Social Enterprise Operations Management - FIN 3220

Social enterprises are typically are designed to fill the gap in existing services that cannot be provided by the public or private sectors which requires serious management skills. Operations management describes the and sustainable exploitation of opportunities. This course will provide a comprehensive overview and step by step approach to the most critical aspects of operating social enterprises. It will also put students in the shoes of the social entrepreneur, social enterprise or operations manager, using detailed examples and activities from a real-world social enterprise, as well as best practices from targeted case studies addressing key course topics. Since social enterprises have the additional consideration of optimizing operations in a way that will amplify social impact. This course, unlike traditional operations courses, will focus on operations management through the lens of these unique challenges.

Some of the topics you will be focusing on are poor infrastructure that complicates logistics, widely dispersed and fragmented supplier base, limited trained talent pool and outsourcing options, minimal experience in and budgets for systematization, heightened political and climate risks, inconsistent income streams and high degree of market informality, and the impediments of last mile services and distribution.

The skills you will gain include:

-Identifying successful social enterprises

-Gaining an essential understanding of funding / financing tools and entrepreneurial skills as well as learn how to measure the social impact created by your organization

-Understanding the ecosystem and the role that government, business, and non-profit organizations play within it