3 Business Management Specializations to Help Expand Your Expertise

One of the wonderful things about the business world is the variety of industries you may find opportunities in. There’s no doubt that a Business Management degree can help build a strong foundation of versatile business skills, but what if you’d like to focus on a more specific area?

Enter the business management specialization. Specialization options within your degree program can provide you an opportunity to add specialized knowledge without committing to a program focused solely on that subject. These additional skills can increase your networking opportunities and maximize your career advancement options. “A student with a specialization will possess additional skillsets, potentially making them a more viable and competitive job candidate,” says Jennifer Moorhead, Department Dean of the Rasmussen University School of Business.

At Rasmussen University, Business Management students have the option to pursue one of three unique specializations to help them focus on a specific area, learn new skills, and become a more competitive candidate.

3 Business Management specializations to explore

Eager to learn more about the business management specialization options at Rasmussen University? Let’s explore your options.

1. Logistics and operations

The logistics and operations specialization compliments your business management degree by deepening your understanding of the essential supply chain processes and methods that many companies depend on. Businesses, small and large, depend on supply chain and logistical efforts to keep their daily operations running smoothly. To do this, they need individuals with a variety of logistical planning and organization skills. With a logistics and operations specialization, you’ll develop valuable competencies in areas like:

• Procurement
• Sourcing strategy
• Inventory management
• Purchasing
• Supply chain planning
• Quality and risk management

These skills are a welcome asset in many organizations—whether it’s a factory regularly planning for and sourcing production materials or a retail store building managing vendor relationships.

So how are these skills developed? The logistics and operations specialization is comprised of four key courses:

• Principles of Supply Chain: This course provides an introduction to supply chain basics including the flow of materials, information, resources and how an efficient supply chain can make for satisfied customers.
• Procurement and Supplier Relations: This course exposes students to a range of purchasing techniques and strategies. Students learn how to effectively source, solicit bids and negotiate based on real-world scenarios.
• Inventory Management: This course prepares students to manage inventory and warehouse operations. Topics include strategic design, analytical assessment, and process development.

2. IT Project Management

Information technology has cemented itself as the digital backbone of a huge variety of businesses—and that presents opportunities for business professionals who know their way around the field. Information technology needs specially-trained project managers to oversee complex projects that require a general understanding of the technology and processes used. Whether you have IT experience or not, a career in IT project management can provide you with opportunities to solve problems daily with a cross functional team. With the IT Project Management specialization, you’ll develop competencies in the following areas:

• Project scheduling, planning, and execution
• Budgeting and procurement
• Quality management, assurance, and control
• Microsoft Excel® and Microsoft Project®

In additional to these skills, IT project managers must be collaborative, able to lead and enthusiastic problem solvers. Though those are the kind of skills and traits you may already have, you’ll also develop more job-specific technical skills in these four courses:

• Risk Management and Business Continuity: This course covers how to properly analyze risks in an IT department. Students learn to perform a business impact analysis to discover vulnerable areas and implement a disaster recovery plan.
• Information Technology Project Management Tools: This course introduces general project management processes within tools like Microsoft Excel®, Visio®, and Project®, as well as techniques to move projects forward.
• Information Technology Project Management I: In this course students will learn the fundamental concepts of managing a complex IT project. This includes project planning, executing, monitoring, and controlling tools and techniques.
• Information Technology Project Management II: In this course students will further build upon their project management skillset by learning to apply principles of cost estimation, budgeting, quality planning and procurement life-cycle activities.

3. Business Intelligence

If data is your jam, a Business Intelligence specialization might just be your bread and butter. This specialization prepares you for roles where you can analyze business data from a variety of courses and develop actionable insights to that can inform business leaders and drive a company forward. This data-focused specialization will help by developing your skills in:

• Business intelligence processes
• Data analysis techniques
• Data visualization
• ETL data integration
• Analytics platforms and tools

Business intelligence analysts must have a high level of attention-to-detail and an analytical mind to allow them to develop valuable insights. These abilities will be refined with practice, but first you’ll need a foundation. The Business Intelligence specialization helps build that foundation with the following courses:

• Introduction to Data Analytics: In this course, students will learn to identify common tools, terms, and ideas. Topics will include visualization, data quality, platforms and scripting.
• Foundations of Analytics Platforms, Environments, and Software: This course focuses on data integration and more analytics tools. Students will be prepared to use various analytic tools.
• Applied Business Intelligence: Students in this course will learn techniques for analyzing existing business performance data for business planning. The class will walk through processing and analyzing data, quality assurance and regulatory adherence and how to prepare data for consumption. Students will even create visuals to help guide decision-making.
• Data Visualization Implementation and Communication: Students will learn methods to evaluate data like benchmarking, scoring and ranking. They’ll also improve their ability to derive meaningful insights from data sets.

More options mean more opportunities

The broad utility of a Business Management degree makes this area of study an appealing option for many students. Pair that foundation with a specialized focus area and you may have the perfect mix of specific skills and career flexibility for your future plans. Now that you know more about the Business Management specialization options offered at Rasmussen University, you’ll be equipped to chart a unique academic course as you advance through your program.

Ready to get started? Check out the Rasmussen University Business Management Bachelor’s Degree program page to learn more.

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