MBA elective called 'Running and Growing the Small Company'. The course addresses challenges faced by managers, presidents, and owners in generating and sustaining superior performance, especially as a company broadens its mix of goods and services, increases the volume of its sales, and enlarges the size of its workforce. The course objective is to teach students to excel, not only when what to do is clearly known from past experience, but when what to do is uncertain. The goal is that the students learn to distinguish their companies from competitors by creating organizations that are reliable in executing the tasks they set for themselves, robust in adapting to changes in their internal and external situation, and responsive in taking advantage of new opportunities in the marketplace. These draw from managerial situations both from businesses that design and produce physical goods and also from those that sell professional and high-tech services.
Students encounter both positive and counter positive examples.
Professor Spear also teaches in an Executive Education Program course, Building Competitive Advantage Through Operations, and he has also taught in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Business Management Study Group for graduate students considering non-academic careers. Research Professor Spear's research has focused on the effective operation and improvement of manufacturing organizations, both small and large. In gathering data, he has directly observed or participated in the work done in companies ranging in size from a few dozen people to several thousand across a range of products, processes, functional specialties, and hierarchical levels, in North America, Japan, and South America. Some of the research has also been captured in case studies that are being used in the course that he teaches. Professional Experience Professor Spear has worked for the U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment and for the investment bank, Prudential-Bache.