JWMI MBA in AI Leadership

Your career and ability to lead depend on effective communication. Communication is a learned skill that everyone can improve. This course will teach you techniques, often reserved for high potential executives, to advance your leadership presence, strategic communication, professional relationships, presentation performance, and workplace crisis management. You will sharpen your communication skills through targeted learning, practice, and coaching. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to optimize your online presence through strategic updates to your LinkedIn profile and peer feedback.

Marketing is the process of turning wants and needs into decisions and actions. It involves a range of activities designed to convey a persuasive message to a target audience. The course covers marketing plans, qualitative and quantitative research, consumer psychology, product positioning and strategy, pricing, packaging, brand equity, advertising, the marketing mix, customer value, and business-to-business global marketing.

What do the emerging technologies of generative AI mean for the future of the economy, business and leadership? How can managers leverage these tools to improve performance and stay ahead of the competition in a global environment? This course approaches AI not as replacement for core business knowledge, but as a multiplier of skills and capacity. We focus on understanding the managerial aspects of Al, such as aligning Al strategies with business goals and managing risks associated with Al systems. 

Early on in your career, professional success depends on your innate talents, how you develop those talents and your initial career decisions. But once you become a manager, your ability to select, develop, promote and manage the right people becomes the most important determinant of success. In this course, students explore two general areas of people management: hiring and positioning the right players for organizational needs and managing people once the players are in place. Specific topics include sourcing and integrating new talent, managing strategic talent inventory, working with HR and organized labor, performance evaluations, and reward systems.

Financial accounting is the "language of business." Leaders must develop fluency in financial concepts, principles, and tools to understand and drive effective organizational decisions. In this course, you will learn to read, understand and analyze financial data as well as apply managerial accounting concepts such as costing, variance analysis, forecasting, and capital budgeting. Maximize the impact of your financial decisions by learning to speak with numbers.

Artificial Intelligence can be a powerful tool to uncover and address operational inefficiencies that lead to underperformance. This course is not just for operations managers. It is for any leader committed to finding a better way every day. The course explores the use of AI tools to improve performance in the areas of workflow, productivity and quality. By focusing on the planning and implementation of Al-supported initiatives, students will learn how to develop more effective and efficient operational practices that are aligned with business goals and overcome common challenges associated with Al adoption. 

Emphasizing the investment strategies of Warren Buffett, this course will help you develop the financial management skills necessary to analyze the competitive strengths of companies, and from that analysis, gain a better understanding of the qualities that investors in those companies seek. You will leverage these financial management skills to become a more strategic and tactical manager and improve your communication abilities when dealing with senior financial professionals.

Jack Welch said, “If the rate of change outside the organization is faster than the rate of change on the inside, the end is near.” In a global marketplace, organizations that once firmly held significant defensible shares of the market are being continuously threatened by new innovations from their competitors. This course explores how AI can promote new ways of thinking and improve strategic decision-making. Students will learn about AI-enabled innovation processes, such as generative design, deep learning, reinforcement learning and advanced analytics. Students will work on real-world projects to apply AI techniques to solve strategic business challenges.

From the rapid advance of technology to the steady march of globalization, powerful forces of change are shaping today's business landscape. As leaders grapple with these forces, they also face enormous reistance to change. In this course, students learn a powerful framework for understanding and marshaling change. They also hear real stories and concrete strategies from the trenches—including Work-Out, Rapid Results, and Six Sigma—and learn when to use each tool.

Anyone can display an entrepreneurial streak, but not everyone can be an entrepreneur. In this course, you will learn what makes an entrepreneur tick and then walk through the stages of planning, financing and launching a new business. The course covers business plan development, market analysis, competitive positioning, business models, funding sources, company formation, intellectual property, sales, marketing, and hiring. The insights gained will give you a powerful leg up in launching new businesses and new ventures within existing businesses.

This course is where it all comes together. Students will synthesize and apply all they have learned during their JWMI MBA program. They will complete a Capstone Project in which they will prepare and present a well-researched strategic plan to take their organization to a more profitable and sustainable position of market leadership. Because business leaders, especially CEOs, cannot just act on hunches, the first half of this course will be focused on business analytics. This will include an overview of powerful quantitative strategies and techniques used to analyze business data in any organization and improve decision outcomes across all business functions. Students will use these same techniques to identify, collect and analyze the data needed to support their strategic plan.