MKT 9505: Sales and Marketing Dynamics within Franchise Systems

1.5 credits

This course will cover and explore the unique dynamics of sales and marketing in franchise systems. This intensive elective course complements EPS7534- Franchising, licensing & distributorship. We will review the fundamentals of franchise business models to set the context for the course and then focus on specific aspects of franchising that presents unique challenges for sales and marketing executives. We will address the implications these challenges have on marketing strategy, brand building, brand extension, sales process, sales pipeline, and revenue management. Topics covered include fundamentals of franchise business models and systems, marketing strategy and implementation in franchise systems, brand building and brand leadership in franchise systems, sales process and pipeline management for recruiting franchisees, aligning B2C and B2B franchise sales to support revenue growth, understanding franchise unit level sales analytics, managing brand conflicts and opportunities in multi-brand franchise operators, managing brands in international franchise systems, marketing channel conflicts, challenges, and opportunities when franchising is combined with other go-to-market channel options, new product development (NPD) and product portfolio management (PPM) for growth-phase franchise systems.

Prerequisites: MKT 7800

SEN 1349 Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Why Food Is Good

Instructor: Laci Kim

This course draws inspiration from Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat to uncover how cuisines around the world master these essential elements of cooking. Together, we will dive into the why behind what makes our favorite foods so irresistible: why is ice cream so delicious? and why does a sprinkle of salt make it even better? Through the lens of food science, social customs, and pop culture, we will explore food's deeper connections and meanings. Students will engage all their senses - touch, taste, and creativity - by experiencing, savoring, and making dishes that bring these concepts to life.

OIM6600 Scaling a New Business Within the Enterprise Through Digital
3 Credits (MSAEL Core)Digitized processes and platforms are an essential approach for leaders to scale major projects and initiatives in an organization. Cloud computing enable digital platforms that focus on operations, employee collaboration, customer relationships, and machine-to-machine connections such as the Internet of Things (IoT) to capture, analyze, and share data and insights. Instead of experimenting in an incubation state, the entire organization has to get involved with the innovation process. In this course, we explore how and when to use these digital platforms. This includes not only the rollout of the digital change from an operations and resourcing perspective but understanding who the active and passive champions and resistors are and working with them to drive diffusion. We will also discuss operations challenges and solutions associated with moving from a pilot to full scale production. Finally, the course will expose students to emerging technology enablers (e.g. data visualization, 3D printing, robotics, machine learning, augmented/virtual reality tools) and effectively identify the role they can play in the organization's growth and renewal.

Prerequisites: MOB6600 and EPS6600

OIM3536 Scaling Lean Ventures
4 Advanced Management Credits

How do you enable an organization to overcome the constraints and risks posed by the nascent & uncertain operating environment found in an entrepreneurial venture? Scaling Lean Ventures is a capstone course for Operations concentrators and elective course for others targeted to 3rd and 4th year undergraduate students with an interest in strategic operations in small to medium sized organizations.

The approach to the course is driven by Lean Principles of Management including "learn by doing". The well-studied Toyota Production System serves us as the root file for many of these principles. Students will be assigned to a high priority project with an organization and will be expected to conceive & implement Lean Start-up principles to relieve the organization of a deeply embedded operating constraint on growth. This is not a consulting experience, but a learn-by-doing partnership for fourteen weeks. The students will be expected to be on site with the partner organizations regularly to make implementation progress.

In addition to their on-site time, the course will have an in-class component. During each in-class session, the students will be exposed to a new TPS concept and discuss how to implement it at their project. The students will also provide and receive feedback from their peers, instructors, and guest lecturers to gain insights on their implementation attempts to-date, thus better understanding their assigned problem and charting a path forward to success.

The partner organizations are from a wide variety of industries, including technology, consumer products, food, legal services, and socially-oriented manufacturing and service companies.

Prerequisites: FME and SME ; Juniors and Seniors status

STR3500: Scaling Strategy: Mastering the Four Stages from Idea to $10 Billion

4 advanced management credits

How do the most successful founders transform their idea into a large, fast-growing company? Scaling Strategy answers this question by investigating three fundamental questions:
- What are the stages through which an organization must evolve to turn a new business idea into a fast-growing public company?
- How can leaders capture the opportunities and overcome the challenges at each of these stages?
- How can CEOs assess their ability to lead their organization through the next stage of scaling?

Scaling Strategy explores these questions through a specific scaling framework developed by Professor Cohan and complemented with the work of other experts in the field of scaling strategy. As described below in Appendix A: Core Scaling Concepts, the course presents and applies concepts such as:

- Four stages of scaling - during which leaders seek to achieve different business objectives that are essential to transforming an idea into a large company;
- Seven scaling levers - the management tools that leader use to achieve these objectives; and
- Scaling quotient - a tool for assessing the company's capabilities - both strengths and improvement opportunities - to hurdle the next scaling stage.

For more information please watch this video: https://babson.instructuremedia.com/embed/d2e3ddbb-d69a-4091-b285-1fe25c344a76

Prerequisite: STR3000

EPS3534 Scholar in Action Experience
2 General CreditsThis two-credit course is designed to help individual students in the Bernon Scholar Program research, draft, and plan, execute, and evaluate a programmatic response to social or community need or concern for which the student is passionate.

This course is accomplished in five parts: exploration of issue, benchmarking and research of existing responses, planning of student's response, execution of that response and the student reflection on efficiency and effectiveness.

Enrollment by Permission Only

NST1020 Science & Technology of Energy
4 CreditsAs the world's current energy demand continues to rise, it is critical to understand the causes, impacts, and possible solutions to our current global energy crisis. This course will focus on the technologies associated with renewable forms of energy and their potential for future success.

Prerequisites: None

NST1070 Science & Technology of Environmental Health
4 CreditsThis course investigates the interaction between the spheres of natural science and human health. Human activities impact the global climate and the resultant climate change impacts human health, both directly and indirectly. This course focuses on the background of various global health issues and their links to climate using the scientific method and multiple data-driven activities to evaluate research questions. We will also evaluate the integrity of scientific data, assessing reliable sources of information with respect to transparency and scientific bias.

Specific topics covered in this course include the connections between global changes such as sea level and temperature rise with human impacts including increasing climate migration, spread of infectious disease, and threats to food security. We will also investigate connections between industrialized agricultural, fossil fuel use, and the deterioration of water and air quality. Finally, we address the prominent role of environmental racism in the human health and climate connection. In taking this course, students will gain a broader understanding about the long-term effects of their actions, both on themselves as individuals and on other global citizens, and recognize opportunities for individual and systemic changes that result in a more sustainable world.

Prerequisites: None

NST1060 Oceanography
4 CreditsOver 70% of the globe is covered by ocean. Marine systems are a nexus of life - crucial sources of protein for human populations, reservoirs of minerals, and regulators of the global climate. However, human populations have increased demand for ocean resources in greater numbers than is ecologically sustainable. In addition, the ocean serves as a dumping ground for many types of waste, resulting in waters degraded by pollution. The objective of this course is to give you a basic understanding of the physical, biological, and chemical processes driving ocean fundamentals. In addition, we will examine how human demand on marine resources impacts ocean communities.

This course will stress the importance of the scientific method - both in principle and in practice. Extensive discussion of human environmental impacts on the ocean (e.g., climate change, marine pollution, overfishing) will enhance perspectives of self-awareness and ethical decision-making related to social, economic and environmental responsibility and sustainability (SEERS). Critical analysis is emphasized in class discussions, exam questions, lab reports, written assignments, and the group project. Assignments facilitate development of logical communication skills, appropriate use of graphs and tables, and organizing, synthesizing, evaluating and interpreting scientific information. Through lab and group activities, this course fosters team work and ability to work with others. International and multicultural perspectives are integral to the course, since the oceans influence on human populations is global, both directly on the coasts, and indirectly away from the coasts (via weather, climate, and seafood production).

Prerequisites: None

NST1010 Science & Technology of Space
4 CreditsThe evolution and structure of the universe are explained using underlying basic physical principles along with the historical development of our present understanding. We will explore the instruments and data collection techniques used by astronomers and learn how they can be applied to solve problems in other disciplines.

Prerequisites: None