Certificate in Managing Services

The need to address the leadership and management challenges faced by service businesses led The Initiative for Managing Services to partner with Fisher Executive Education to develop the Certificate in Managing Services: Services the Winning Differentiator is a program that focuses directly on the issues most relevant to organizations operating within today’s increasingly service-oriented global economy.

Program Learning Goals

This program is intended for anyone in organizations who want to develop a general manager’s perspective on the range of issues to be addressed by the successful service organization, and who want to acquire tools for improving the operations of the business that can be used immediately.

These sessions will:

• Provide a well-rounded curriculum in services leadership for leaders at all levels
• Facilitate an understanding of the complete range of issues that businesses and service operations face in all areas of service
• Establish a forum to discuss and debate solutions with peers

Students will learn

• How to develop a wining Service Strategy
• What Leadership is all about and how it may be unique in Services
• The linkage between great internal service and great external service, and profitability
• How to market an intangible

Who Should Attend

Attendees for this program come with a range of preparation and skill sets.  The program is structured to afford each participant the opportunity to engage in “deeper-dive” areas of interest to the individual. The program addresses services management issues at a general manager level.

For those attendees actively engaged in mid- to senior-level executive positions, the program has immediate application.

For attendees in the high-potential category, the program provides a perspective of the entire service business and develops a platform and context for the events of their careers as they unfold.

Program Agenda and Content

The program is delivered in a series of nine modules in Pfahl Hall at The Ohio State University campus in Columbus, Ohio.  Participants will attend the program for one day approximately every three weeks. This format allows for assignments between sessions, collaboration with other classmates, interaction with faculty, and investigation of applications within the host companies.

Class Format

Each module will combine classroom lecture and discussion, analysis of cases from well-regarded sources such as the Harvard Business School and MIT Sloan School of Management, as well as outside assignments.  Faculty will provide pre-reading assignments prior to each class. Following the first class session, cases will be assigned for the subsequent tandem of classes. 

Content for each class session will be delivered by two instructors with each faculty member focusing on a single four-hour delivery on the specific day.  This ensures an optimal level of classroom engagement and enables students to experience the linkage of two topics by studying them in a single class day.  Topics covered during the course of the program will provide the constructs for successful completion of a final project for each participant. 

Final Project

The final project is an integral part of the program and is intended to provide an opportunity to apply content from the series of  instructional modules to a real life challenge or opportunity being experienced by the host company and one in which the student plays an active role in implementation. Regardless of scope of the project, it is essential that the student be intimately involved, not just acting as an observer/consultant to another part of the host company. Details of the final project and expectations for deliverables will be covered in the first session of the program. 

Throughout the program, students will be encouraged to incorporate their learning into their project and will provide periodic updates on the progress of their projects.  Senior management of the host companies is strongly encouraged to attend the final project presentations.

Registration and Investment

The Certificate in Managing Services: Services the Winning Differentiator is being offered at $3,975 per student for Member Companies and $4,975 for non-members. To register, or to receive additional information, please contact Michael Smith, Director of The Initiative for Managing Services at 614-2 47-8375.