Food Service Management Degree
or Blended?
Offered Online?
Classes meet entirely online.
Offered In-Class?
Classes meet face-to-face at our St. Paul campus or other off-campus location.
Offered Blended?
Course work is completed through a combination of in-class and online class meetings.
Overview
The Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Food Industry Management program consists of 40 credit hours and is offered fully online. The online format is designed for busy adult students who are interested in obtaining their degree and require the flexibility of attending class on their schedule.
The food service management degree combines the building blocks of merchandising, management and marketing and with the practical tools that individuals need in the business world. The program is based on concepts of adult education, which include an interactive online setting, limited lectures and a focus on useful, hands-on learning.
The Food Service Management Degree program will help students:
1. Become effective food retail managers and leaders.
2. Analyze critical factors driving business.
3. Apply their knowledge to current marketplace problems and opportunities.
MKM-311
Innovation & Complex Systems
This course introduces innovation as an essential for the new rule of business. Students will learn the framework and techniques to systematize innovation allowing them to take advantage of emerging opportunities. They will use the knowledge to understand how innovation affects the way we deploy resources to fulfill customer desires, viewing themselves as agents of innovation within organizations. Within this course of study the student will also examine the underlying dynamics, culture and change within an organizational context.
FRM-321
Food Marketing & Merchandising
This course explores the foundation of marketing and merchandising in the food industry. The focus will be on consumer demand, segmentation and positioning, integrated marketing communications, branding, and promotional strategies. Students will develop techniques to establish and maintain the correct merchandise assortment for a given trade area, and how to analyze the environmental scan of the industry. Students will create their own marketing plans based on overall value related to usefulness, cost/benefit analysis and social value.
FRM-341
Understanding Food Consumers
This course explores the foundation of marketing and merchandising in the food industry. The focus will be on consumer demand, segmentation and positioning, integrated marketing communications, branding, and promotional strategies. Students will develop techniques to establish and maintain the correct merchandise assortment for a given trade area, and how to analyze the environmental scan of the industry. Students will create their own marketing plans based on overall value related to usefulness, cost/benefit analysis and social value.
FRM-351
Retail Food Operations Mgmt
This course will focus on effective retail operations within the supply chain covering areas such as competition, the consumer, trading areas, merchandising and marketing strategies, and retail branding. The student will analyze opportunities for retail management to drive sales, improve operational results and profitability as well as how to direct change in a consolidating and complex industry. The final project will incorporate the material from retail operations coursework and apply the material to relevant business strategies.
FRM-360
Applied Food Retail Finance
This course will examine the framework and systems of current accounting and finance principles specific to the food retail industry including gross profit margins, demand, forecasting, pricing, cost analysis, sourcing and promotional activities. Students will apply these principles, along with ethical responsibility and critical thinking skills, to management practices of business decision making. In the final project the students will evaluate an ethical accounting case study and determine how the issues could have been averted in the analysis.
FRM-400
Category Management
This course emphasizes the issues involved in developing and maintaining profitable category management. Areas of concentration include strategy, process, benchmarking, information technology, and building collaborative relationships in the supply chain. Students will apply techniques for managing categories as strategic units producing more profitable business results while focusing on delivering consumer value. The course will also examine new shopper merchandising strategies that are evolving in the retail environment. Students will select a retail banner and create a category management plan for the business as the final project.
MKM-411
Applied Business Ethics
This course is designed to investigate the broad spectrum of personal, business and society ethical issues that managers/leaders encounter. As corporate America struggles to find its social and ethical identity in a business environment that grows increasingly complex, managers are confronted with exceedingly difficult challenges. These challenges include balancing their economic, legal, ethical, and social responsibilities to the variety of stakeholder groups in which they interact. This course provides the structure for students to explore their personal ethics and develop the framework for addressing tough ethical decisions in business and in marketing. Students will apply ethical frameworks to business problems.
FRM-420
Food Supply Chain Mgmt
This course focuses on effective and efficient supply chain management to move food from the farmland to the consumer’s table. Basic concepts and practices within the food retail industry specific to material, information, technology, pricing and supplier relationships will be explored. Students will analyze revenue generating activities to achieve customer value leading to growth through collaborative partner relationships along the supply chain. In the final project, students will research, analyze and make recommendations to improve the supply chain in their organization.
FRM-441
HR Strategy & Leadership
This course looks at human resource management and the skill set necessary for recruiting, retaining, and optimizing human capital in a retail food environment. Students will apply communication styles and conflict resolution to meet the challenges of a diverse retail work place from an operating manager’s perspective. Emphasis will be placed on the cultural, behavioral, and legal issues faced by companies as they attempt to compete in an expanding economy. This course introduces leadership in dynamic, changing organizations where customers change, technologies shift, and work processes evolve. In the final project students will complete a strategic human resource strategy plan for a selected firm.
FRM-480
Business Planning Project
The Business planning course provides a foundation for students to summarize, synthesize, and demonstrate knowledge, skills, and competencies as organizational managers and leaders. The students will draw on their Food Retail Management coursework, career experiences, and critical thinking skills. This course is presented as an independent study where students create their own business planning project for a particular area within the food retail industry approved by their academic and/ or industry advisor. Outcomes will demonstrate consumer insight, research skills, and experienced-based learning to complete a written plan and presentation delivered to the cohort on the final night of the program.
Requirements
1. Apply Online
2. Final and official transcripts from all previous institutions attended
* If you have attended a MNSCU college or university we also ask that you provide an official accompanying DARS or MnTC goal area worksheet. Concordia accepts completed goal areas.
* If you have less than 20 college credits completed, you will need to submit your official high school transcript as well as any college level courses you have taken.
3. Submit a typed personal statement that answers the questions listed below. Completed statements should be labeled with your name, academic program, and your contact information and submitted via mail, email or fax. Each question should be answered in a minimum of 300 words (1 page).
What has led you to pursue your undergraduate degree?
What are your long term personal and professional goals?
Technology Requirements
Students enrolling in an adult undergraduate program must have access to a computer that meets Concordia University's technology requirements. Contact Concordia's Help Desk at helpdesk@csp.edu or 651-641-8866 with any questions regarding these requirements.
Start Dates
Fall 2013 Term
Start Date: Monday, September 9, 2013
Delivery: Online
Class Day: Monday
Chat Time: 7-8 p.m. CST
Spring 2014 Term
Start Date: Thursday, May 15, 2014
Delivery: Online
Class Day: Thursday
Chat Time: 7-8 p.m. CST