Systems Dynamics In Business,society&env

MBA7504 Systems Dynamics in Business, Society and the Environment
3 Elective Credits

Whether within multifunctional businesses we manage, or across extended global enterprises so critical to our venture's success, or the societies in which we live, or the planet and its environment that sustains us, a common feature is the prevalence of systems of interrelated, interacting, or interdependent actors, choices, actions, flows, and stocks forming a complex whole. Examples of systems range from (1) operations on the manufacturing floor to service operations to global supply chains, (2) the diffusion of technological innovations and contagious diseases, (3) the playing out of network effects and multi-sided platforms, (3) the functioning of markets and commodity and business cycles, (4) living populations and their dependence on each other and resource availability, (5) social media and the functioning of societies; and (6) the VUCAH (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, and hyperconnected) nature of the world we live in. In a very basis way, that is just the way the world is: webs within webs of systems.

How do we make sense of such interconnected systems? How do we learn to express this sense-making in the form of clear narratives and maps and schematics that tell the complete, interconnected story? And, having done so, how do we model and analyze the systems' dynamics - how the systems might play out over time? This, so we are better prepared for intended and unintended consequences, system resilience or fragility, and far-far-away butterfly effects and we are more effective in terms of decision-making, problem-solving, and policy-making and implementation.

Learning in the course is very hands-on: as with any "studio" course, we will work on exercises in class; there will be an individual exercise where learners will take a real problem, "build" a system model, and simulate the dynamics of the same using a dedicated simulation software package or Excel; and students will be working in teams on a complex real-world problem (for example, "global warming") and learn how to map the "system" and explore its dynamics.

Prerequisites: Completed 12 credits of core requirements