RIT's Executive Leader MS degree in Service Leadership and Innovation is a cutting-edge program designed to provide working professionals the leadership skills they need to transform their service organization. The program develops leaders at all levels of the organizations who will be capable of the following: creating and innovating new service ideas, practices, and policies, building and utilizing sophisticated human capital assets wisely, designing, aligning and implementing new strategic focus, building experiences that produce value for the consumer, producing performance outcomes second to none through overall service leadership.
The program consists of 48 credit hours. A course will last for six days on site in a combination of day and evening classes, and some online learning. Students will be able to complete a master's degree in 14-16 months. Class schedules will cater to working professionals; intensive seminars will be offered in the evening, and on weekends.
Admission to the masters program is granted to qualified applicants who show high potential for success. In evaluating an application, the graduate admissions committee pays careful attention to each individual's undergraduate academic record, professional experience as demonstrated in the required resume, and statement of educational objectives. Pre-requisites for admission include a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university with an equivalent grade point of average of 3.0 out of a 4.0. In addition, all applicants are required to meet the English language requirement for graduate study at RIT by submitting either a TOEFL score (minimum score 80 internet based, 213 computer based or 550 paper based) or an IELTS score of at least 6.5.
Breakthrough Thinking, Creativity & Innovation
Learning to solve problems, create profound decisions, and continuously change our organizations has always been a function of leadership. Today's fast-paced global business environment requires that we utilize equally insightful, aggressive, and distinctly new processes to change. This course examines the global phenomenon and builds in the learner new methods to achieve leadership in an age of change - breakthrough thinking, creativity, and innovation. The learner will become adept at true value innovation in a knowledge/ service economy.
Customer Relationship Management The customer relationship management (CRM) course develops learners' ability to help their organizations manage interactions with customers across multiple channels, maximize revenue opportunities, build foundations to increase customer satisfaction and drive customer retention and loyalty.
Elements of Service Management: Systems Approach
A general systems framework is used to explore the major components of service management using a variety of service sectors - health care, banking, insurance, real estate and hospitality-tourism. The course examines the interactions, interdependencies, and interactivity of service systems - to learn about the synergistic effects of the current changeable markets. In addition to this organizational focus above, the course begins the process of examining the learning organization form a professional and personal focus. Lastly, the course provides insights and practical applications to the evolving e-commerce environment and to learn service principles.
Service Performance Metrics
The process of implementing service strategies requires identifying, monitoring, controlling, and adapting the metrics associated with the desired strategic goals. Metrics are more than the quantified artifacts of the strategic goals. The chosen metric communicates the meaning of the goal and helps to clarify how strategy is to be implemented. Metrics (such as key performance indicators) should be linked to the firm's performance drivers. Thus, how goals are measured will vary greatly by firm. The important challenge for the firm is how it can best implement a system that links vision and mission with strategic goals and performance drivers to arrive at metrics of performance. In the abstract these goals are meaningless until converted into performance outcomes and expectations that are capable of being communicated and implemented across the organization. Unless there is a shared understanding of how "Customer Focus" is measured and evaluated, how does each level of management know they are aligning resources and delivering results consistent with the mission. This course explores these issues in the unique and challenging context of service firms
Service Leadership: Examining & Implementing Change
This course is a capstone course that examines various personal and personnel leadership functions as applied to the delivery of service excellence. Current literature is used to explore the interrelationship of various leadership paradigms. The goal is to enhance individuals understanding and to augment his or her ability to interact in the service environment, and to critically understand strategies founded in continuous learning, change and learning organizations. Concepts discussed include: relationship management, empowerment, team building, corporate culture and opportunity management.
Strategic Processes of Service Firms
An analysis of the organizational structure, operational procedures, corporate policies, financial growth and related factors of service firms. The course traces the evolution of various companies to reveal individual growth strategies. Service discovery, building service relationships, and understanding service as experiences are necessary skills that will be learned and used.
Accounting for Decision Makers
An introduction to accounting concepts and the use of accounting information by decision
makers. Topics include financial statements; measurement of assets, liabilities, equities, and
income; financial statement analysis, cost behavior and measurement; profitability analysis;
relevant costs for special decisions; budgeting; and responsibility accounting. Consideration
is give to the role of information technology in the development and use of accounting
information.
Marketing Concepts
A graduate level introduction to the marketing function, its roles in assessing customer
satisfaction, its relationship to finance and manufacturing, and its utilization of quantitative
and qualitative management tools. Focus is on the strengths and limitations of using
the marketing concept in understanding and resolving end-user concerns in profit and
nonprofit environments. The course is structured around the managerially controllable
elements of product, price, promotion and distribution, as well as the interrelationships of
these elements.
Competitive Staffing and Selection
This course examines how to create a large, diverse and qualified pool of applicants that
meet an organization’s work force plans and which the organization can quickly tap into
should an opening occur. In addition, the course provides a highly effective model for
selection to ensure right fit and explores effective strategies to aid engagement and retention
of newly hired employees. Students in this course learn to use technology and other
tools to improve the quality of hiring and selection process outcomes. They evaluate best
practices in staffing and selection and learn to address typical business problems in these
areas.
Human Capital Strategies
This course examines how to develop a human capital strategy to acquire, retain, and engage
the best available talent required for current and future success. It examines tools and techniques
for human capital planning, sourcing, retention, and development. Students in this
four-credit course examine benchmark practices from all industry types to derive effective
strategies for their own organizations. They develop a human capital strategy and complete
an integrated set of projects to implement selected components of the strategy.
Research Methods
This is an introductory graduate-level survey course on research design and methods. The course provides a broad overview of the principles, practices, and challenges associated with conducting social research in service-related contexts. We examine principles and techniques of research design, sampling, data collection, and analysis used in service industries, including nature of evidence, types of research, defining research questions, sampling techniques, data collection, data analysis, issues concerning human subjects and research ethics, and challenges associated with conducting research in real-world contexts.
Service System Design and Implementation
Given our evolving beliefs about service, service systems and environments, it is important to construct new design and implementation models of service systems. This course will prepare students to utilize new beliefs about service systems and environments and construct usable/new service systems for organizations. The course will include the design of service systems, implementation, planning, metrics, technology and innovation and assessment of those systems. A major design project built into the course will insure the student obtains an effective grasp of the need for change, the design parameters, and associated new assessment mechanisms.
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