A Magazine for Alumni and Friends
If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown anything, it’s that supply chains are increasingly interconnected and often found to be more fragile than was generally understood, especially when viewed from a national or global perspective.
The immediacy with which consumer goods are demanded by North Americans is now the standard toward which supply chains must strive. This standard has been set by companies like Amazon, whose growth in 2020 exceeded its three previous years of growth combined.
It is in this rapidly accelerating and increasingly challenging world of supply chain management that the Lazaridis School of Business and Economics launched its newest graduate program: the Master of Supply Chain Management (MSCM) at the university’s Waterloo campus.
“The Lazaridis School has long been a recognized centre within Ontario for the study and advancement of supply chain management,” says Professor Michael Haughton, the program’s inaugural director and CN Fellow in Supply Chain Management. “We felt that now is the perfect time to augment our offerings with a professionally focused program that will equip graduates with the analytical and strategic management tools needed to advance their careers in the supply chain management field.”
Professor Michael Haughton, inaugural director of Laurier's Master of Supply Chain Management program and CN Fellow in Supply Chain Management.
Designed for working supply chain professionals, the Lazaridis MSCM program employs the latest best practices in business analytics, computer modelling and process design, helping graduates stay ahead of the curve in a dynamic and unpredictable business environment.
The program also incorporates a strong focus on experiential learning. Classes as part of the 12-month master’s degree will take place on Fridays and Saturdays to accommodate working professionals and include a fieldwork project, with students expected to master the concepts of project management and apply them to a real-world problem at a client firm. The program also features a group-based consulting assignment in which students tackle substantial supply chain management challenges and apply their learnings toward helping firms improve their supply chains.