assignments given during any absence. Each unexcused
absence may result in a student’s grade being lowered by a half of a grade. A student who has three
unexcused absences may earn a Fail grade.
University Calendar Policy on Religious Holidays:
https://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelines-compliance/policies-and-guidelines/universitycalendar-policy-on-religious-holidays.html
Students will receive credit for attendance only when they arrive to class on time and stay to the end of
the class period. Students may enter class late or leave class early only if given permission by the
instructor and if it can be done without disrupting the class.
As graduate students, you are expected to conduct yourselves in a professional manner and engage and
collaborate with your classmates. SPS classrooms are diverse and include students who range in age,
culture, learning styles, and levels of professional experience. To maintain an inclusive environment that
ensures all students can equally participate with and learn from each other, as well as receive feedback
and instruction from faculty during group discussions in the classroom, all course-based discussions and
group projects should occur in a language that is shared among all participants.
In order to have a productive class session, all students must have read the assigned readings (chapters,
supplemental materials posted on NYU classes, and cases prior to class.
REQUIRED AND RECOMMENDED MATERIAL:
Required Readings:


Coursework: https://hbsp.harvard.edu/import/635570
Materials and linked posted on NYU Classes each week
Suggested Readings:
3
Operations Strategy, 5th Edition. Nigel Slack and Michael Lewis, 2017. ISBN-13: 978-1292162492. ISBN10: 129216249X.
In order to have a productive class session, all students must have read the assigned readings (chapters,
supplemental materials posted on NYU classes, and cases prior to class.
ASSESSMENT STRATEGY:
Students are expected to complete the following components of the class, detailed in the Course
Outline section of the syllabus:
●
●
●
Weekly Participation
2 online simulations
One (1) final analysis paper and presentation (companies must be approved)
In your presentations, papers, the midterm and weekly class participation, it is critical that your analyses
be based on your own thinking, and any outside components are cited properly. Please cite all sources
utilized. This applies in particular to papers you may have written for other classes, or materials you
found online/in books, documents you may have received from companies you are researching,
interviews with industry experts, etc. You should take any externally gathered information and filter it
using your own critical thinking skills and the concepts studied in this class to synthesize it, critique it,
etc. All papers and presentation files will be analyzed using TurnItIn to ensure proper sourcing.
Each student’s grade will be a weighted composite of four elements:
●
●
●
●
4
20% - Class participation. Classroom participation is a key part of the learning activity. Your
grade will be based on frequency and relevancy of contribution both in-class and online in NYU
Classes forums. The best contributions will provide insight that adds to the analysis or raises
questions showing an understanding of the concept or material in the course. Participation
should be regular and thoughtful. Each student must contribute to every class at least once
during the class discussions. Your grade will be separated into 10% for the 1st half of the
semester, and 10% for the 2nd half of the semester.
25% - Simulation #1. Several short-answer questions will be provided for Simulation #1 (an inclass exercise). This is an individual exercise.
25% - Simulation #2. Several short-answer questions will be provided for Simulation #2 (an inclass exercise). This is an individual exercise.
30% - Final Analysis Paper (25%) and Presentation (5%). Each student will choose a company to
study, analyze and report on a follows:
o Choose two companies in the same industry and compare their operations strategies.
Pick one primary company, and use the second company for comparison purposes.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Assess the primary company’s operations strategy using the concepts discussed
throughout the semester, using the format reviewed in week 1 for analyzing case
studies/companies. Give your opinions on the relative competitive strategy of each
company going forward, and the role that operations play in each company’s
competitive strengths and weaknesses.
The 2 companies must be posted to NYU classes by 3pm on session 2 for
approval/rejection by the professor (feedback provided within 48 hours). Students may
not select the same companies to work on.
Develop a paper of no more than 15 double-spaced text pages, with a maximum of an
additional 10 pages of exhibits. Exceeding these pages limits will hurt your grade.
Exhibits that are not annotated, or do not clearly illustrate a key point in the paper may
hurt your grade.
The individual final presentation must not be more than 15 minutes including
Q&A/discussion with the class. (This may be extended depending on the number of
students in class).
The paper (in DOC format) and presentation file (in PPT format) files must be submitted
via NYU Classes by 3pm on session 13; papers and/or presentations submitted via email
and/or different formats will not be accepted.
Be analytical and not just descriptive. Be as objective as possible
Gather secondary research on the company, through SEC documents, online news
archives, company websites, NYU Library, etc. – this is not meant to be a research
paper, but if this phase of the project provides useful data on the company’s professed
strategy and actual results for customer communications, operations, etc.
All exhibits must be annotated, describing specifically what works and what does not
work. The paper and presentations files will be run through TurnItIn to ensure original
content.
Note that the final project should not focus on customer acquisition, direct-response
campaigns, marketing strategies, etc. It should focus on overall operations strategy.
Extraneous material not related to the topics of the class will count negatively in the
grading of the project.
Assignments will not be accepted if not in the specified format. Late assignments will not be accepted.
To receive a final grade for the course, students must be in regular attendance and satisfactorily
complete all examinations and other assignments as prescribed in the syllabus. A student will not
receive grades for any courses in which he or she is not officially registered at the beginning of that
term. Once recorded, grades cannot be changed unless some omission or error occurred in the grading
process or a grade appeal is honored. No grade may be changed for any reason after a student has
graduated.
5
No make-up assignments/exams will be granted for students to obtain additional points towards their
final grade in this course.
Students may obtain their final grades for each semester through ALBERT.
All students must arrive on time for each class. Any late arrival or early departure must provide valid
reasons and be excused ahead of time. Any unexcused lateness or early exit will be considered missing
a class, and may result in a lowered grade.
NYUSPS POLICIES:
TurnItIn:
TurnItIn is a plagiarism detection software used to verify academic originality. It is available only to
degree courses and students.
All required assignments in this course will be checked for plagiarism using TurnItIn
SCHOOL GRADING POLICIES:
NYU School of Professional Studies Graduate Grading Scale
Grading for graduate programs is by letter grade: A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C, C-, and F. For NYUSPS’s
complete graduate grading policies, including criteria for a grade of incomplete, taking a course on a
pass/fail basis, and withdrawing from a course, see the Grades section of the Policies and Procedures
under the Graduate tab: https://www.sps.nyu.edu/homepage/student-experience/policies-andprocedures.html
6
7
Letter
%
GPA
Descriptions
Definitions
A
95-100
4.0
Exceptional
Demonstrates exceptional mastery of all learning
outcomes of the course and thorough and complete
understanding of all concepts.
A-
90-94
3.7
Excellent
Demonstrates highly competent mastery of all
learning outcomes of the course and strong
understanding of all concepts.
B+
87-89
3.3
Very Good; exceeds
course standards
Demonstrates mastery of all learning outcomes of the
course and understanding of core concepts.
B
83-86
3.0
Good; meets course Demonstrates mastery of some learning outcomes;
standards
understanding of some core concepts could be
improved.
B-
80-82
2.7
Somewhat
Satisfactory; meets
some course
standards and
requires
improvement
Demonstrates basic understanding of some learning
outcomes; improved understanding of all core
concepts is needed.
C+
77-79
2.3
Less than
Satisfactory;
requires significant
improvement
Demonstrates partial understanding of all learning
outcomes and core concepts; requires significant
improvement.
C
73-76
2.0
Unsatisfactory;
requires substantial
improvement
Demonstrates partial understanding of some learning
outcomes and core concepts; requires substantial
improvement.
C-
70-72
1.7
Unsatisfactory;
requires extensive
improvement
Demonstrates poor understanding of all learning
outcomes and core concepts; requires extensive
improvement.
F
Below 70
0.0
Fail
Demonstrates minimal to no understanding of all key
learning outcomes and core concepts; work is
unworthy of course credit towards the degree.
COURSE OUTLINE:
The class will be structured around in-class lectures, group and independent exercises, reading and
writing assignments. It is expected that all students have read the chapter notes and readings posted on
NYU classes prior to class, as well as having read and prepared the appropriate case studies.
PART 1: 9/9/19 - OPERATIONS STRATEGY FUNDAMENTALS AND TOOLS
Session 1: Introduction & Overview
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● Class syllabus: goals and expectations (NYU Classes),
● Introduction to operations strategy,
● 4 V’s
● Operations Strategy vs Operations Management
● 4 Perspectives
● Operations Strategy Matrix
In-Class Exercise
Session 2: 9/16/19 - How Operations Affect Marketing & Business Strategy
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● Strategic Objectives
● 5 Competitive Objectives
● Polar Diagrams
In-Class Exercise
Due prior to class on NYU Classes:
●
Posting of the 2 companies for the individual final analysis paper and presentation due on NYU
classes by 3pm. Acceptance/rejection of 2 companies will be provided within 48 hours. If
companies are rejected, students must provide another requested set of companies by 3pm
within 48 hours with acceptance/rejection of the 2 companies provided within 48 hours.
Session 3: 9/23/19 - Process View of the Firm
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
8
● Qualifiers, Order Winners and Delights
● Product/Service lifecycle and operations performance objectives
● Tradeoffs
● Capacity Strategy
In-Class Exercise
Session 4: 9/30/19 - Improving the Customer Experience as a Process
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● Affinity Diagrams & Pareto Charts
In-Class Exercise
Session 5: 10/7/19 - The Process of Operations Strategy
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Reading:


HBR: Operations Management: Process Analysis by Roy D. Shapiro
HBR: Operations Management Reading: Designing, Managing, and Improving Operations by Roy
D. Shapiro Pub Date: Sept 9 2013
Class Lecture/Discussion:
●
Process Mapping
No Class on 10/14/2019 – Class will be held on Tuesday, 10/15/19
Session 6: 10/15/19 - The Process of Operations Strategy
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:

Push, pull and mixed systems
In-Class Exercise (Individual, graded): Operations Management Simulation: Balancing Process Capacity
Session 7: 10/21/19 - The Process of Operations Strategy
Readings posted on NYU Classes
9
In-Class Exercise (individual, graded): Operations Management Simulation – Process Analytics
Session 8: 10/28/19 - Managing Customer Experience Day to Day
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● The Process of Operations Strategy
In-Class Exercise:
●
Group Exercise (In-Class): Pick a company’s website, test and evaluate usability
Session 9: 11/4/19 - How Fulfillment and Customer Service Drive Customer Value, The Order
Management Cycle (OMC)
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Reading:
HBR – Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement by Aravind Chandrasekaran, John S.
Toussaint Pub Date: May 23, 2019
HBR: Operations Management Reading: Forecasting by Steven C Wheelwright, Ann B. Winslow.
Pub Date: Dec 14 2013
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● The Process of Operations Strategy
● Improvement Strategy
In-Class Exercise
Session 10: 11/11/19 - Contact/Call Center, CRM and Automation
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● Contact/Call Center
● CRM
● Automation
In-Class Exercise
Session 11: 11/18/19 - Supply Chain/Inventory Management
10
Readings posted on NYU Classes
Readings:

HBR: Operations Management Reading: Supply Chain Management by Vishal Gaur Pub Date:
July 31 2014
Class Lecture/Discussion:
● Purchasing and Supply Strategy, Process Technology Strategy
In-Class Exercise
Session 12: 11/25/19 - Final Project
Final Project Write-Up Due
Final Project Presentations*
All files are due before session 12 no matter which week student is scheduled to present.
Session 13: 12/2/19 - Final Project
Final Project Presentations*
All files are due before session 12 no matter which week student is scheduled to present.
Session 14: 12/9/19 - Final Project
Final Project Presentations*
All files are due before session 12 no matter which week student is scheduled to present.
11