Courses for SMU Vietnam Program
Creative Problem Solving and Critical
Thinking Skills for Leaders (3 Days)
Facilitator: Dr. Harvey Millar, P. Eng.
Introduction
Today’s complex business environment is marred by the presence of many unstructured
challenges. To be successful, organizations must have the capacity to face these challenges
head on. It is well-known that organizational success rests in the hands of leaders who possess
effective problem solving skills. Effective decision-making therefore requires the use of creative
problem-solving and critical thinking skills.
Successful business leaders are able to examine problems and opportunities critically and
implement solutions to respond to competition and improve performance in their organization.
This seminar gives you a step-by-step process for problem solving, exploring business
alternatives, and generating highly creative solutions in any area of your business. Based on
Alex Lowy’s new best-selling business book No Problem, this seminar provides rapid, intuitive
tools that enable executives to quickly cut to the heart of strategic and organizational decisions.
Course Objectives
 Today’s best practices in critical thinking, decision making and problem solving
 To quickly identify the three basic problem levels
 To clearly define and frame organizational problems requiring solutions
 To use advanced planning tools to manage highly complex strategic challenges
 How to engage key stakeholders and team members
 How to apply new problem solving skills to your own strategic, organizational and
leadership issues
 Gain skills to train others in effective problem solving and decision making
Course Content
Day 1:
Session 1: Understanding the Problem Solving Hierarchy
Session 2: Making Effective Strategic Business Decisions
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Session 3: Structured Problem Solving Techniques
Day 2:
Session 4: Handling unstructured problems using creativity techniques.
Session 5: The 7-step creative problem solving process.
Session 6: Problem Solving Using Post-It Notes
Day 3:
Session 7: Critical Thinking Skills
Session 8: The Thinker’s Tool Kit – 14 Problem Solving Techniques
Session 9: Using 2 x 2 Matrix to Solve Business Problems
Reference Text:
No Problem, (Paper Back), by Alex Lowry, Author House, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-4259-9601-7 (sc)
Publisher: New Management Publication Co.
Workshop Format
The format of the workshops will be interactive. Participants will be given cases to discuss,
questions or situations to assess, analyze, and make recommendations. Participants will get to
work individually as well as in groups and will often be required to make short presentations.
Materials used in the workshops would include cases, articles, videos.
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II. Improving Manufacturing
Competitiveness (3 days)
Facilitator: Dr. Harvey Millar. P. Eng.
Introduction
Today more than ever before, companies are looking for ways to create greater efficiencies,
reduce costs and boost competitive advantage. In the age of environmental sustainability,
rapid changing technology, short product life cycles and increasing global competition,
manufacturers are on the constant look out for new and innovative ways to enhance
competitiveness.
In this workshop, participants will engage in an exploration of effective tools for improving
manufacturing competitiveness.
While much has been written about manufacturing
competitiveness and its relationship to internal operations, it would be extremely useful to
understand the structure of manufacturing in small and medium size enterprises in Vietnam,
and identify ways in which known best practices might be deployed to effect an improvement
in manufacturing competitiveness of these organizations.
Aims:
This course will enable participants to:
 Understand the sources of manufacturing compatitiveness
 Assess the competitiveness of a manufacturing firm
 Understand the role of operations strategy and the need for alignment with the
competitive priorities
 Understand the drivers of productivity and how to manage for improvd productivity
 Appreciate the role of key value chain elements such as product design, inventory
management, and supply chain management
 Appreciate the potential of environmentally responsible (green) manufacturing.
Program Content
Day 1: Manufacturing Strategy
Session1: Introduction to manufacturing operations
Session 2: Manufacturing strategy and manufacturing strategic planning
Session 3: Manufacturing strategy and the product life cycle
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Day 2: Quality and Productivity
Session 4: Understanding and managing for quality
Session 5: Understanding and managing for productivity
Day 4: Innovating the Value Chain
Session 6: Product and service innovation
Session 7: Best practices in inventory and purchasing management
Session 8: Green manufacturing and green supply chain management
Workshop Format
The format of the workshops will be interactive. Participants will be given cases to discuss,
questions or situations to assess, analyze, and make recommendations. Participants will get to
work individually as well as in groups and will often be required to make short presentations.
Materials used in the workshops would include cases, articles, videos.
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Seminar for the CEO Club
Operations Strategy: The Missing Link in
Building Competitive Capability
Michael Porter purports that strategy is about identifying a unique position in market space;
either doing different things (uniqueness) or doing the same things better. No matter which
definition one uses, the strategic role operations cannot be overstated. It is extremely crucial
that operations provide the need capabilities and capacity to meet the demands of the
competitive strategy. This talk will highlight the fact that many companies don’t always do a
good job of aligning operations with competitive strategy, and as a result, they do not realize
their full competitive potential. A framework for assessing operational alignment will be
discussed as well as a process for developing an operations strategy that us aligned to the
competitive strategy of the firm. The talk will draw from the work of Michael Porter, Wickham
Skinner, David Garvin, Terry Hill and others.
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