Business Foundation Courses

Quantitative Methods for Business

This course is designed to introduce you to contemporary elementary applied statistics and to provide you with an appreciation for the uses of statistics in business, economics, everyday life, as well as hands-on capabilities needed in your later coursework and professional employment.

Managerial Economics

Examines the applications of economic theory to problems confronting managers including pricing under different market structures, cost and technology, strategic decision making, theory of demand, and the economics of less than perfect information.

Accounting for Managerial and Investment Analysis and Planning

This course presents the concepts of financial and managerial accounting with a “user” (investor or manager) orientation. The course has three parts. The first part provides the accounting cycle and the reporting process, with an emphasis on the valuation bases and structure of the financial statements. The second part focuses on the interpretation and analyses of the financial statements, including analyses of cash flows and cross-sectional and time-series trends in financial ratios. The role of managerial accounting choices in determining the nature of financial reporting and quality of earnings is also examined. The third part examines the role of accounting information for managerial planning and control. Costing for inventory and pricing, cost-volume-profit analyses, and budgeting issues are covered.

Financial Analysis and Strategy

This course develops the conceptual framework that is used in analyzing the financial management problems of business enterprises. Students will cover concepts such as the time value of money, the cost of capital, the relationship between risk and return, the valuation of assets such as stocks and bonds, and various corporate finance issues including capital budgeting, capital structure, corporate financing, and dividend policy.

Managing Information Technology

This course provides an introduction to the effective use of Information Technology (IT). The management of IT is addressed by considering contemporary issues faced by managers related to the linkage between technology initiatives and the businesses they support. The course recognizes that the management of IT initiatives is increasingly important to businesses as a result of: Globalization, Time Compression, and Technology Integration.

Managing Business Processes

The “operations” function is the core of any organization, where inputs such as labor and technology are converted into goods and services. The course provides a survey of several diverse operations topics that are central to both the manufacturing and service sectors of the economy, such as forecasting, inventory control, quality management, production planning, and supply chain management. The emphasis of the course is to apply quantitative models to effectively design and control these operational systems. Software will be extensively used to support the operations analysis.

Marketing Management\Strategy

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of how firms develop marketing strategies to create and manage the creation of meaningful offers that are valued by consumers for the purpose of developing and maintaining customer relationships. Initially, we will address the evolution of market systems at the macroeconomic level and the role that marketing plays in bridging the gap between the production and consumption sectors of the economy. Subsequently, we will explore how firms develop strategies to create customer value through product management, pricing, marketing channels, supply chain management, customer relationship management and communications directed to buyers and also develop an understanding of how buyers acquire, consume and dispose of these goods and services.

Advanced Managerial Perspectives

Business Strategy in a Global Environment

This course is designed to present international strategic management concepts and the field of global industry competitive analysis. This seminar combines multiple attributes and analytical frameworks of strategic management to assess an industry and the relevant competitor strategies.

Human Resources Management Strategies

The effective management of HR practices has an enormous effect on the organization’s economic performance. Given the direct impact of HRM on cost, quality, and productivity, the success of any organization — both traditional and virtual– depends on the effectiveness of the decisions its managers make about strategic human resource issues. In this course, we will examine contemporary “best practices” in HR and what is known about how to improve the quality of strategic HR decision-making. In doing so, we will review how high performance organizations manage such HR issues as compensation, staffing, labor-management relations, work system design, performance management, training, equal opportunity employment, HR outsourcing, and change management.

Ethical Decisions in Business

This course looks at business in the context of its various stakeholders, including shareholders, management, employees, customers, suppliers, government regulators and local/national/global communities. It explores a range of issues from the role of business in society at large to the ethical dimensions of ordinary business decision-making.

Effective Organizational Communication

This course examines the corporate communication process as it relates to various management/organizational theories and practices. Specifically, students will examine the various purposes and requirements of communication for enhancing workplace cooperation, orientation, adaptation and performance.

Leadership

This course is designed to be a study of human behavior in organizations and the means through which managers can influence that behavior. Specifically, the class will consider key situations where the effective exercise of leadership can materially contribute to the achievement of strategic organizational objectives. The leadership process will be considered within a business environment increasingly characterized by global competition, economic turmoil, rapid technological change and shifting labor market dynamics. Emphasis will be placed on identifying and developing the personal skills and perspectives necessary to establish and maintain a leadership position ( e.g. self awareness and abilities in such areas as communication, decision-making, problem solving and behavioral management.

Managing Risk

Risk Management requires the firm to identify opportunities for gain and exposures to unexpected loss. The firm must then assess the potential consequences, and plan to finance the consequences of the adverse event if it happens. This course is designed to introduce the risk management process in the context of general corporate management. Each step in the process will be reviewed in detail, including setting the risk management context, identification of risk, measurement and analysis of potential impact, and appropriate treatment techniques. Risk financing options will be discussed in the context of global insurance and alternative capital markets. While the risk management process encompasses all types of risks, we will focus our identification discussion on the class of risks known as pure risk events; those that pose the threat of a loss if they happen, but no possibility of a gain.

Capstone

The capstone is limited to MBA students in the second year of their MBA program.

Enterprise Management Consulting Practice (EMC)

The EMC Practice is an innovative hands-on learning experience involving faculty and students. During their practice, cross-cultural student teams will assist firms or divisions on a live consulting project. MBA student teams will integrate course work, business experience, and primary and secondary research into highly professional market entry strategies or business plans.