The Certificate in Business Essentials includes six courses taught over a six month period of time. Click on the course name for the complete course description, learning take-aways and a short bio of the instructor.

Leadership and Structure: Supporting your people and processes
Strategy and the Value Proposition: Making a case for your business
Operations and Logistics: Managing your projects and programs
Marketing and Consumer Satisfaction: Finding your niche and serving it well
Financial Management: Acquiring and tracking your dollars
Organizational Communications: Promoting your ideas

Leadership and Structure:  Supporting your people and processes

Leaders at any level set the tone and shape the culture of the organization. This collaborative class examines key concepts, powerful research and a great deal of experience about the leader’s roles and what makes a difference. Then participants develop a practical plan to make a difference.

After completing this segment, participants will be able to:

• Establish the type of leadership an organization needs and actions leaders must take to be effective,
• Choose actions appropriate to different stages of organizational growth and different levels in a hierarchy – as well as identify the critical skills that define a leader at any level,
• Develop organizational designs, accountability and planning processes that support organizational health,
• Pursue the six fundamentals to ensuring employee commitment to change

Glen Fahs has been leading organizations and training leaders for over 30 years. As Director of Training and Organization Development at Cascade Employers Association, he consults with all types and sizes of organizations and has managerial and coaching experience with business, higher education, government and non-profits. He was in charge of the State of Oregon’s Management Core Curriculum and executive development programs and is certified in Achieve Global and DDI learning systems. Having served on several boards, he is currently President of the Oregon Ethics Commons and a leader of Habitat for Humanity. Glen earned his bachelors and masters at San Francisco State University and his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and has taught Leadership Development for universities and the Oregon Graduate Institute.

This segment takes a pragmatic look at strategic analysis and implementation, with an eye toward how people, process, and technology work together to create business value. The course format will be seminar-style, with the expectation that about half of the class time will be facilitated group discussion of cases and scenarios from course participants.

After completing this segment, participants will be able to:

• Take a leadership role in developing organizational vision, mission, and performance objectives;
• Apply analytical frameworks (5 Forces, PEST, process flow) to identify, evaluate, and build a case to address typical business challenges;
• Optimize interrelationships between people, process, and technology to gain a competitive business advantage; and
• Have increased confidence in taking products to market and/or ideas to executives and board members.

T.J. Chandler is an entrepreneur and analyst with broad experience in the public, private, and not-for-profit sectors. He is founder and CEO of Chandler Analytics, an executive decision support consulting business, and EdZapp (www.EdZapp.com). He holds degrees from Willamette and Princeton Universities, and has taught for the National Highway Institute, Rider University, Mercer County Community College, and the Atkinson School of Management at Willamette University.

Operations and Logistics:  Managing Your Projects and Programs

Effective managers know how to get from Point A to Point B, organizing people and resources to complete tasks. This requires tools for planning, initiating, adapting to changes, monitoring, and closing out. The segment uses as examples projects for using information technology to improve performance.

Participants who complete this segment will be able to:

• Outline the phases of the project life cycle and their interdependencies
• Manage the phases of a project
• Analyze and identify issues and corrections to maintain project cost, scope, schedule, and quality constraints
• Practice change and risk management

This segment will be delivered by Advisicon, a Project and Portfolio Management consulting firm based in Portland, Oregon and Mexico City. The Advisicon Team helps clients integrate practical Project and Portfolio Management solutions. Advisicon, Inc., 1515 SE 122nd Ave., Portland, OR 97233 Phone: 1-866-362-3847 Info@Advisicon.com

Successful businesses understand that their organizations exist to satisfy a carefully selected, well understood, and highly valuable group of consumers. This segment focuses on how and why organizations or their component units must continually tailor products and services to fit an increasingly fine definition of the customer. It will explore strategies that superior organizations use to solve consumers’ problems, treat consumers with respect, connect with consumers, set the fairest prices, and save consumers’ time.

After completing this segment, participants will be able to:

• Evaluate and refine core competencies of your organization
• Describe and identify valuable consumer segments
• Customize offerings to satisfy valuable consumer segments
• Track and enhance consumer satisfaction

Debra J. Ringold is an award-winning Professor of Marketing at the Atkinson Graduate School of Management, Willamette University. She teaches courses in public, nonprofit, and private sector marketing, marketing research, marketing communications, and marketing and public policy. Her research appears in the major marketing journals.

She is serving this year as Chairperson of the American Marketing Association. Her clients include the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Anheuser-Busch Companies, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Hewlett Packard.

Good managers stumble on bad numbers. This segment is about identifying and measuring financial outcomes that are consistent with organizational strategies. It includes tools for understand financial information that informs business decisions.

After completing this segment, participants will be able to:

• understand the importance of cashflow and short, long, and complete cash cycles.
• use the balance sheet, income statement, and statement of cash flows to make business decisions
• be able to apply ratios and financial controls to understand business risks

Donna Henderson has taught college and university-level finance and accounting part-time for the past twenty-five years. She also served on the faculties of the Western Banking Schools summer program and Pacific Coast Banking School, and was an instructor in the Deloitte national training programs. Now a consultant, Donna previously held finance and accounting positions including, Corporate Controller for US Bancorp and Regional Chief Financial Officer for First Interstate. Her responsibilities covered asset/liability management, profitability analysis (including the development of a cost accounting/profitability system), budgets and forecasts, capital planning, acquisition analysis, as well as traditional Controller accounting functions. During seven years as an audit manager with the national accounting firm, Deloitte Haskins & Sells (DH&S), now Deloitte & Touche, her client accounts included manufacturing, finance and service industry companies. Donna graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1973 from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting, then became a Certified Public Accountant. She is also a graduate of the Pacific Coast Banking School (PCBS), as well as the PCBS Executive Program.

Organizational Communications: Promoting your ideas

Ideas do not succeed on their merits alone. Effective managers know how to write and talk about their ideas. The also know whom to send their memoranda, who should be invited to a presentation, and why.

After completing this segment, participants will be able to:

• Edit, if not write, concise and persuasive business memoranda
• Give a persuasive oral presentation, avoiding the pitfalls of Powerpoint
• Design a strategy for promoting an idea and gaining commitment from stakeholders

Linda Crafts has over twenty-five years experience in consulting, business management, and training. This includes business and operations strategy, reengineering, and transition management. She has worked with both large and small-scale organizational design efforts and strategies for implementing operational improvements in the public and private sectors. Linda is a partner in Cumulus Resources LLC, a Portland-based consulting firm. Her practice focuses on organizational transitions and change. She has been an internal consultant at SAIF Corporation and a leader and facilitator in WorkOut, the GE business work redesign initiative. She received her PhD from Fielding University and teaches courses in Organizational Development for the Oregon Graduate Institute