|
UNC—CH Kenan-Flagler Business School |
|
Girish Mallapragada’s Courses |
|
BUSI 567 Brand and Product Management
|
|
Course Meeting Times Tuesday and Thursday 8.00 AM — 9.15 AM Course Description Firms compete with each other on how efficiently they can deliver products and services to customers. In other words, firms organize their activities around their products and firms – and therefore, the management of products and services can be viewed as the most important activity for any firm. Great firms such as Apple, 3M, IBM, Google and Citibank have achieved iconic status through their excellent approach to product/service management. Clearly, in a globalized world with increased competition among firms, it is becoming very critical for firms to develop and manage not just one, but often a suite of world-class products and/or services. The course titled Product and Service Management is aimed at helping students develop a product/service centric focus to understanding organization level strategic issues. The course is aimed at providing students thorough insights on crucial areas within product management, namely new product/service planning, product/service portfolio development, and new product/service evaluation. Students will be exposed to a healthy mixture of lectures, case studies, business press readings, and group exercises as part of the learning process. Finally, the course also aims to provide insights on some of the new age technologies/services involving online social networking communities and other similar internet technologies. Course Expectations It is very important that you come to class prepared. The primary class format will be a mixture of lecture and discussions. We will also use the assigned readings as part of the in-class learning. These are very general business press readings that touch upon the subject matter for that class session. I also welcome you to participate actively by citing relevant examples that might occur to you during our discussions. Required Materials Textbook We will be using the book, “Product Management” by Lehmann and Winer, 4th edition. It is the best book available on this topic and you will find it very useful as a practitioner as well. You are expected to read the assigned chapters thoroughly before class. Cases Given the small class size, I have decided to purchase the usage rights for the cases and you do not have to bear this cost. I will distribute the cases well in advance. It is your responsibility to do this, as I have done my part by eliminating an expensive course packet. Other readings To reduce your financial burden, I have provided the internet links of the assigned readings for the sessions on the syllabus page. Clicking on them will take you to the UNC library system and after logging in you can either read them online or take a printout. It is your responsibility to do this, as I have done my part by eliminating an expensive course packet.
Grading Your grades will be determined at the end of the semester after taking into consideration the following: Class participation 10% Class assignments (teams) 5% Team case write up 15% Individual case write-up 15% Short Quizzes (Announced & Best 2 of 3) 20% Team project 15% Final Exam 20% Total 100% Team & Individual Work From the grading weights above, 30% of your grade will be based on team efforts and 70% on individual work. Since team contributions are important in today’s marketing workplace, individuals will have an opportunity to assess each team member and their performance. Note that individual grades will be adjusted as appropriate. Class Participation · I expect our class sessions to be very interactive. · True learning occurs only through two-way communication and therefore I encourage you to ask questions and also comment on other students responses to my questions. · None of us know answers to everything, so asking questions that raise the important issues is very important. · As our class sessions do not involve use of the Internet directly, I advise you not to bring your laptops to class. · If for some reason, you feel uncomfortable talking in class, please send me an email or see me outside of class early in the semester. One of the best ways for you to feel comfortable participating in our class discussions is to think about the material before class, especially the examples in the text, readings as well as your related experiences. The written assignments and small-group case discussions (described below) should also help you do this. You are also encouraged to contribute by posting discussion threads on the class blog if you feel comfortable doing so.
Case Studies The objective of case studies is to learn and apply concepts learnt in class by studying stylized problems that have been created for this purpose. I have consciously chosen short cases to keep the reading burden low. However, this does not imply that the discussion needs to be brief. In addition to meeting as teams prior to the sessions on which the case studies are scheduled, I require you to prepare: 1) one team case write-up before the mid-term and 2) one individual case write-up after the mid-term. As we will be doing four cases in all, as a team you need to pick one of the two cases in the first half of the semester for the team case write-up and one in the second half for the individual case write-up. Case write-ups should be no longer than 2 pages ( 12 point font, 1 inch margin). Please use the thought questions as a broad template for the write-up. Your case write-up should not be a mere restating of the facts and answers to the thought questions. Briefly, your write-up should: 1) Identify the problem 2) Assess various strategy options for addressing the problem 3) Recommend an alternative and 4) Suggest an implementation plan. Team Project The objective of the team project is to develop a comprehensive product management plan. This should involve 1) Idea generation 2) Idea Evaluation 3) Market and Competitor analysis 4) Product Development plan (Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning) 5) Sales Forecasting and 6) Auditing. Each team will prepare a 5 page report (12 point, 1 inch, double spaced) and submit it on the first day of presentations at the end of the semester. Each team will also make a brief presentation to the rest of the class. The presentation should not be longer than 30 minutes per team. Please feel free to use any aids (handouts, slides etc.) that will make your presentations better. To ensure that teams make progress during the semester, I have set deadlines through the semester that will help you finish the team project on time. The syllabus marks these days and the corresponding assignments due. The assignments are 1/2 page status reports that let me know about the progress of the project. |
