Systems Thinking

Catalog description

This course focuses on the introduction and use of leading-edge systems thinking and modelling tools that are necessary to diagnose and solve complex business and social problems. Students will learn how to implement a flexible and powerful approach to structuring managerial problems and visualizing the interconnectedness of business, social and environmental systems. The development of skills to conceptualize and build simulation models of an enterprise, enabling the exploration of the dynamic consequences of different strategy/policy decisions and the identification of key leverage points in the system, is a central goal of this course. Systems thinking in business and public policy as it pertains to firm growth and stagnation, competitive strategy, capability development and human resource policies, environmental sustainability, and the boom and bust dynamics of start-up businesses will be explored. Successful Industrial applications of applied systems thinking and business dynamics will be reviewed.