Major Requirements
There are five majors hosted by the Managerial Economics & Decision Sciences Department.
Managerial Analytics
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The Managerial Analytics major is a unique, multidisciplinary program that leverages the Kellogg School' s rich analytical curriculum as well as its position as a magnet for recruiters from all major consulting companies. Intended to equip the students with fundamental tools used in consulting, the major consists of three components: Decision models, analytical strategy, and empirical methods. Each component consists of 3 to 4 courses that span the fields of decision sciences, operation management, managerial economics, and marketing. Completing the major requires taking 4 courses, with at least one in each of the fields mentioned above.
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Decision Sciences
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The Decision Sciences major delivers a variety of modeling techniques for use in diverse industries. The subject matter is meant to give students a "mathematical toolbox" usable across many disciplines - whether using regression to forecast sales, designing spreadsheets for portfolio optimization or constructing decision tree models to evaluate different R&D alternatives. Because of its flexibility, the major is an ideal complement to majors in finance, economics, operations or marketing. In recent years decision science techniques have been especially relevant for (but not limited to) companies in the following areas: general consulting, oil & natural gas, automotive, pharmaceuticals and transportation.
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Entrepreneurship & Innovation
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The major in Entrepreneurship & Innovation recognizes the ever-increasing role of entrepreneurial activity, both individual and corporate, in the modern economy. It is designed for students contemplating going into business for themselves at some stage of their career, joining an entrepreneurial venture, an entrepreneur support organization such as a commercial bank or venture capital firm.
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Managerial Economics
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The Managerial Economics major is well suited for careers in consulting, finance and marketing. Competitive strategic analysis, pricing strategies and macroeconomics are taught in various courses. These are key analytical tools to have in hand in both industry-based and function-based careers.
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Operations Management
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Operations Management is the management of business processes, that is, the management of the recurring activities of a firm. Along with finance and marketing, operations is one of the three primary functions of a firm. At the danger of being simplistic, one may say that marketing induces the demand for products (goods and services), finance provides the capital, and operations produces and delivers the product. Even more generally, operations spans the entire organization: COOs are in charge of R&D, design/engineering, production operations, marketing, sales, support and service.
The operations major is designed with two specific career paths in mind: consulting and general management. Operations is arguably the most appropriate major for a consultant or general manager to learn about the daily cross-functional management of the firm. All operations electives in the operations major take an interdisciplinary view and interface with finance (for investing and financial evaluation), marketing (appropriate delivery channels and customer management), organizational behavior and strategy. Instead of the technical engineering view of operations, the focus is on managing the business well.
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