Handbook

This course introduces leading edge systems thinking tools to enhance your ability to diagnose and solve complex business and societal problems. You will learn a flexible and powerful approach to structuring managerial problems and visualising the interconnectedness of business, social and environmental systems. You will develop skills to conceptualise and build simulation models of an enterprise, enabling you to explore the dynamic consequences of different strategy/policy decisions and identify key leverage points in the system. You will also discover how to elicit team knowledge to achieve a shared mental model among managers and/or policy makers, converting a simulation model into a Management Gaming Simulator.

In the course, students explore a broad application of business and public policy issues including firm growth and stagnation, competitive strategy, capability development and human resource policies, and the boom and bust dynamics of start-up enterprises. Industries discussed include international oil production, passenger airlines, real estate, global wine wars, cyclical commodity markets, and also examples from public policy and social enterprises. In addition, students examine cases of organisations that have successfully applied systems thinking and business dynamics.