SM323 - The Cross Functional Core – “The Core”
SM323 - The Cross Functional Core is one of the key elements differentiating the Boston University School of Management undergraduate curriculum from other programs. The Core, which has won awards and recognition for curriculum innovation, as well as from recruiters and alumni, consists of four functional courses – Marketing, Operations, Information Systems, and Finance – which are integrated into a unique sequence through a common semester-long project.
The Core New Product project is the cornerstone of the course and has been designed to allow students to work in teams to develop a business plan where each team: designs a new product that meets customer needs; assesses customers and markets; develops operations processes and information systems to support their product; and, understands the risks involved in implementing and financing the project.
The Core Faculty Design Team has been invited to a number of conferences to present the innovative nature of the course. A recent presentation by Professors Brunel, Joglekar and Hibbard entitled “Integrated Curriculum: Lessons from 12 years of Cross-Functional Learning” is available. In addition, SMG hosted a Curricular Innovations Conference in which The Core was the major focus. Approximately 50 schools from around the country and world, represented by Deans and faculty, came to learn about The Core and how to adapt some of its key learning elements for their business curricula.
Recently, Professors Jonathan Hibbard and Frederic F. Brunel analyzed several years of course data and uncovered some interesting findings – one of which is that student members of teams that are operating in a cohesive manner perform better on their own individual exams. Their article, entitled ‘Using Innovations in Student Teaming to Leverage Cross-Functional and Marketing Learning: Evidence from a Fully Integrated Undergraduate Core” will be published soon in Marketing Education Review.
At the end of each semester the course concludes with a New Product Showcase. The Core Showcase is set up as a tradeshow and allows teams to display the results of their semester-long work by demonstrating product prototypes, showing marketing materials, business plans and web sites which they developed for the new product development focused course.
The Fall 2006 Showcase took place on December 13, 2006 which included the School’s largest-ever Core class comprising 9 sections of 54 student teams and approximately 415 students who were taught by 20 faculty. The event also drew parents and alumni.
The Fall 2006 Core Showcase winning teams, as voted by their peers, each will have their product names engraved on the Showcase trophy and receive framed certificates. There are also pictures of the selected winning teams and other participating teams from the Fall 2006 Showcase.
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