Location: Barcelona

The goal of this program is to shed light on the idea that Operations are crucial to help companies position themselves for profitable growth. Factors such as production, purchasing, distribution, quality, sales force, etc. that used to be considered merely part of the cost of doing business are now coming together as a strategic item on the CEO's agenda in all leading companies because they can help the company to increase revenues while at the same time raising profits. Competitive pressure squeezes margins, shortens product life cycles, produces an excess of supply, shifts power towards customers, restricts credit and so on and so forth. Globalization is undoubtedly hitting all industries! To survive in such a competitive environment companies have to raise all the money required to finance the initiatives (e.g. new product & process development, new business models, increase brand awareness and market presence, etc) that have to permit them to sell more and still make a profit. And money only comes from three sources: borrowings, investors or internal generation. Of these three sources, only internal generation, which means managing day-to-day activities in such a lean way that money otherwise inefficiently tied to day-to-day activities is liberated to be invested in new projects, seems to be the one that is most accessible to all of us.