Graduate Certificate in Management Consulting
Management consulting firms help organizations improve their performance by analyzing problems and developing plans for improvement, and advising on strategy, operations, finances, human resources, and technology. As a result of the rapidly changing demands of the ever-evolving business world, the management consulting market continues to see strong growth year over year.
Penn State’s online Graduate Certificate in Management Consulting can provide you with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed in this dynamic and growing field. As a management consultant, you can help clients more readily achieve their goals and objectives by identifying and defining organizational challenges, improving efficiencies, transforming business models, restructuring their workforce and processes, aligning resources, and advising upon strategic issues associated with corporate growth and change.
Step Up to a Master's Degree
You may pursue this certificate as a standalone credential, or use it as a stepping stone to the following Penn State online degree programs. The credits you earn in your certificate can count toward your master’s degree requirements, should you apply and be accepted to one of these highly competitive programs.
- Master's in Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Master's in Marketing Analytics & Insights
- Master of Business Administration
- Master's in Strategic Management & Executive Leadership
- Master of Supply Chain Management
Curriculum
The Graduate Certificate in Management Consulting is a 9-credit online program designed to address the key issues, concepts, tools, and techniques associated with management consulting.
Courses are delivered completely online and are asynchronous. This means you are not required to log in at a particular time each week. You also have the flexibility to start and complete weekly assignments when and where it’s convenient for you. Some courses may offer optional synchronous sessions throughout the semester for those students who prefer a higher level of engagement. Attendance and participation in these synchronous sessions are not required.
Students will take two required courses and then select a third course from a list of electives maintained by the college.
| Title | Abbreviation | Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business Transformation Consulting | MGMT 800 | Provides an understanding of key issues, concepts, and methodologies associated with business transformation and management consulting; Helps students identify and define organization problems, highlight pain points, map work flows, explore business models, investigate strategic alignment, develop recommendations, present business cases, and deliver prototype solutions. | 3 credits |
| Management Consulting Methods and Practice | MGMT 885 | Explores the methods and tools commonly used in the practice of management consulting and is intended for students interested in working in this field or working in organizations that hire management consultants. | 3 credits |
| Title | Abbreviation | Description | Credits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negotiation Theory and Skills | BA 805 | Delivers an overview of the difference between traditional (distributive) bargaining and interest-based (or integrative) negotiations; learn to identify their own and others' interests, to create and claim value, and to craft constructive agreements for all parties. | 3 credits |
| Strategic Business Architecture | BA 809 | Provides a concentrated and comprehensive approach to the practice of business architecture; focuses on business motivations, business operations and business analysis frameworks, and related networks that link these aspects of the enterprise together. | 3 credits |
| Strategic Leadership | BA 865 | Presents a senior executive perspective on the key opportunities and challenges faced by business leaders; includes discussions on the changing context for setting strategy and leading organizations in an evolving business environment. | 3 credits |
| Strategic Leading and Identity | BA 888 | Emphasizes identity issues that are critical to understanding individual and collective processes in organizational life. | 3 credits |
| Business Modeling and New Venture Creation | ENTR 502 | Provides an overview of considerations related to launching a startup or a new venture within an existing organization, including competitors, best practices, project management, business models, team formation, financing, leadership, and exit plans. | 3 credits |
| Emerging Trends, Technology, and Corporate Innovation | ENTR 810 | Explores emerging trends and disruptors in technology and industry that create new markets and influence decision making, product development, business models, and business practices associated with innovation. | 3 credits |
| Corporate Innovation Strategies and Entrepreneurial Methods | ENTR 820 | Explores the methods used to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in a corporate setting, with a special emphasis on how organizations foster creativity, innovation, and new venture creation. | 3 credits |
| Corporate Innovation and Entrepreneurship | MBADM 531 | Understanding, exploring, and applying innovation-related concepts, principles, and practices to corporate environments involved with new venture creation and other contexts. | 3 credits |
| Global Strategic Management | MBADM 571 | Integrating multiple functional business areas to resolve global business problems and improve organizational performance. | 3 credits |
| Power and Influence | MGMT 565 | Aims to provide students with a toolkit that will allow them to diagnose the individual and organizational source of power and influence as well as an array of tactics by which power and influence are wielded. | 3 credits |
| Strategy Implementation and Organizational Change | MGMT 831 | Addresses the managerial challenge of strategy implementation, particularly by examining the organizational elements that must be drawn into line to support a strategy, as well as the immense difficulties of changing an organization. Accordingly, the course relies on two overarching frameworks. The first is a model of organizational alignment; the second is a model for managing the change process. | 3 credits |
** The above list of elective courses may change over time due to student demand and/or shifting trends in the industry